A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT BY BRIAN BROADLEY

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1 Volume 15, Issue A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT BY BRIAN BROADLEY Dear Chamber Members, A Year in Review: The Chamber started 2013 with Steve Brady s Annual Economic Forecast which was followed by the Annual Board of Directors and Officers Installation Dinner. The Installation Dinner was combined with the Citizen of the Decade Dinner which had been postponed due to Super Storm Sandy. Mark Soifer, Ocean City Publicist was honored as Citizen of the Decade. In March, we held a membership b r e a k f a s t m e e t i n g w i t h Congressman Frank LoBiondo and the Annual Salute to Working Women was held on May 1st. We were happy to honor OCNJ C.A.R.E. (Cleanup And Recovery Efforts) volunteers Dottie Cianci, Karin Gleason, Maria Marinelli and Kathy Sykes. While there were hundreds of volunteers that made Ocean City s recovery efforts possible after Super Storm Sandy, these four women were essential in the process and took leadership roles in which we will be forever thankful. In June, we had our Annual Lunch with the Mayor luncheon at the Flanders. Mayor Gillian provided Please note our new address: an Ocean City update on the state of the Island. The Chamber would like to extend a special thank you to Mayor Gillian for the wonderful presentation. The Farmer s and Crafter s Market, as well as the Historic Inn-to-Inn Tours, ran in July and August. The Farmer s and Crafter s Market had a great turn-out again and provided Jersey Fresh fruits and vegetables to our residents, visitors and local restaurants and businesses. Guests of the Inn-to- Inn Tours received a guided tour along with personal tours from the Inn Keepers at the local Bed and Breakfasts, the Ocean City Historical Museum and at the Ocean City Life Savings Station. The Chamber once again worked closely with the Ocean City Tourism Development Commission and the Ocean City Board of Realtors managing the successful Ocean City Free Family Vacation Contest. Eleven families were awarded a free, week-long family vacation along with outstanding gifts donated by local businesses. Another great aspect of the 2013 season was the opening of the new Welcome Center located on the Rt. 52 Causeway. If you have not yet Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce PO Box info@oceancitychamber.com INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Letter from President 1-2 New Members 4 Guest Column What is Your Company Product 6-8 Economic Forecast 10 Grand Openings 11 Chamber Event Photos 12 SAVE THE DATE 1/16 Economic Forecast Flanders Noon 2/06 Installation Dinner Ocean City Yacht Club 6pm March Congressman LoBiondo TBA 4/23 Salute to Working Women Ocean City Yacht Club Noon 5/3 Spring Block Party May Mixer TBA June Roast Ocean City Yacht Club 6pm Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

2 Page 2 stopped in to see the new facility, we encourage you to visit and explore the grounds. It has quickly become a popular destination for both residents and visitors. In September, the Chamber held two events. First was lunch with Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno held at Ocean City Yacht Club followed by our Annual Roast later in the month. This year s roastee was Cape May County Freeholder and Mayor of Sea Isle City, Leonard Desiderio. The event was held at The Flanders Hotel and was full of laughter and surprises. October brought us the Annual Business Summit in which guest speakers addressed the new ObamaCare issues that small businesses are facing. As we all know, the issues continue to change and the Chamber will continue to update the membership. Chamber Notes celebrate the Holiday Season. Jon & Patty...Thank you for providing a spectacular feast for our members! As we wrap-up another successful year at the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, I would like to thank the Board of Directors and the Chamber Staff for their tireless commitment. In February, I will be handing the gavel, over after serving two one-year terms, as President of the Chamber. I have enjoyed the experience and look forward to staying on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past President. Thank you to everyone who has helped along the way! Sincerely, Brian Broadley Brian Broadley The following Wednesday, we held Welcome Night at the Ocean City Music Pier. It was a successful and wonderful event for local businesses, organizations and residents to gather. In November, the Chamber hosted the 2013 Citizen of the Year dinner at Ocean City Yacht Club. OCNJ C.A.R.E. Co-chairs Reverend Brian Roberts and Drew Fasy were honored. The leadership of these two individuals was the glue and the backbone that held the Super Storm Sandy recovery efforts together for Ocean City. An Old-Fashioned Family Christmas in Ocean City was again hosted by the Chamber, Main Street Ocean City, the Retail Merchant Association, the Tourism Commission and the City of Ocean City. The Downtown event was attended by hundreds of people who shopped our local businesses on Black Friday. A Holiday Mixer was held in December at Jon & Patty s in Downtown Ocean City. Chamber members joined together to Spinning Wheel Florist 858 Asbury Avenue, Ocean City, NJ

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4 Volume 15, Issue NEW MEMBERS 10/1/13 TO 11/30/14 Page 4 Business Services GP Enterprises, LLC Gregg Matis 2135 West Avenue Construction Clarity Roofing, LLC Matt Guaschino 4744 Somers Point Road Mays Landing, NJ Surfside Construction Jennifer Derrickson 1312 Asbury Avenue Magazine Shore Weddings Magazine Anne Coskey PO Box 134 Avalon, NJ Organizations New Jersey Community Capital Joseph Palazzolo 108 Church Street, Third Floor New Brunswick, NJ newjerseycommunitycapital.com Organizations (cont.) VFW Post 6650 Mike Morrissey 1501 Bay Avenue Pest Control Tri County Termite & Pest Control Nicole Guevremont & Diana Catts 10 East 9th Street Real Estate Homeport Realty Joseph Seafario 140 W. Atlantic Blvd Restaurant Botto s Sausage Express Vincent & Darleen Botto 986 Boardwalk Retail We Make it Personal Ronald Monokian 826 Boardwalk Solar RCL Solar James Leo PO Box Alloway Friesburg Road Alloway, NJ Title Company First Partners Abstract Company Romayne Brecht & GiGi Kershbaumer 1333 West Avenue Wedding Officiant Wedding Officiant Linda Moore Linda Moore 578 Seashore Road North Cape May, NJ ndamoore.com Remember to Check Your Business s Page on to be sure it is up to date with information and a photo or logo. Questions? Call or info@oceancitychamber.com

5 ENTRY DOORS COMMERCIAL METAL DOORS STORM DOORS SPRING & CABLE REPAIRS GARAGE DOORS PATIO ENCLOSURES PATIO DOORS STORM SHUTTERS RETRACTABLE AWNINGS LOADING DOCK EQUIPMENT RAIN GUTTERS Contractor Registration #13vh VINYL SIDING STEEL ROLLING DOORS

6 By Rick Segel What is your company s product? Your first answer to this question will most likely be the obvious. If you are a furniture company, then you would say your product is furniture. If you are a car dealer, then your product is an automobile. If you are a restaurant, then you will say food. This is all fairly obvious. You are trying to differentiate yourselves from the rest of the world who does the same thing you do. Therefore, you must look beyond what you are selling and start trying to understand what your customers are paying for. And what they are paying for is very different from the wares you are hocking. Herein lies the fall of many companies in today s marketplace. If you hit on a successful mix, the natural tendency is to expand your locations. The more stores or service centers you have the more money you will make, right? Wrong! In 1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman authored a book called In Search of Excellence. This book profiled 62 companies who were considered to be the best examples of what to do in corporate America to be successful. Today, of the 62 companies profiled in the book, 29 have dropped down the rankings, 6 were bought by other companies and 10 have dropped off the Fortune list completely. And 4 are not even in business any more. (Did you get the math that over 60% of the companies went backwards? Hmm.) Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in their book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, talk about the importance of companies deciding on a specific discipline to follow. They describe three types of disciplines their research has uncovered. They are customer intimacy, product leadership, and operational excellence. Treacy and Wiersema explain that a company cannot try to be good in all three of the areas and expect to survive. It is too large of a task to undertake. Scattering the efforts of your people in this manner means that you may be good in a lot of things, but great at nothing. Customers today reward greatness. One of the first steps is to define your product. The difference between what Treacy and Wiersema support and the thoughts here is one of focus versus product. They are concerned with a company determining their focus of strength. We are concerned with the company first determining their product. In this respect, the product must come before the focus. Your determined focus is based on what your product is. What are some examples of company products? Let's use one of the "poster" companies for service and culture - Disney. For Disney, their product is happiness, and if you think about it that is exactly what they provide. Disney World, for all intents and purposes, is an amusement park. Six Flags is an amusement park. King s Island is an amusement park. Knott s Berry Farm is an amusement park. In your town, there is most likely an amusement park. Why do you spend the extra money to go to DisneyWorld or Disney- Land? What if DisneyWorld taught all of their people that their product was to be the best amusement park or entertainment? Wouldn t Disney be successful? Yeah. Probably as successful as the local ones

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8 near you. Walt Disney was successful because he knew how to get people to want to do the things that needed to be done the very essence of leadership. He also knew that if he asked the cast members of Disney to make their park the best amusement park in the country, then they would forever be in a losing battle with everyone else. We call this a losing battle because if you keep yourself in the same league as your competition, then you are relinquishing market share. Your sales may go up, but your share of the market or your share of the customer will most certainly go down. So, every cast member who has come to work for Disney has been taught that his or her job is to create happiness. If they are the street sweeper, their job is to create happiness first, then sweep the streets. If they are the managers, their job is to create happiness first, then manage second. The ticket taker? Well, you get the idea. baristas behind the counter who make your coffee fresh for you when you order, to the atmosphere and design of the stores says Coffee is a romantic experience and not just another drink. It explains why they are able to charge so much more for their coffee and why most of their customers pass three other coffee shops on their way to the Starbucks because the customer is not paying for coffee, they are paying for romance! We would love to give you a thousand more examples of company products, but unfortunately, this is the minority not the majority! This is your chance to distance yourself from the competition. Define your company product. Remember, your company product is not what you are selling - it was what people are paying for. By defining their product, Disney separated themselves from the competition. They focus on what people are paying for not what they are selling. As an interesting side note, we did some consulting with Disney years ago when they first started retail stores. They were struggling to get the success from their retail store they were getting from their theme parks. The analysis - they changed the product when they went into the local mall - not intentionally, but they did and they closed those first stores and started over. What is your company s product? If you were in the coffee beverage industry like Starbucks, your product would be romance. Now, here is a neat one. Everything that Starbucks does from the roasting of the beans in their own factories, to the

9 Page 8 Chamber Notes

10 Page 10 Chamber Notes Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce 2014 Economic Forecast Thursday, January 16, :00 noon The Flanders Hotel 719 E. 11th Street, Ocean City, NJ Guest Speaker: Steven E. Brady President Ocean City Home Bank $25.00 per person Please RSVP to or call

11 Page 10 Chamber Notes CHAMBER PHOTOS Grand Opening of Goldcoast Sotheby s new offices located at th Street Grand Opening of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox and Roach offices located at th Street Grand Opening of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox and Roach offices located at 421 Battersea Grand Opening of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox and Roach offices located at 5501 West Avenue Grand re-opening of C. Melini located at 34th and West Avenue Grand Opening of Starbuck s located at 11th and Asbury Avenue

12 Volume 15, Issue Page 12 CHAMBER PHOTOS Welcome Night was held at the Music Pier and was a great night for the local community to gather A crowd flooded Asbury Avenue anxiously awaiting Santa s arrival on Black Friday Citizen of the Year honoree Drew Fasy, Co-chair of OCNJ C.A.R.E. Citizen of the Year honoree Pastor Brian Roberts, OCNJ C.A.R.E. Karen Broadley, Kevin Redmond and Chamber President Brian Broadley visit with Santa at the Chamber s Christmas Mixer held at Jon & Patty s Jon & Patty Talese hosted a wonderful Christmas mixer for the Chamber at their restaurant on Asbury Avenue

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