Describing a Collaborative

Regional Economic
Development Framework
 Module 1
Module
Describing a Collaborative
Regional Economic
Development Framework
Leading the Planning Effort
Detecting Regional Advantage
Formulating Strategies
Executing Your Plan
Objectives
*Defining Economic
Development
*Making the case
for regional planning
*Defining principles
for regional planning
*Identifying & overcoming
obstacles
 Objectives
I. Define and understand key aspects of economic
development

II. Make the case for conducting a regional strategy

in a globally competitive environment

III. Define principles for collaborative regional

economic development planning framework

IV. Identify mechanisms for overcoming obstacles to

the collaborative regional economic development
planning framework
 I.
Definition of Economic
Development
Defining Economic Development
Group Discussion

• How do you define economic

development?
• Why do you do economic development?
• What is economic development success?
– Whose behavior are we trying to influence?
– What would happen anyway?
 Conflicting Philosophies?
• Economic development aims to accomplish sometimes
contradictory goals…
– Create jobs
– Create wealth
• How we accomplish economic development involves
conflicting approaches that…
– Exploit our existing economic strengths
– Create new economic strengths
• Economic development that actually accomplishes
change must primarily engage…
– The corporate, government, and academic leaders
– Grassroots citizens and community organizations
 II.
Make the Case for Conducting a
Regional Strategy in a Globally
Competitive Environment
 10 Mega-Trends
in the Global Economy
!
"Service has become (and will remain) the dominant
competitive differentiator in much of the economy
#"
Knowledge-intensive activities have the highest value and
demand increasing knowledge, skills, and abilities
$"
Work is polarizing in which wages tend to reflect
knowledge, skills, and abilities
%"
Outsourcing divides “value-chain” functions into more
productive, interdependent activities
&"
The workforce is aging and increasingly replacement talent
must come from elsewhere
 10 Mega-Trends
in the Global Economy (cont.)
'"Job growth occurs as firms find (or re-find) economic value in
the marketplace
("Industrial transitions are happening more quickly as product life
cycles shorten
)"Reduced transportation and telecommunication costs contribute
to the increased importance of logistics in meeting the
shortening timeframes allowed to move goods and information
*"Regions and communities are becoming more specialized and
connected to other non-contiguous places
!+
" Places are more frequently connecting to places with
complementary specializations
 10 Mega-Trends for
Economic Developers
!"Leaders continue to emphasize job creation as the ultimate goal
for economic development
#"Many public sector leaders still understand economic
development strategies in the three “waves”—which focus on
companies rather than industries
$"Private leadership is changing due to…
• Loss of corporate headquarters and priorities of branch plants
• Focus on the global “value-chain”
• Difficulty in engaging entrepreneurial leaders
%"Traditional economic development doesn’t work well with fewer
“large” opportunities
&"Economic development “wins” frequently
result from large public investments
 10 Mega-trends for
Economic Developers (cont.)
'"Businesses increasingly incorporating incentives in their business
location calculus
("Public investors are becoming more concerned about the
effectiveness/transparency of public investments
)"Economic developers require new skills…
• Focus less on making “sales” and more on conducting “market
intelligence”
• Facilitate linkages among a fragmented network of participants
• Focus on the community or region “product” comprehensively
*
"Economic developers are realizing that “workforce talent” can be
an important competitive differentiator
!
+"Economic development is undergoing a
generational shift that will likely
transform the profession
 Implications from these trends
• Regionalism matters!
• Flexibility matters
• Context matters
• Process matters (planning is not an event)
• Success requires capacity, buy-in, and
legitimacy
• Mindsets must be aligned to new realities of
what works in economic development
 Implications from these trends
• Continuous search for the next economic
opportunity and understanding the state of
current industries
• Need comprehensive view of development
that links economic development with
workforce development and education
• Consider collaborative and sustainable
systems for implementing economic
development
Lessons from economic and economic
development trends
• Successful places have…
– Leaders that recognize the new realities of how economic
development works
– Regional ties that help to create a larger number of
opportunities
– A recognition that opportunities arise within a global
economic context for which leaders can be prepared
– An understanding of their current industry strengths and
weaknesses
– Flexibility and adaptability that will allow improved
response to opportunities
Lessons from economic and economic
development trends (cont.)
• Successful places have…
– Buy-in and legitimacy for that preparation
– The capacity to respond (in terms of appropriate assets
and skilled professionals to facilitate) well before
opportunities present themselves
– A comprehensive view of development that links
economic development with community, workforce,
and education
– A mechanism for continuously searching for the next
economic opportunities
– A way to evaluate whether past efforts have made a
substantial impact on the economic well-being of the
citizenry
 Rationale for Collaborative Regional
Economic Development Planning Framework
• Every place needs to implement a planning
process that provides a mechanism for
continuously assessing opportunities in light of
economic change and leadership priorities and
decisions

• In such a complex and ever-changing

environment, every place must consider systems
that foster collaboration and sustainability – IN
A REGIONAL CONTEXT
 III.
Define Principles for
Collaborative Regional
Economic Development
Planning Framework
Core Principles for the Collaborative Regional
Economic Development Planning Framework

• Vision • Holistic
• Collaboration • Fact-Based
• Regionalism • Continuous Improvement
• Opportunistic • Prioritization
• Iterative • Communication
 Core Principle:
Builds on a Clear Vision
• Definition
– Clear description (“image”) of a preferred future state
with “regional prosperity” clearly defined
– Significantly different from the current state
– Identifies “impactful” intervention

• Why this is important

– Inertia may lead to a less than optimal future state
– Multiple options for a “preferred” future state
– Many interventions have little impact or wrong impact
 Core Principle:
Builds on a clear vision

• Imagine Tucson as an example

 Core Principle:
Collaborates Across “Silos”
• Definition
– Process of working together with many public and
private stakeholders
– Working with stakeholders in different but non-
contiguous places that are linked to yours
– Multi-disciplinary (across “policy domains”)
• Why this is important
– Realize that the kinds of collaboration depend on
economic conditions and competitive advantages
– Challenges faced involve economic and non-
economic factors
– No “silver bullet”
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Collaborates Across “Silos”

• Futures 4 Kids
• Alliance for Quality Education
 Core Principle:
Engages Regional Participation
• Definition
– Geographic boundaries of the planning area
– Different types of “regions”
– Relationship with place and region

• Why this is important

– Context of economic trends focus on the competitive
position of the region within a global context
– Planning “too small” may have very little impact on the
“future state”
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Engages Regional Participation
• Vision East
– 41 counties in eastern North Carolina
– Focus on military, tourism, agriculture, advanced
manufacturing, and entrepreneurship
• Texoma Regional Consortium
– 13 counties in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma
– Focus on advanced manufacturing, and entrepreneurship
• Montana’s Agro-Energy Plan
– 32 counties and six Indian Reservations
– Focus on bio-products and renewable energy development
as tool for rural entrepreneurship
 Core Principle:
Exploits Unforeseen Opportunities
• Definition
– Requirement to continuously adjust to local conditions
and external factors
– Need for flexibility in response
• Why this is important
– Current situation will not match any one vision of how
the world works
– Possibility of unforeseen opportunities
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Exploits Unforeseen Opportunities
• NC Center for Engineering Technology
• Science Foundation Arizona
 Core Principle:
Makes Iterative Changes
• Definition
– Experimental efforts to try new strategies and tactics
– Experiential in learning from one’s own lessons as
well as those of others

• Why this is important

– The complexity of variables require trying multiple
approaches to influencing behavior
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Makes Iterative Changes
• Innovation • Pacific Mountain
Frontier Arizona Washington
 Core Principle:
Embraces a Holistic Response
• Definition
– Systemic approach to fostering development
– Multiple policy domains (e.g., workforce, community,
education, etc.) interact
• Why this is important
– Recognition that economic development is influenced
by a broad array of investments
– Behaviors of businesses and/or talent increasingly
respond to non-economic stimuli
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Embraces a Holistic Response
• Pittsburgh
– “The College City” brand
- Helping talented students
consider their college choices
– www.campusvisit.com
- Helping college bound visitors find
their way
– Experience Pittsburgh
- Helping college students become
connected to the city
– Building Bridges
- Helping Pittsburgh college students
find jobs
 Core Principle:
Relies on Facts
• Definition
– Historically, economic development was driven by relationships,
opinions, perceptions, and emotional considerations
– Increasingly, multiple decision makers involved and logic (e.g.,
cost considerations or market pressures) shape investment
decisions
– Places have learned more about how businesses make investment
decisions based on behavioral patterns
– Internal and external factors influence those behaviors
• Why this is important
– Know what is
– Know what others are doing
– Know how to respond or compete
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Net Employment Change in the
Relies on facts
Nashville Economic Market
(June 2001 to June 2006)
OKLAHOMA CITY Commuting Patterns
15K in the Texoma Region
(US Census Bureau, 2000)
7.5K

2.5K
35 Ada
Net New
Employment
4,000 Commuters

0 20 Ardmore 2,000 Commuters

Miles 70
75 500 Commuters
70

< 500 Commuters

*Employment in Maury County
declined by 539 between 82
June 2001 and June 2006 82
Sherman
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

El Paso Workforce Dev Board Area Value

35 75

$50,000
Chain Clusters
Concrete, brick buildin
products
2,115
Wood building products 2,5
DALLAS 0 30
Miles
Business servic Appliances
$40,000
Concentration (LQ 2004)

41,445 3,692

Arts and media Basic health servic

17,789 42,938
Plastics produc Textiles & apparel
2,068 3,948
$30,000

$20,000 Financial services & insuran

25,814
Constructio Average Wage = $24,641
11,329

$10,000 Hotels & transportat

services Farming* Green=Existing
41,605 1,614 Blue=Emerging
Orange=Potential
$0
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00

Average Wage (2004)

Concentration (LQ 2004)
 Core Principle:
Improves Continuously
• Definition
– Benchmark to and borrow from best practices
– Evaluates how well the plan and actions are working
toward improving the “baseline”

• Why this is important

– Competition for limited resources
– Improve “productivity”
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Improves continuously
• Maine Economic Growth Council Measures
of Growth
• Joint Venture Silicon
Valley
 Core Principle:
Sets Priorities
• Definition
– Economic development strategies must involve
making hard choices about where resources will be
invested

• Why this is important

– Limited resources

– Increasing efficiency of impacts

 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Sets Priorities
• Future Forward (western NC)
– 10 strategies related to…
• Improving connectivity (transportation and
communications)
• Improving the area’s workforce (through education and
training)
• Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship
• Preparing for targeted market opportunities (e.g.,
appropriate sites for growth sectors)
• Creating improved amenities for recreation and to appeal
to relocating knowledge workers
 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Sets Priorities (cont.)
• LancasterProspers (Lancaster, PA)
– 7 actions related to…
• Fostering regional cooperation
• Improving the area’s understanding of its economy
• Supporting research and entrepreneurship
• Developing its urban centers as centers of activity
• Creating industry centers of excellence, including
support for related talent development
 Core Principle:
Communicates with Stakeholders
• Provide opportunities for input

• Ensure transparency

• Validate input and decisions

• Tell people about the priorities and key actions

• Celebrate the success

 Core Principle EXAMPLE:
Communicates with Stakeholders
• Many methods
– Traditional written
– Video
– Web
– Blogs
– Speakers bureaus
– Economic summits
– Media
 IV.
Identify Mechanisms for
Overcoming Key Obstacles to
the Collaborative Regional
Economic Development
Planning Framework
Common Obstacles to the Collaborative Regional
Economic Development Planning Framework
• Inertia
– Resistance to change
– Fear of failure
• Politics
– Taxing structure
– Leadership structure
• Culture
– Parochialism about problems
– Culture of independence and self-sufficiency
• The “wrong” focus (limiting, narrow, or inadequate)
– Developing real estate
– Assisting business enterprises
– Obtaining return on investment
Overcoming obstacles to the collaborative
RED planning approach
• Inertia
– Define a clear, compelling call to action
• Politics
– Define an undeniable mutual benefit from action
• Culture
– Appeal to the creed of independence and parochialism – that
to help yourself, you must join with your neighbor
• Wrong focus
– Provide a convincing case that prosperity is not always
captured in the traditional ways of thinking about economic
development
Review, Questions and
Discussions
12 Steps to Regional Prosperity 4 Major Planning Phases

Collaboration for Regional Engagement

Call the region to action
Engage your leaders
Leading the Planning Effort
Define your geography
and Action to Transform an Economy
Identify your economic advantage
Detecting Regional Advantage
Assess your assets & challenges
Describe your future
Formulating Strategies
Define your actions
Focus your energy
Design your implementation plan Executing
Leverage your resources Your
Monitor your progress Plan
Promote your success
Collaborative Regional Economic Development
Planning Framework: Overview Wrap-Up

• Articulated differences in economic development

perspectives
• Identified mega-trends affecting economic
development efforts
• Developed a rationale for collaborative regional
economic development
• Established key principles for collaborative regional
economic development