Editor’s note: Business Ledger publisher Jim Elsener gave up a comfortable job in 1992 to pursue a dream—starting a newspaper. Now, on its 15th anniversary, he brags...a little.

In trying to put into perspective my thoughts in celebrating the 15th anniversary of The Business Ledger, I realized that I spend more time thinking about the future than I do the past.

One of my business heroes was a 76-year-old California newspaper publisher whom I once worked with when he was putting the finishing touches on his 10-year growth plan. I like to think I learned something from him.

So in reviewing the past, I just decided to write down the first things that jumped into my mind. When we launched The Business Ledger in April 1993 the United States was just cleaning up from the previous down business cycle. DuPage County was still considered a fast growing suburban marketplace while Tinley Park was thought of as a quaint community out on the edge of the prairie.

Our first desktop computers cost about $2,500 each and the Internet was something that was sneaking into our consciousness, not an essential office tool. The newspaper industry in Chicago was thriving.

Now here we are 15 years later, having seen the major growth in our area move to the southwest suburbs, particularly with the opening of the southern extension of I-355. Whenever the Internet is down our businesses virtually shut down with it. Computer prices are less than half of what they were back then, even after accounting for inflation. And, Chicago’s newspaper industry is going through a monumental restructuring while trying to survive.

Most of us prevailed through the anxiety of those dark days in the early part of this century when we experienced the fallout of the dot-com boom and 9-11.

And now we are experiencing another business cycle that will require an adjustment that will not treat everyone kindly. The newspaper industry, in which we are a fringe player with our own significant niche that has somewhat escaped the paradigm shift, has to create a new business model to survive into future decades. The solution has nothing to do with selling naming rights to Wrigley Field.

When I think of the single most significant achievement in our history, it would have to be our company’s leadership in identifying and honoring our community’s most successful businesses and the people who made them successful.

Last month, in partnership with seven sponsors, The Business Ledger

presented the 18th Annual Awards for Business Excellence at which 22 companies and non-profit organizations were recognized for their success in serving the local business community.

It would seem a bit presumptuous to present an award to ourselves, but I like to think that we could qualify as an excellent business.

When I looked around the audience the night of our recognition event some of the same people who I met in 1993 are still involved in our community.

We gave an award to the People’s Resource Center led all these years by Mary Ellen Durbin. Attorney Bill Wentz, now with the firm of Huck Bouma, has been a friend of our company since the start. Jim D’Ambrosio now represents The Conservation Foundation. When we first met he was the president of Northern Trust DuPage who advised me that “recognition is so important.” His advice convinced me that hosting awards programs provided an essential service to our business community.

Also present was Dalip Bammi, who was DuPage County Director of Planning in 1993 and continues to be interested in local business activities. Another award honoree was the Building Owners and Managers Association of Suburban Chicago led by executive director Pat Schwarze. We first called on Pat to arrange an interview with her then-boss DuPage County Board Chairman Aldo Botti.

I don’t think of myself as one who is given to bragging, but I’m certainly proud of our contributions to the local business community. I remember my Uncle Fred, now long passed, who had one of the great in-

home bars in his basement of a Chicago bungalow on the northwest side.

I used to sit there with all the adults drinking my Coke and remember well the plaque above the bar that claimed “He that can brag without

lying, let him brag.”

Well, I’m not lying. The Business Ledger has made our business community a better place.

Contact publisher Jim Elsener at jelsener@thebusinessledger.com or at 630-428-8788.