It's no secret that Chattanooga is changing, but business owners and employees hoping to stay relevant need to adapt to the changes of which many Chattanoogans aren't yet aware, says Pete Cooper.
As president of the Community Foundation, he helps collect and distribute contributions to a number of local organizations and outreach efforts. The former banker recently shared some of his insight with the Ooltewah/Collegedale Chamber Council.
"I have a neighbor who's a small business owner. She asked, 'When is it going to get back to normal?'" he said. "Here's the answer to the question: It's not. What we return to is going to be different than normal."
He is on the steering committees of two initiatives to help the area prepare. The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce is leading efforts to begin construction of a 40-year plan focused on infrastructure, including jobs, education, housing, transportation, food and water among what Cooper expects to be a list of about 40 groups.
"We're going to be building people, building the community and building jobs," he said. "We're not going to be building Aquarium 3. I encourage you to get involved in any way that interests you."
Cooper said a professional national consultant is expected to join the board comprised of "the regular players, [including] four foundations and two major corporations" in July.
"It's going to be much larger than the Chamber," he said of the 14-county study, "but it's going to be very much tailored to this community."
He said he's trying to get the arts and culture initiative being spearheaded by Allied Arts integrated in the Chamber's plan.
"The thing that really cannot be replaced in this economy is creativity," he said, adding that many technical and manpower aspects can be outsourced. Seventy percent of car repairs will be able to be done by satellite, he said.
Chattanooga's future lies in creating advanced technology, not necessarily servicing it, according to Cooper.
"I really think the next big wave of the generation for Chattanooga is going to be in computer startups," he said, noting the speed and size capabilities of EPB's new fiber optic network.
Cooper stressed that outstanding infrastructure will get the city nowhere without new leaders.
"We need new leaders to step up in their area of expertise and not wait for somebody to call them and hope they get called," he said. "That's how we're going to keep going."
Cooper's Crystal Ball
The Internet will continue to make services more available, but also cheaper, said Cooper, meaning lower profit margins for only the large companies that can absorb them. With many companies trending toward heavy Internet reliance, small ones will have to adjust their sales strategy while also keeping an online presence.
"You've got to figure out what you deliver that cannot be taken away by the Internet," he said, "custom parts, speed, customer service in ways that can't be done over the Internet. Depending on the nature of the business, if you're not in Internet retail in the next three to five years, you're going to be missing a lot of customers."
Cooper predicts that every U.S. county within 400 miles of the Mexican border and every major U.S. city will be majority non-white within the next 15 years. There are already more than 1,500 students in English as second language classes in Hamilton County schools, he said. After English and Spanish, Arabic is the most spoken language in the district, he added.
"How does that affect your business?" he asked. "It impacts who you hire ... and impacts who your customers are. If you go into your business with the concept that all your employees are going to be white, all your managers are going to be white males, and all your customers are going to be white, I think you ought to retire earlier than you'd planned, because it's not going to work."
He also said he believes that, based on current numbers and trends, the country will be bankrupt from health care costs from obesity and related diseases within 25 years, and he encouraged business owners to take an active role in helping alleviate this situation now.