A New Way of Doing Business?

North Carolina's business leaders long have been characterized as "progressive plutocrats" willing to partner with government to create new economic opportunities. Yet recent developments at the state chamber of commerce seemingly signal a new way of doing business, according to a cover story in the May issue of Business North Carolina.

The article focuses on Lew Ebert, the new president of the North Carolina Chamber, the business organization formerly called NC Citizens for Business and Industry. An experienced business advocate in Pennsylvania and Kansas, Ebert already has brought a different approach to the Tar Heel state's largest business organization. During Ebert's brief tenure, the Chamber has adopted a new name and has begun taking more conservative and oppositional stances on issues ranging from taxation to public education. Will this new tone resonate with North Carolina's traditional political and business culture, wonders the article, or instead sound horribly off-key?