SOUTH BEND — Ron Kitchens believes the greatest force for change is a job.

"When you've got a good job, you're no longer defined by poverty, you're no longer defined by lack, you're no longer defined by anything else," he told the audience Tuesday at the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce's annual Salute to Business lunch.

"A job," he said, "re-establishes who you are."

Kitchens, the CEO of Southwest Michigan First, an economic development organization based in Kalamazoo, was Tuesday's keynote speaker. At least 925 people crowded into Century Center for the luncheon, making it the most-attended Salute to Business in the event's 30-year history.

Kitchens said communities are competing in a war for jobs. It's not a competition between Kalamazoo and South Bend or Michigan and Indiana, he said. It's a global war.

"The lack of good jobs is the root cause of almost all of America's problems today," he said. "We are at a point in American history where there simply aren't enough good-quality jobs."

But there are steps communities can take to create more good jobs.

Kitchens described "community capitalism" — a philosophy that brings together the best practices of government, business and education, and unites those forces behind a common vision.

"Regions that are thriving economically align every effort behind job creation," he said.

With the pace of change in the modern economy, people need to update their skills continuously to survive. "It's about constantly reinventing ourselves," Kitchens said.



That means designing programs that enable people to go to college is one of the keys in community capitalism. Kitchens has an example from his town with The Kalamazoo Promise — a privately funded program that pays up to 100 percent of students' college tuition if they are graduates of Kalamazoo's public high schools.