The Quad-Cities is a hotspot for legacy businesses, but coming from out of town to run one is not as common of a story.
When the Illinois Casualty Company was looking for its next leader, Arron Sutherland made the move from the town where he spent most of his life: Flint, Michigan.
"When I grew up there, we still built cars," he said with a smile.
That background in an industrial, Midwestern town proved to be good support for his first trip to Rock Island, he said. His initial first impression of Rock Island was that it reminded him a lot of where he grew up.
"I came from what I'll call a Rust Belt town that shows the wear and tear, but it's got more to it than what people see on the surface," he said. "So, I was wanting to look at the Quad-Cities and Rock Island through that lens of somebody who grew up in the Midwest (and) has seen places go through their ups and their downs."
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For college, Sutherland moved 50 miles away to attend Michigan State University, but for the most part, he spent the majority of his adult life living in one place, he said. Moving to Rock Island felt comfortable and familiar, and with four kids in tow, it felt safe.
With his sights set on moving, Sutherland quickly learned another lesson: "Everyone thinks you just grew up here."
Looking for advice from people about where to enroll his kids in school, many offered the same opinion based on state rankings. After living in the area for a while, he formed a new opinion about other districts and towns, he said.
"I would describe it as friendly and welcoming, but when you come in from the outside, you have to do your work on simple things," he said.
Small things like finding sports leagues for his children to join was a challenge, and even now, downtown Rock Island itself has changed drastically since his move, he said. When Sutherland first started with the Illinois Casualty Company, the downtown was vibrant with several lunch places and staple businesses. It's now looking to find itself amid a rebuild to bring back that atmosphere.
Things have improved since his move more than a decade ago, he said, but Sutherland still sees room for more improvement.
"I've always said it's the same thing as what I grew up with. It's a big, small town," he said. "I've always been amazed that the different entities have their own unique personality vibe, and I think that is great. I will never understand why all the different communities don't work together better as one metropolis."
From a business perspective, Illinois Casualty has only 1% of its business coming directly from the Quad-Cities. And for a while, it was virtually hidden from sight.
"When I took over this role in 2010, we hid from the community. We didn't belong to the Chamber; we didn't do any local support of organizations. Our name wasn't even on the building," he said. "It was like, well, if we're going to be in Rock Island, let's be part of Rock Island. For me, companies need an identity and Rock Island needs people to believe in it. So, let's have part of our identity be that we're in Rock Island and we're here to stay."
As a company, however, employees are connected within their own communities, which inspired Sutherland to steer the business back to focusing on being a good corporate citizen by focusing on the Rock Island community it’s been part of for 75 years.
"I've really tried to promote us being a Rock Island entity. I think we probably just considered ourselves Quad-Cities (based when) we were doing corporate citizenship events," he said. "Rock Island needs some of the long-term people here. It needs a brand to roll up the sleeves, and we've got roots."
The Illinois Casualty Company was initially founded by a law firm following the establishment of the Dram Shop Act in Illinois, which allows victims of drunk driving to sue the establishment that served alcohol to the intoxicated party.
"They started an insurance company, essentially, to get clients because they knew that lawsuits would come out of the dram shop and if they had the insurance company and they were insuring the bar that got sued then the lawyers (could work on the case)," he said. "That's how the business started. We were owned by the law firm and we were there to generate business for the law firm."
Today the business operates much differently, but is still an insurance company with specific interest in the food and beverage industry.
After moving to the Quad-Cities, Sutherland began to learn about the business landscape in the area.
"I came from a union, manufacturing town, so that's what I knew. But that creates certain hurdles. I've seen tons of people, the Chamber and others, work very hard to make the community business friendly. And for the most part, I'd say that's what I've experienced," he said. "I haven't run into negative, but I know that's an area that we're constantly trying to improve."
Since his move, Sutherland said he has seen the business community go in a positive direction as far as being business friendly to a broader base, instead of a few giant companies.
"I feel like there's a lot more effort to recognize the different kinds of businesses; small, large and everything in between, and I think that's a good thing," he said.
Employee recruitment, also, has improved, he said. In the early days, he said, interns would come in from the local colleges, graduate and take off for bigger cities like Chicago. On the flip side, when it comes to recruiting specialized talent, a lot of that comes from the bigger cities, he said, which is a pipeline that has grown stronger over the years.
"I've said I find it is a great area for hiring good people," he said. "One thing (the Quad-Cities) promotes is they have a great workforce in terms of work ethic. I've always been very happy with the pool of applicants that we can get."
Leadership in the Quad-Cities is one area Sutherland credits as helping with that. It's crucial for new businesses to be able to hit the ground running, and with the pipeline of talent, the ability to recruit and public-private partnerships working together to improve business relations, it puts the region on the up and up.
"I do think the region’s a good place to start a business, because ... when you get customers here, they're loyal," he said. "When I talk to (people) I try to encourage them to give Rock Island a chance ... because it's the old adage of business: if everybody's running one way, go the other and see what's there."
Sutherland said he has become a big advocate for Rock Island specifically, encouraging people to find out what's there and take advantage of the programs. The city recently adopted a Special Service Area, SSA, around several blocks of the downtown.
The SSA comes with an additional tax for businesses within that area, but those dollars are designated to be spent within that same region to improve the area. Each of the five major towns in the Quad-Cities have some form of SSA in place.
"There are people to help you navigate. I feel like that definitely is such a pull for the Quad-Cities and such a big asset that are so many organizations that are willing to help," Sutherland said.
