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 Excellence
in Leadership - Tim Belk
By: Rick
Handford
The Excellence in Leadership award has been sponsored
for twenty years by the Rotary Club of Charlotte to
honor a local citizen in business, education, or related
fields who best exemplifies the principles of Rotary.
The award is cosponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and
the Charlotte Business Journal. This year the award is
presented to Thomas M. "Tim" Belk, Jr., who is chairman
and CEO of Belk Stores. Tim was nominated for the award
by Tony Zeiss.
Phil Van Hoy continued his introduction with a brief
biography: Charlotte native; undergraduate degree from
Williams College; earned his MBA at UNC Chapel Hill; on
the Board of Trustees of the Carolinas Healthcare
System; finishing up a term as Chairman of the Charlotte
Chamber of Commerce; and Elder of the Myers Park
Presbyterian Church. His grandfather, William Henry
Belk, founded the Belk Company. Tim has a long history
with the Rotary Club of Charlotte, as his father was
President of the club twenty years ago.
Tim began his talk by thanking Phil for the introduction
and Kevin Pitts for the Business Journal sponsorship. He
then introduced the members of his family that were
present; wife Sarah, mother Katherine McKay Belk, and
his brother Johnny. He stated that we all are "the
product of the influence they have had on our lives",
and that those principally influencing him were his
family. Not only those present, but also his father and
his uncle, John Belk, who received the Excellence in
Leadership award several years ago.
Tom and John Belk firmly believed in community
involvement and its importance to business, and taught
Tim and his brother to get involved in the community,
help it grow, and make it a better place. In doing so,
they also made the community a better place for their
stores. He also said that he wanted his nephews to have
a 'real job', to learn to take a hit and keep going. To
learn to take hits was a valuable lesson in the current
economy, when the hits just keep on coming. Tough and
timely cutbacks in the company's expenses, in the form
of layoffs, salary freezes, bonus cuts, curtailed
retirement plan contributions and dividend cuts allowed
the company to weather the worst of the economic slump
in the fall and winter, and positioned them to begin to
recover in the spring of this year. He expects an
increase in same store sales growth this quarter or
next.
Inventories are leaner, and fall fashions are selling,
facts which may make it advantageous to start Christmas
shopping a little earlier this year. The future looks to
be improving.
Tim says that his experience with the Charlotte Chamber
followed a similar path. Turmoil in the financial
sector, local job losses, the United Way crisis, and
cutbacks in state and local government budgets combined
to create a low point in Charlotte's economic picture,
but there are signs that things are improving here as
well. Going forward, Charlotte will be different, but
stronger, when the economy turns.
Early in his term at the Chamber, it was decided to
narrow the focus of the Chamber's activities to four
major areas: economic development, transportation,
education, and diversity. On the economic development
front, he sees more financial companies moving to this
area to take advantage of our available skilled labor
force. Charlotte has become an energy hub, with clean
energy technology being a significant part of that.
Health care is also an opportunity to develop diversity
in our economic base. We now have 75,000 jobs in health
care, as compared with 55,000 in the financial sector.
In transportation, the airport is growing, light rail is
successful, and its expansion to the northeast is being
funded. Our greatest current transportation challenge
now is road funding that is inadequate to meet our
needs.
Fortunately, many people are working to improve this,
including the Governor, with whom our relationship is
improving. In education, test scores are improving and
enrollment in our colleges and universities is growing.
Pete Gorman, Tony Zeiss, Phil Dubois, Ron Carter, Pamela
Davies and Art Gallagher are building their institutions
and will provide leadership going forward.
As changes in the demographics of this area make
Charlotte into a different city, it is important that
businesses and individuals embrace these changes and
move toward greater inclusion.
Lessons learned from these trying times include the
importance of narrowing the priority list, of good
planning, including contingency planning, of building
relationships, of maintaining a positive attitude
despite the headwinds, and, most importantly, of staying
humble. Tim closed by saying that he is humble in
receiving this leadership award, and grateful for the
Rotary values being shared with the community, and for
Rotary's help in making this a better place.
Head Table:
Phil Murphy, Steve Eanes, John Snyder, Phil Van Hoy,
Kevin Pitts, Tony Zeiss;
Invocation: Mary Lynn Calhoun;
Visitors & Guests: Roger Sarow; Health &
Happiness: Chase Saunders; Song & Piano: Thomas Moore;
Photos: Bert Voswinkel |
