Competitiveness

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

COMPETITIVENESS Regional economic competitiveness is the ability of a region to compete and prosper in the global economy. Indeed, a competitive economy is a productive economy — building on its embedded assets and fueled by a set of institutions, policies and business environment factors which lead to growth.

In addition to productivity, competitive regions foster an environment that supports both a high and a rising standard of living for its citizens driven by a business environment that enables innovation, entrepreneurship and growth.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE The Alliance’s Business Intelligence department is a key component of the organization’s success and a vital part of the regional economic development ecosystem in Hampton Roads. In addition to supporting various internal business development and marketing initiatives, the department consistently provides external stakeholders with relevant comprehensive data and research. The department partners with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to provide labor statistics for the quarterly Labor Market Digest. The Alliance also works with its 11 localities and the general business community to provide regional data, demographic information and various reports including cost comparisons, occupation density analysis and site inventories.

HAMPTON ROADS The Hampton Roads region aspires to become a globally competitive market for private industry growth and investment. To develop this position, Hampton Roads must create and implement economic development strategies at a scale that will shift current forecasts. With deep executive insight into regional competitiveness, in early 2018 the Alliance contracted IBM’s Plant Location International (IBM-PLI) division to perform comprehensive site location analysis, assess the region’s current economic landscape and provide best practice recommendations for improvements within the region’s business environment.

INVESTMENT PROMOTION As a background to the initiative, VEDP worked in partnership with IBM-PLI and McKinsey & Company to complete an economic development strategy that provided insight and recommendations for VEDP’s key industries and marketing efforts. Leveraging these insights and an understanding that success requires strategic, coordinated alignment and effective execution, the Alliance worked to develop a regional investment promotion strategy for Hampton Roads. Developing this strategy included conducting a detailed competitiveness analysis of Hampton Roads within key sectors. Overall, the objective of the analysis was to improve the effectiveness of regional economic development. A key input into this process was stakeholder engagement. Through a robust set of facilitated sessions, the Alliance, alongside the region’s leadership and key stakeholders, identified key improvement needs within the region. They assessed the relative importance of different types of improvements and developed recommendations on the most appropriate actions and interventions for enhancing the competitiveness of Hampton Roads and its individual communities.