 With
increasing economic globalization and heightened economic competition among cities and regions, a well-formulated and
strategic approach to economic development is critical for
sustaining the economic welfare of a city or region. An
effective economic development strategy focuses on building
a long-term sustainable competitive advantage based on
strengthening key economic assets and linking them to
sectors with wealth-creation and export potential. This page
summarizes our approach to economic development planning and
strategy formulation, highlighting three areas:
Economic
Development Planning Principles
- A
sound economic development plan is built on a shared
understanding of market conditions and critical assets
that will shape local and regional economic development
opportunities. This shared understanding ensures
that all key stakeholders agree on the critical economic
development issues and opportunities facing the
community or region. This understanding encompasses the
community's or region's role in the broader economy, how
the community or region can capitalize on these key
opportunities, and critical challenges.
- The
economic development process involves both strengthening
economic assets and building effective linkages among
key economic institutions and businesses. While
physical, human, financial and technological resources
are the foundation for economic development, what
differentiates the most successful regions is the
ability to build effective relationships and networks
across key institutions and business sectors to make
on-going investments in key assets and connect them to
business creation and growth.
- Effective
strategies target export-oriented sectors with the
potential for a sustainable competitive advantage. Since
export-oriented businesses sell goods and services to
customers outside of the region, they bring income into
a region and are the primary economic engines. Within
the export sectors, economic development efforts will
build on business clusters that are have the strongest
growth potential and are closely allied with local
competitive advantages.
- Economic
development goals extend beyond job creation to
fostering good quality jobs and distributing economic
benefits to all segments of society. A community or
region's economic development potential and quality of
life is enhanced when all areas and populations share in
the benefits of economic development and these benefits
include quality jobs and the potential for asset
accumulation. Specific strategies and interventions are
needed to ensure full participation in economic growth.
- Implementing
the recommended strategy is central to the economic
development plan. An Economic Development Plan is
valuable only to the extent it is actually implemented.
An effective plan must address the capacity and
resources needed to implement recommendations and
provide a detailed and realistic implementation roadmap.
Planning
Methods
- Steering
Committee creation to oversee the study with
representation of the full range of economic
institutions and actors, including business, government,
key institutions (e.g., universities and financial
institutions) and community organizations. This
committee provides the foundation for building a shared
understanding and vision to guide planning and create
the commitment to implement plans.
- Demographic
and economic base analysis identifies key
demographic and economic trends shaping the community or
region, assesses economic performance to identify
strengths and potential problems, and analyzes the
economic structure of the regional economy to define the
major industries and clusters that serve as
"engines" of regional growth and sources for
regional competitive advantage;
- Asset
and resource assessment identifies the major
economic assets and resources that provide the
foundation and competitive advantages to support and
capture economic clusters and development opportunities.
This resource assessment address five critical areas:
- Physical
capital (real estate and infrastructure systems)
- Financial
capital;
- Human
capital (the labor force and education and training
systems);
- Technology
assets and their deployment
- Economic
development capacity.
After
identifying key assets, this analysis addresses how well
these assets serve current and future business needs,
especially in major regional industries and clusters,
defines critical gaps in and barriers to utilizing key
resources, and develops plans to strengthen resources and
build more effective linkages between businesses and major
resource institutions.
- Industry
and cluster analysis provides an in-depth
understanding of the composition, competitive issues and
resources needs of critical industries and business
clusters in a region, drawing upon data analysis,
surveys, focus groups, interviews and trade literature
reviews. Results include a richer understanding of the
inter-relationships within and shared resources
supporting key clusters, gaps in institutional
relationships and special resources need to enhance the
cluster's growth and competitiveness, and specific
policies, investments and initiatives to enhance
clusters and their development impact.
- Benchmarking
analysis compares important aspects local or
regional resources and economic outcomes to key
competing areas to help identify competitive strengths
and weaknesses.
Results
- Consensus
among key stakeholders on economic development goals
and priorities, key strategies to pursue and detailed
action plans and resource commitments.
- A
stronger understanding of the local and regional economy,
including critical development opportunities, major
competitive advantages and weaknesses, to build broader
public support for economic development initiatives.
- Well-defined
strategies that build on regional competitive
advantages and capitalize on critical opportunities
- Specific
recommendations within each strategy regarding new
investments and activities, improvements to existing
efforts, and strengthening relationships and
partnerships across key sectors
- Detailed
action plans to guide implementation of economic
development plans addressing important obstacles and
liabilities that prevent realization of opportunities.
Learn
more about our Economic
Development Planning Experience
Learn
more about Funding Sources for Economic Development Plans
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