“Despite all the uncertainty, one constant remains clear for business leaders, we can only control the controllables.”
We invite you to read this timely message from Thomas Lopez (he/him), who is our outgoing Board Chair. We thank Thomas for his leadership since he joined the board and Chamber.
I think it's safe to say as a community of entrepreneurs and business leaders we appreciate the rush of making the impossible possible. We like the challenge of bringing order to chaos and sometimes being the source of disruption.
Apparently, the year 2024 has a similar sensibility, serving us another year of unpredictability and forecasting more uncertainty ahead – inflation, tight labor market, new presidential administration.
Despite all the uncertainty, one constant remains clear for business leaders, we can only control the controllables.
We can’t control inflation, the unemployment rate, or what any political party will do. We can only control what's in our control.
How does that translate into action? As organizations that serve customers, employees, suppliers and communities, we can remain committed to our investment in each and every one of our constituencies.
We do this by recommitting or clarifying our organization's purpose.
We can engage our customers to understand their wants and needs, and we can ensure the services and goods that our organizations provide help to solve their needs.
We can engage our employees to understand why they come to work at our organizations, and we can ensure we can continue to deliver on that value proposition.
We can engage our suppliers to clarify to them our needs and wants, and partner with them to solve our business challenges.
We can continue to invest in the communities in which we operate, because when our communities thrive, our businesses thrive, and when our businesses thrive, our communities thrive.
All this may seem intuitive, but strong headwinds are in front of us with direct targeting of diversity and inclusion efforts and the LGBTQ+ community, both in terms of policy and investment. If we are steadfast in our purpose, we can remain firm in our positions, as legislation and other policies will begin to disincentivize companies from continuing their diversity and inclusion policies as well as their programs to spend with diverse suppliers.
The challenges the LGBTQ+ community has feared are coming to light.
Personally, I am concerned. I am married to a wonderful man, and we have adopted two beautiful girls. Why does this matter?
First, there is a Supreme Court Justice who in 2022 asked to revisit two historic cases involving civil rights that affect the LGBTQ+ community - one case (Obergefell v Hodges) allows me to be married to my husband in Texas, the other case (Lawrence v. Texas) allows me to have a consensual private relationship with my husband.
My concern is that I live in a state that is ruled by a party that is ready to dismantle my family and a U.S. Supreme Court that has offered its support to make it happen.
As compelling as I think my personal circumstances should be to any other fellow citizen, I've learned through this election, that many folks are largely concerned with their own personal circumstances. Folks are concerned about the prices of food, gas, and rent, and the wages they are earning to pay for their basic needs.
Trust that as a father, husband, small business owner, HR leader, and community leader, I am concerned about those items as well. However, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric poses an unnecessary dilemma where I need to worry about my family’s economic viability while also worrying about my family’s own viability.
As a member of the business community, I cannot make any sense of it.
If we are a state that is truly pro-business, we should be compelling our elected officials to make Texas as welcoming for employees as well as employers. Businesses, big and small, should be touting Texas as a great place to live and work, and elected officials should be working to make that happen through sound investments in infrastructure, schools, and public policy.
Elected officials should not be putting up barriers for potential workers to come to Texas. Elected officials should be making Texas a great place to work and live for employees. This means employees should feel welcomed, not targeted. Parents should feel excited about bringing their kids to learn in Texas schools, not concerned about their safety or having to learn in schools that lack funding or proper leadership.
Yet, we find ourselves on the precipice of another highly charged legislative session both at the state and federal level.
So, what to do? Control the controllables.
This community needs our members now. If economic issues are top of mind for us and our fellow citizens, who just also happen to be our employees, customers, suppliers, then we need to invest in them. These investments makes us a stronger community, and they makes good business sense.
In the region, the Chamber is a community of 500+ members and partners. Across the U.S., we are a network of over 1 million LGBTQ+ business owners who contribute $1.7 trillion (or 5.5%) to the U.S. economy. In the U.S., we are a community that spends $917 billion annually.
We are a community not to be targeted, but a community that needs investment. We are one that prospers, that can help others to prosper, and that needs our allies and elected officials to remove barriers so that we can continue to prosper.
As a community of entrepreneurs and business leaders, our time to shine is now. Learning from pioneers and our own successes and setbacks, we are poised to embrace chaos and disruption. We are built to meet this moment with solutions.
2025 will bring challenges for us all to confront, both professional and personal, and I am motivated to partner with you and advocate for you as we take on the year ahead.