我一直在阅读卡罗尔·桑福德（Carol Sanford）关于超越公司责任的新书的早期草稿，暂定标题为The Responsible Business。桑福德她的职业生涯帮助组织了解如何为所有利益相关者提供服务 - 不仅仅是考虑股东相同的ROI，而是所有已将资本投资于商业的人 - 客户，员工，合作伙伴，社区甚至地球本身的各方。卡罗尔（Carol）写了关于公司不认为社区的员工是其中的一部分以及公司开展业务作为另一个群体或处理的另一个团体的关键，而是一种创造力和灵感的来源，声音委员会和建设性的批评家，最重要的是 - 产品或服务的初始和持续成功的关键因素。
当我在肯塔基州鲍灵格林（Bowling Green）的家中度过了一个周末，她的观点就在我心中。我不仅对蓝草州，尤其是城市感到强烈的亲属关系，而且我花了一些时间思考原因。除了我自己与该地区的个人联系之外，保龄球绿色似乎已经发展出强烈的地位感，随着西肯塔基大学继续进行大量的增长，这种能量的感觉是对历史悠久的市中心地区的振兴，这要归功于许多人的努力社区合作伙伴和一个很棒的Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce这使其新办公室成为市中心振兴的关键部分，并获得了成为美国商会年度最佳会议厅会议厅的区别。（全面披露：我每年夏天在商会的年度杂志工作，而我在附近的WKU和麻省理工学院的一名研究生中，因为我深深地相信这座城市的独特文化……而且因为我需要付费写作演出。）
However, there’s one large Bowling Green corporate citizen who seems to deeply understand the importance of this sense of place to the point that they have spent the past few decades working with Bowling Green to create a collaborative identity based on their presence in the area. As some of you may know, Bowling Green is the home of the Corvette. The Corvette relocated its production to The Bluegrass State in 1981, after previously having been made in Flint, Michigan, and St. Louis, Missouri. Since that time, the Corvette has become a deep part of Bowling Green’s identity, and the car’s Bowling Green production has become a key element in the production of this General Motors car.
恰当的例子：1994年，在Corvette工厂开业13年后，The National Corvette Museumopened in Bowling Green, not far from the production facilities of the car. The production plant likewise welcomes a significant amount of tourism, hostedon its own site。该植物和博物馆已成为鲍林·格林（Bowling Green）定期托管的Corvette所有者的中心，他们将汽车“回家”带到了他们的创建地点，最终在一年一度国家Corvette Homecoming，这项活动开始于三十年前的克尔维特（Corvette）搬迁到城市的同年。当地的Corvette俱乐部，Corvettes Limited of Bowling Green, Kentucky, meets each month at the museum, and there is aNational Corvette Caravanplanned every five years to Bowling Green.
这些举措中的许多是由地区或国家护卫舰爱好者计划的。像克尔维特博物馆这样的举措是对社区中人们充满热情的项目。但是，在此过程中，通用汽车已将其资源专门用于支持这些众多保龄球绿色区域倡议，并成为该地区的贡献者。他们已经开放了植物，以深入鼓励到克尔维特文化周围地区的旅游业。他们使鲍灵绿是其公司发展故事的关键部分。
The partnership has run so deep that, when Bowling Green secured a Minor League Baseball team a few years ago, the decision was ultimately made to name the team The Hot Rods, based on how crucial the Corvette is to Bowling Green’s business identity. And, since then, Kentucky has officially named the Corvette its Official State Sports Car. A publicity stunt? Perhaps. But such publicity is based on a deep and long-standing partnership that reflects the reality of how important Bowling Green has become to Corvette culture, and how important the Corvette has become to Bowling Green’s culture.
Just recently, we saw an example of how crucial the deepness of this relationship has been. Over the summer, rumors began to circulate that General Motors was going to relocate Corvette production to Michigan. A Lansing television station picked up this speculation based on comments from the UAW. There was some concern in Bowling Green, and the discussion was covered locally, but the rumors were immediately quashed by General Motors, who said there were some discussions of various car productions at a Michigan plant, but “Corvettes are born in Bowling Green (, and) nothing in the foreseeable future changes that long-time fact,” according to这件在Autoblog上。这个新闻的故事似乎并没有引起鲍灵格林的重大关注，这正是因为这种关系的深入。通用汽车发言人戴维·考德威尔（David Caldwell）也对The Bowling Green Daily News：
从某种意义上说，这是一群非常独特的人和设施，对于像Corvette所需要的出色跑车的专业制造非常有价值。[。。。]这是一个特定，独特且高技能的操作，显然已证明很长一段时间都做得很好。
在有关自动博客的评论部分中，讨论了为什么它在何处创建汽车。一位读者问，肯塔基州现有的东西使该设施变得很重要。其他读者很快就回答了，从波旁威士忌到更严肃的答案，例如围绕Corvette开发发展的合格劳动力。读者Galaxiesun写道时，怀疑论充满了：
当通用汽车转移土星的生产并允许在斯普林山（Spring Hill）建造其他汽车时，大多数土星忠诚主义者都抗议，这是有道理的。众所周知，其余的就是历史。将Corvette从保龄球绿中带出来会大大更糟。您可以说出您对工会的想要的东西，但是他们都不想损害品牌，而他们应该考虑的一件事是，鲍林绿色的植物对Corvette品牌的重要性。是的，这是一个品牌，本身就是一个品牌。[。。。]将生产转移到兰辛不会标志着车辆的末端，是的，我们知道这一点，但这需要大量的核心品牌。而且，取回可能几乎是不可能完成的。
别处, a Corvette fan said things such as that the move “would probably be the dumbest thing that GM has ever done.”
At a time when GM has been in such rough shape as a corporation and when Corvette sales have suffered as well, the iconic status of the Corvette brand and the passion of Corvette enthusiasts remain in place, and the local pride and community development Corvette has generated in the Bowling Green area is a crucial part of that story. Many brands could learn from how this mutually beneficial relationship has developed and how it positively impacts both brands. And, from a Bowling Green perspective, here’s hoping that there aren’t any changes in Corvette or pressures from GM as a whole to forget about the deep equity in Bowling Green and among Corvette enthusiasts that have made the place where Corvettes are developed a fundamental part of the brand’s story.
Sam Ford is Director of Digital Strategy for胡椒，公关机构，以及与麻省理工学院的融合文化财团。Ford was previously the Consortium’s project manager and part of the team who launched the project in 2005. He has also worked as a professional journalist, winning a Kentucky Press Association award for his work. He also blogs for Peppercom’s辣椒。Ford is co-editor ofThe Survival of Soap Operawith Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington and co-author of the forthcoming book,可传播的媒体与亨利·詹金斯（Henry Jenkins）和约书亚·格林（Joshua Green）在一起。在Twitter上关注他@sam_ford。