A Mission to Accelerate Growth

ON A MISSION TO ACCELERATE GROWTH

omething’s changing, Rochester. We’re upping our game in a whole new way to create jobs, increase wealth, drive GDP, and enhance opportunity.S

We’re investing to create a world-class economic development ecosystem where incumbent businesses thrive, new companies opt to locate, and the best talent chooses to live.

And we’re doing it together.

ROC2025 is the new alliance of economic development organizations with a mission to accelerate growth in Greater Rochester. Together with Greater Rochester Enterprise, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Downtown Development Corporation, Visit Rochester, the City of Rochester, Monroe County, Empire State Development, and partner counties, ROC2025 has a vision to increase our competitive capacity, coordinate our work, and create a movement around the nation’s boldest and most engaging regional brand.

Established in 2019, the alliance is an outgrowth of work completed by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Starting in fall 2018, BCG worked with the partner organizations to, first, benchmark our region’s economic performance, and second, to assess how we’re positioned to do the “business” of economic development. BCG identified how each of the partner organizations – our regional economic development “infrastructure,” if you will – could be positioned to help Greater Rochester compete more aggressively and successfully for jobs and investment. Make no mistake, there amazing assets to support them. The CES data for each month of 2019 showed a higher employment level in the Rochester metro than each respective month in any previous year. In fact, the November jobs number was the highest on record – 8,000 jobs higher than a year ago and 23,000 jobs higher than six years ago. This has been a growth story.

But we want that growth rate to be even higher. And we’re investing to make it happen.

BCG’s work focused on a series of improvement areas. First, creating greater consistency of priorities and coordination of strategy across partner organizations. Second, securing better alignment of our regional “place brand” and marketing efforts. Third, and perhaps most importantly, significantly increasing the level at which our private and philanthropic sectors invest in the region’s economic development infrastructure.

That is the basis for ROC2025.

The ROC2025 alliance is not another economic development organization. It doesn’t displace any of the partner organizations or the roles they perform. Rather, its intent is to cultivate and coordinate.

On cultivation, it’s leading the charge to drive at least $20 million in net new resources over the next five years into our economic development ecosystem in ways that deepen our capacity and position us to compete more aggressively.

On cultivation, it’s leading the charge to drive at least $20 million in net new resources over the next five years into our economic development ecosystem in ways that deepen our capacity and position us to compete more aggressively.

On coordination, it serves as a framework for implementing a capacity-building plan that is focused on five core areas – each with investment priorities to expand capacity, and each with a designed lead partner organization.

First is business retention and expansion. The growth of incumbent firms – companies already in the region – accounts for more than 80% of job creation in metros nationally, and about 90% in New York State. ROC2025 is investing to grow our capacity – staff, data, and coordination – in ways that support the growth of existing companies.

Second is business attraction. ROC2025 is investing to grow our business development horsepower – to build more and stronger relationships with site selectors and C-level decision makers and convince them of the merits of locating to (and expanding in) Greater Rochester.

Third is talent retention and attraction. We are in a war for talent with metros across the country. With Rochester Chamber as lead partner for talent strategy, ROC2025 is investing in intentional strategies to expand the effective size of our employable labor force across the skills spectrum. That means driving up our retention rate of the 19,000 students that graduate annually from our region’s colleges and universities, recruiting “boomerangs” back to the new Rochester, and working to eliminate obstacles to employment for unemployed and dislocated workers.

Fourth is our downtown core. The importance of a vibrant and exciting urban core is clear – especially in the battle to attract and retain millennials and young professionals. ROC2025 will invest to build on our downtown momentum, supporting growth and innovation in our hub, working to amplify population growth, activating vacant spaces, and addressing impediments to growth.

Fifth is branding and marketing. ROC2025 is investing to build one of the boldest and most engaging place brands in the nation. One that builds on our proud history of innovation and breaking barriers, but which ushers in a new narrative about what this region is and will become. A fresh, audacious brand identity that will serve as the foundation for another ROC2025 investment – a major movement to reassert Rochester’s place on the map, shine a light on our region, and drive energy and attention to where we’re headed.

To reiterate, Rochester’s has been a growth story. But we want to accelerate that growth, and we’re investing to make it happen.

ROC2025 is an effort to bring significantly more resources to the table to “up our game” and deepen our capacity to expand economic development horsepower.

Not just to match that of recent economic high-fliers like Boise, Des Moines, Colorado Springs, and Omaha, but to blow past them.

Join The ROC2025 TALENT STRATEGY TEAM

Barb Egenhofer, ROC2025 Talent Strategy Director

Adrian Hale Sr. Manager, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce Talent Strategy, Workforce Development, and Education Initiatives 19

It’s a new day in Rochester. It’s a day to hit the stop button on the traditional ways we think and talk about our “cold, dreary” city and write a new narrative on who we are and what we are becoming. We are no longer a city defined by a few flagship organizations. We have evolved to become a city that is comprised of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, inventors, community builders, poverty busters, glass ceiling shatterers, disease curers, philanthropists, not for profit forerunners, and disruptors.

The new Rochester requires a different talk track. It requires us to become loyal ambassadors for our city and for all the amazing people who are dedicated to changing our outlook. It requires a commitment and focus on a positive and a community-wide collaborative effort. The ROC2025 Talent Strategy team fully embraces this new vision. We are here to develop the strategies that support our broad community while discovering the many groups, organizations, and individuals that work tirelessly every day to make an impact in our community. We want to establish a new way of thinking and working – one that embraces the power of collective impact and collaboration.

Our mission is broad and deep – from elevating our impoverished community members to a new, meaningful, and impactful way of life and solving fundamental barriers around transportation, child care, and housing for our hard-to employ population – to implementing creative solutions and programs that focus on the recruiting and retention of the talent pool Rochester needs to revitalize, expand, and energize our workforce. If there is one thing we know for certain - it is that we can’t do this alone. It’s going to take a community-wide effort that engages thought leaders from all different sectors, genres, and perspectives. We need people to challenge the status quo and engage in activities and solutions that are meaningful and impactful. It requires a team effort and a willingness to get things done. This is not a group that talks through our issues. We know what they are. We are focused on solutions, implementation strategies, and sustainability.

Are you ready to join the cause and help us transform Rochester? If yes, we would welcome you to join one of our working groups. We currently have three in action:

Talent Strategy and Business Growth Focuses on talent acquisition strategies, a “universal” career portal solution, tapping into new talent sources, and overall growth, retention and engagement of our workforce.

Education ROC Focuses on talent acquisition strategies, a “universal” career portal solution, tapping into new talent sources, and overall growth, retention and engagement of our workforce.

Employment Opportunity This group is putting strategies into place that will reduce/eliminate barriers to employment, develop strategies for our hard-to-employ population, and solve fundamental barriers like transportation and childcare.

LET’S PULL TOGETHER FOR OUR REGION

Bob Duffy President & CEO, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce

s we wrap up the first quarter of 2020, there are many exciting things happening on the economic development front in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region. While driving from downtown through the suburbs and into the rural countryside, it is easy to see growth happening all around us. This is only just the beginning of much better things to come. Yes, Rochester does have its challenges, but we are also in the midst of a major transformation poised to carry us to success well into the future. A

Thanks to the generosity of business leaders like Constellation Brands Executive Chairman Rob Sands, Wegmans Chairman Danny Wegman, Paychex CEO Marty Mucci, and many others, our region underwent an economic development study that gave us an introspective look at our greatest successes, challenges, and opportunities moving forward. While not uncovering any striking revelations, the study reinforced basic fundamentals that we should improve upon to grow our economy.

Under the new effort known as “ROC2025,” our region’s economic development agencies have come together to develop a strategy based upon the roadmap provided by the recent study. Through ROC2025, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Greater Rochester Enterprise, Rochester Downtown Development Corporation, Visit Rochester, the City of Rochester, Monroe County, and other partners have started to work much more closely together than in the past. I can already sense a culture change because of this renewed and focused collaboration.

The study showed that the challenge of recruiting new businesses to Rochester has yielded mixed results. Rather than focusing on recruiting only, there are two keys to growth: supporting and growing existing businesses in the region and securing a strong supply of talent both in keeping skilled workers here and attracting new workers to fill job openings that can help keep businesses thriving. Rochester Chamber has accepted the ROC2025 charge to lead the effort’s workforce development and talent strategy piece. We have started to work as a convener of the already successful efforts happening across the region to develop an agile recruitment and retention strategy to manage the needs of a diverse cross-section of workers and employers. At any given time, our region has upwards of 20,000 open jobs. The key to filling them is ensuring that we have the talent pool with the requisite in-demand skills. Workforce development cannot be a stagnant process. It’s an ever-evolving world for employers. As technology and demands in the marketplace change, so too must the way we train and prepare tomorrow’s workers.

In addition to these priorities, we also learned that Rochester has numerous marketing messages and campaigns going on rather than one unified, defining vision, message, and voice that sets us apart in today’s competitive economic development world in the eyes of both internal and external stakeholders. Through a competitive process, ROC2025 chose local marketing and advertising agency Dixon Schwabl to develop that singular message. We expect to roll out a regional marketing plan in the coming months. The important aspect of this effort is that outside of Rochester and the Finger Lakes region, we have been historically best known as the home of Eastman Kodak. While Kodak still holds an important place in the Rochester of today, we also represent much more than just Kodak or any of our legacy companies. We have a burgeoning technology community, great advanced manufacturing, a wide expanse of successful small and medium-sized companies, as well as 19 colleges and universities that educate and prepare the workforce of today and tomorrow. Creating a galvanizing message is an important piece of the ROC2025 mission’s success.

We are all in sales, regardless of our occupation or position in the community. If we want to recruit and retain talent and companies here now and in the future, the best sales staff is each and every one of us. I encourage everyone to lift up and reinforce the many blessings we have in our region in our daily conversations, social media posts, and other communications. While some in the New York City media may call our region “grim and depressing,” we know better. It’s time for all of us to share our positive messages. Our glass is beyond half full and will only overflow when all of us realize how good we have it here and share the positives with the world.

I have often described Rochester as New York’s best-kept secret. It’s time to share why we love this region more consistently and affirmatively in 2020. If we do this correctly, I believe we will see a growth spurt that we have not seen in decades.

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Greater Rochester Quality Council: Helping Rochester’s Economy Win Through Performance Excellence 23

Michael Caceci Board Chair, Greater Rochester Quality Council

nyone familiar with Rochester’s history knows we’ve invented, innovated and created some of the world’s greatest brands, products, technologies and companies. And despite market forces and other factors impacting our region in recent years we continue to fight, compete, and win. Not long ago, Rochester’s traditional manufacturers faced unprecedented foreign competition. Many turned to timeless methods of continuous improvement to stay competitive. Introduced as “Total Quality Management” (TQM), firms that adopted these tools did more than survive - many thrived. From this nascent ‘quality movement’, Greater Rochester Quality Council (GRQC) was founded in 1992 as a Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce affiliate to help meet the challenges of that time. A

Rochester’s economy has evolved since then and GRQC has adapted to this transformation. Our unwavering commitment to performance excellence drives us toward our vision of making Rochester a nationally recognized showplace for performance excellence. However, we are not a heady group of statisticians. GRQC is a member-led organization that helps Rochester and Upstate New York organizations make continuous improvement a driver for better results. We serve key sectors that power our region’s economy: business, healthcare, non-profits, education, and government. The proven principles of quality and continuous improvement apply to any organization that relies on processes to get work done or seeks to instill a culture that prioritizes excellence in the delivery of products and services that delight its customers. GRQC offers a great value; with programs and events that promote continuous learning, connecting to resources and celebrating excellence. These include:

GRQC Showcase & Performance Excellence Awards Wouldn’t you rather do business with an organization committed to excellence and great customer service? The GRQC Performance Excellence Awards program is Rochester’s equivalent of the prestigious Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award. Local organizations are invited to apply for recognition of the work they’re doing to continuously improve operations and results. Applicants receive an on-site visit from a team of experts in quality, lean, and other methods. They receive a detailed feedback report based on our criteria and site findings. (The feedback report alone would cost thousands if done by paid consultants.) We provide insights on how an applicant is performing in Operation Excellence, Team Excellence, or Customer Excellence. But wait - there’s more! We celebrate their success with an evening of sharing and recognition of applicants’ efforts and results at our annual GRQC Showcase and Awards Dinner in May.

Quality for Leaders Held multiple times during the year, this educational session gives managers the tools they need to drive continuous improvement and change into their culture. Participants leave with concrete action plans to immediately implement an improvement strategy. Rochester Chamber members receive our member discount, plus a one-year free GRQC membership for attending this program.

Performance Excellence Forums Offered throughout the year, performance excellence forums are stimulating networking opportunities and talks from leaders on a range of topics. Forums are held at convenient times of day, so professionals can participate in these thought-provoking, action-oriented discussions.

Day of Quality GRQC members are active volunteers, committed to spreading the gospel of excellence to all who ask for help. That’s why we started our Day of Quality. Modeled after United Way’s Day of Caring, volunteer professionals devote a day with requesting organizations who want to improve a process or start their journey of continuous improvement. To date, we’ve helped more than 40 organizations! With guidance from GRQC volunteers, anyone can implement improvements with measurable results the very next day.

In summary, GRQC is not just about “TQM” or quality theory. We are all about performance excellence in action. If the Rochester area is differentiated by our workforce, and our economic future depends on the ability to deliver the next generation of inventions, innovations and companies, we must make performance excellence an integral part of every Rochester and Upstate NY organization. GRQC wants to be your partner on your journey to excellence and would love to help your organization achieve its goals. Contact us at www.grqc.org to learn more.