The Good Oil by Rod Brown*
One of my US colleagues is David Dodd, an economic development practitioner based in Louisianna, (DADCONSULT@aol.com), has visited Australia a few times &endash; a good bloke.
In his recent book, he talks about the changing role of economic development practitioners (let’s call them EDPs) at the local level. His views are very relevant to Australian circumstances.
David argues that in the past, EDPs were salesmen, developing client leads, aggressively marketing their communities and so forth.
Many EDPs were, in fact, former salesmen. Conventional wisdom encouraged them to focus their efforts on recruiting manufacturing concerns because they provided the greatest turnover in dollars. Success was measured by the number of ‘smokestacks’ attracted into a community.
In the 1970s, communities began to more aggressively use financial incentives to attract major companies, which would in turn create a supply chain of industries around them.
In the early 1980s, EDPs began to discover the value of helping existing companies expand. The recruiter/salesman became a true developer. Because of the massive amount of work involved, Councils and development organisations began to diversify their staffs.
Developers began to specialise &endash; however, the glory and the dollars still belonged to the recruiters, who basked in the publicity and accolades when a new company came to town.
The existing business developers laboured in relative obscurity on limited budgets, even though the majority of new jobs created in most communities came from their efforts.
As the 1990s began, pressures built to up the ante with more incentives. Fewer companies were moving around, and those that were became very sophisticated in looking for incentives. Many communities began to balk at the huge price tags of luring new companies.
Creating jobs from existing businesses became more attractive and some communities began to invest more heavily in their existing business development and entrepreneurship programs.
Now the role of the EDP is changing once again. Communities are beginning to talk about quality of jobs, rather than just numbers.
To this end, they are looking at other, more precise benchmarks, such as the amount of investment in start up companies, the technical qualifications of the workforce, and even high school graduation rates.
The most successful communities are also looking at growth as a force to be managed instead of simply encouraged. Quality of growth &endash; the quality of the development within a community &endash; has a big part to play in recruiting.
More and more communities understand that sprawl growth imposes serious long term costs.
David Dodd goes on to argue that the role of the economic developer varies depending on the community. However one common skill is a sense of strategy and the ability to take the long term view.
He identifies key roles as the following.
1. General Manager – the need to pay attention to
all aspects of economic development. New disciplines to factor in are workforce development, quality of life issues, government reform, management control systems.
2. Group psychologist – an understanding of the power and personality dynamics of their community. They must be able to read people well, assess their motives, fit them into community objectives.
3. Politician – the need to operate effectively in the political life of their community, and not be compromised by it, and to have a ‘kitchen cabinet’ of trusted advisers.
4. Guerilla developer – to walk quietly among all factions in the community, and avoid taking sides. They are devoted to a cause &endash; the community’s economic development &endash; and by treating all sides fairly and honestly, good economic developers build trust among all factions.
5. Skilled Tactician – to know when to speak, when to be quiet, when to be out front, and when to suggest an idea.
6. Education reformer – education reform and workforce issues are now central to the competitive future of most communities.
7. Corporate financial analyst – to translate a community’s advantages into financial consequences, to influence the accountants who hold sway.
8. Technologist – to use the latest technological methods to market their areas. Companies and site selectors are cutting down their research time by accessing the Internet.
9. Ethical professional – the need to know when to ask for help, and be committed to the highest standards of ethical behaviour.
10. Market researcher – to know what is going on in the field, by keeping up to date about developments and issues.
11. Master strategist – good EDPs do not lose sight of the broader vision, and are able to translate this vision into action.
How would you measure up against David Dodd’s composite Superman?
The ‘Master Strategist’ role is the key, I believe, together with outcomes focus and marshalling other people’s energy.
This includes the task of encouraging and harnessing the ‘propeller heads’ – those raving right brainers who never take ‘no’ for an answer.
These types come up with the ideas and push the envelope on telecommunications, education, environmental issues, R&D &endash; they must be nurtured and not pilloried.
In my career with the Commonwealth industry portfolio, we had a subtle technique of ensuring a mix of right and left brainers.
Too many left brainers, those with strong critical and mathematical skills, would not result in good policy development and new ideas.
Too many right brainers would mean too much broken china &endash; imagine Dick Smith, John Singleton and Bill Gates running a business together without back up support!
A question – is it the right brainers in Local Government who suffer burn out the most?
*Rod Brown’s Canberra-based consultancy group, Australian Project Developments Pty Ltd, specialises in industry/regional development and government liaison. Phone/fax (02) 6231 7261 or email apd@orac.net.au
