economic development
Opening Day As a baseball fan (some would say fanatic) since childhood, I absolutely love the excitement associated with Opening Day. A new season, a fresh start, full of promise and with the same level of opportunity statistically as any other team in the league; I could argue that Opening Day should be a national holiday.
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Absent the pageantry and flyovers, I can feel the same level of heightened excitement and anticipation with regard to the Ignite Fox Cities economic development initiative. (Okay, perhaps I exaggerate a bit, but still … extremely exciting) Ignite Fox Cities, the Fox Cities Chamber’s new Economic Development Alliance, will develop three program areas intended to strengthen and expand the region’s primary job base: Contributed by: Larry Burkhardt, CEDO
1. Existing industry retention/expansion 2. New industry attraction 3. Entrepreneurial support While each is key to the local economy’s vibrancy and diversification, the Economic Development Alliance will focus its initial efforts on outreach and support to our existing companies. We believe that this strategy will pay the greatest dividends over both the short term and long term for the following reasons. First, it has been shown that as a statistical average across the country, some 70% of an area’s new primary job growth will come from the companies that have a history of local success. This makes perfect sense, particularly when one considers the fact that these firms have aggressive business development programs, R & D for new product development, local suppliers, and are focused on growing their bottom line. Couple this with the massive costs, general business disruption and potential loss of valuable staff that will typically be involved with a corporate relocation from one community to another; it becomes clear that an economic development effort can see its greatest return on investment from establishing and cultivating productive relationships with the companies in its own backyard. Ignite Fox Cities will work to become the area’s point of contact for local industry that needs assistance with business challenges such as workforce, financial, regulatory and other issues, as well as those with opportunities for growth and expansion. Our role will be to serve as a facilitator to provide access and coordinate delivery of business assistance resources that are available from a variety of area resource partners. We will strive to be problem solvers — utilizing the talents and expertise not only of our own staff, but also those of experts here and around the country, to the benefit of our local companies. We must also be aware of the fact that our local companies are regular industry attraction targets for the 5,000 or so economic development organizations around the country that are looking to expand their own job base. Those economic development groups that devote themselves entirely to attempts at bringing new industry into their front door — losing touch with the companies already within their own boundaries, can be caught flatfooted by the exit of local businesses leaving through the back door. 20
Fox Cities Chamber Business JULY 2012