Tariffs and Trade Updates and Information, visit www.chambercheck.ca
Tariffs and Trade Updates and Information, visit www.chambercheck.ca
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Creating a sense of community isn’t just a “nice-to-have” for businesses - it’s also a strategic advantage that can directly influence growth, loyalty, and long-term success.
It’s also an important method to build stronger connections with not only staff and customers, but the community as a whole and will be the focus of our upcoming Conversations That Matter session (April 30) featuring social innovator and local author Paul Born.
“People are not engaged in their communities the way they once were and that needs to change,” says Paul, who has written several bestsellers on the subject, including Community Conversations and Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Times.
It was a revelation that became apparent to him during his time with the Tamarack Institute, which he co-founded. The Canadian non-profit works to help communities tackle significant social challenges, such as poverty, by bringing people together and building local capacity for change.
“I had just written Community Conversations and was working on a follow-up book and while looking at the data realized there was a lot of negative statistics,” he says. “People were volunteering less and donating less, they didn’t know their neighbours and young people were struggling. I came to the conclusion if you have a vested interest in one person’s well-being, the chances of you caring about the quality of the community they live in grows exponentially.”
Paul says what Cambridge needs today to thrive are citizens who care and are engaged.
Creating loyalty important
“At the end of the day, no business is going to be successful if the city isn’t successful,” he says. “No one is going to want to come and work for your company.”
To assist in the process, Paul says businesses must work towards building internal and external connections to create conditions for community success and will outline these during his talk with Cambridge Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Greg Durocher at our Conversations That Matter session.
“We’re going to focus on business leaders and mostly talk about customer loyalty and how do you build that loyalty by creating a sense of community,” he says, adding fostering a fun customer experience is pivotal to help build that loyalty. “It’s caring about your customers, and in turn they learn to care about you.”
Also, he says having a higher purpose is another way businesses can connect with the community.
“If for example, you give to the United Way, that means something. That’s why so many businesses take on community causes because it helps build that customer loyalty,” says Paul.
But that same loyalty building should also happen within businesses he says, noting that staff allegiance makes for a better workplace and a stronger organization.
“I think COVID taught us so much about understanding the personal needs of your employees, which is a big thing about community. Employees want to know you care about them,” says Paul, adding having fun as an organization is another important part of building that internal loyalty. “Young people today really value when you go out of your way to do something fun as a team. It’s good for the business.”
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’
He’s quick to admit for some business operators, creating these conditions may be difficult considering the stresses involved in running a business, but insists they are not impossible to attain.
“It really depends on who you are as a person,” says Paul. “Sometimes it comes naturally to people, but others need to be encouraged and reminded that profit may be the bottom line but getting to profit is more complicated than we would like to sometimes think. It’s not that we don’t care about the bottom line, but how do you get there? And how does that become sustainable?”
He’s a big believer in the expression: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’.
“No matter how good of a strategy a company has, if they don’t have a work culture that supports that strategy, they’re not going to be successful,” says Paul, adding he hopes to provide Conversations That Matter participants with some practical tools and techniques to make this happen and build loyalty.
He will also talk about the use of AI and how it fits into this equation.
“There are lots of places for AI in business, but the human relationship is not one of them,” says Paul. “We can use AI to create the conditions in which the interaction between two people is easier.”
Conversations That Matter – which features a lunch - takes place April 30 at the Tap Room in Tapestry Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Click here to learn more and book a seat! |
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Brian Rodnick 300 June 7, 2026 |
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Greg Durocher 41 July 28, 2023 |
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Canadian Chamber of Commerce 24 January 29, 2021 |
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Cambridge Chamber 2 March 27, 2020 |
750 Hespeler Road Cambridge, ON N3H 5L8
Phone: 519-622-2221
Fax: 519-622-0177
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