Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce Business Journal and Other Publications Q1 2016 Business Journal | Page 12

Where do we go from here? The Association of Chamber of Commerce
Executives has launched a program called the Horizon Initiative. The Initiative was designed to recognize influences that would impact Chambers
over the next decade but what it really did was recognize 8 influences which
will impact every business in the near feature. The following is a general
outline of those influences and what they mean to you as you plan for the
future of your business.

The Nature of Belonging and GatheringThe way we divide into groups is drastically changing in America. A customer is a customer, is a customer who may have worked in the past, but the
future holds a much different set of challenges. As millennials advance into
their strong purchasing, years they are the ones to reach out to for sales,
but they demand individualized marketing, unlike anything we have ever
seen before. Millennials, which will soon make up the strongest purchasing
group, are very interested in their friends’ and peers’ opinions. Efforts to
create gathering places, like online communities for product reviews, will
become very valuable. Integrity of business will also be an important part
of where Millennials decide to buy their products and where they decide to
work. I am not talking about being honest (although that’s important), but
I am speaking of company values, environmental awareness, and social

ASSOCIATION OF CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE EXECUTIVES

impacts of a business. Businesses are and will be faced with the challenge
of creating community largely through online activities for these emerging
customers, and yet still be challenged with keeping up with preceding generations as the Millennials transition.

Certainly technology is already an important part of our world but in the future there will be two options for businesses; businesses that fully embrace
technology and those who perish. Speed, individualized communication,
and robust feedback loops will all be a part of the change. Marketing to the
masses is being challenged. With new marketing capabilities, businesses
now are expected to tailor content to their consumers so information is relevant and useful to the individual; no longer are we just a number. Knowing
the details and how they impact your bottom line will become imperative.
It is exactly what it says.

The scarcity of resources in one place while the abundance of people, also
referred to as workforce, is in another. The difference now is fluidity. Companies are now agile and so is the workforce. Water, energy, food supplies,
and people all will play critical roles in prosperity and stagnation. Where

12 | Quarter 1 M 2016

will all feed in to the future. How does this translate? Take downtown Cheyenne for example. There is an abundance of floor space in Cheyenne, but

Communications and Technology-

Scarcity and Abundance-

these resources are, how they are transported and how they are regulated

a shortage of capital and people to utilize the space. How is this scarcity
and abundance problem solved? The groups and communities that figure
these types of issues out will succeed and the rest will become sleepy little
towns with very little hope for the future.

Global Impacts-

As the world continues to embrace a global

economy, the realities of what it means to us are just settling in. When
there is a pandemic in China, a terrorist attack in Paris, or a natural disaster
in Haiti, the market in America responds like never before. Certainly this
means opportunity for large and small companies to take advantage of the
trends, but it also means some large companies will fail as other smaller
niche companies rise to stardom. It means there is more opportunity to
compete internationally and in turn, this means more international companies will be competing with you in your home town. Your Global image is
becoming better known and if you are a franchise insurance owner in Chey-