Where has Greensboro been economically and communally?
Provide a summary background of the economic development situation in Greensboro, with a discussion of the economy, including (as appropriate) an analysis and understanding of the following: geography, population, workforce, resources, environment, and other critical factors impacting economic and community conditions.
Where is Greensboro now?
Include an analysis of economic and community strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (i.e. "SWOT"), including incorporation of any relevant material or suggestions from other government sponsored or supported plans. Do not shy away from using other analytical tools, particular those rooted in scenario analysis or simulation and gaming.
Where does Greensboro want to go (and how does it get there)?
Document your vision, strategies and an action plan to implement the goals and objectives set forth in the strategy (which flow from the SWOT); it should be consistent with other relevant state/regional/local plans. You are strongly encouraged to refer to “Piedmont Together’s Regional Economic Development Plan, “A Framework for Prosperity: A Presentation of Piedmont Together’s Regional Vision" as well as the Department of National Intelligence's "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds."
How can Greensboro do better?
An evaluation framework (with performance measures) is preferred that will be used to evaluate whether and to what extent the goals and objectives are being met. How you approach this basic structure will provide your argument for why Greensboro should adopt your solutions.
How does your theory and strategy catalyze Greensboro’s positive economic potential for business expansion, rising incomes, increased quality of life, and poverty alleviation?
The theory that undergirds your proposal should animate your strategy in a way that creates linkage between the two outputs mentioned (business expansion rising incomes) resulting in the desired outcomes (increased quality of life, poverty alleviation). If your plan serves as a true economic development catalyst, its processes will be synergistic by design and unlock the City’s positive economic potential.
Formatting Your Economic Development Plan
Good strategies do not have to be long documents
In terms of the length of an economic development plan, a target of approximately 25 to 50 pages – with a three to five page executive summary containing key findings, opportunities, and initiatives – would be best. The executive summary, in particular, is an important (and useful) element. Decision makers need an executive summary to make informed choices based on a short, yet informative synopsis.
In addition, supporting data that does not directly link and support the strategies and messages within the plan should not be included in the document. They should be, at the very least, relegated to an appendix (see below for more info on data).
Presentation is important
While the content of a plan is clearly the most significant factor, you will do yourself a disservice if the document does not have a professional and appealing look-and-feel. Many groups will look to the plan as an indication of Greensboro's capabilities and overall commitment to effective economic development. Also, the plan should not contain only text; plans should make use of professional photos, maps, charts, and graphs to draw attention to and bolster the messages within the plan.
In addition, the plan should be crafted in whatever format provides the best mechanism to compellingly communicate the strategy within. In some instances, a plan may be best developed in a traditional Microsoft Word format. However, many strategy documents are now being developed using other formats, including Microsoft PowerPoint. Investigate recent strategy documents from consulting firms, research organizations and university centers for ideas on alternative formats for presentation. However, please note that your final submission must convert to a PDF file, so make sure that the conversion does not corrupt the clarity and quality of your materials.
Think beyond the document
When crafting the plan, think creatively about how the document (or specific portions) may be used as a vehicle to engage stakeholders in a meaningful conversation and debate about their region. Consider how the plan will translate into many of the new media strategies (e.g., podcasts, blogs, videos, etc.). Can portions of the plan document be showcased on a website? Different people consume information in different ways. Some people prefer to read shorter bits of text on websites and other people prefer longer, more traditional document formats. There are numerous examples of economic development organizations in urban and rural areas that have created engaging websites to complement their strategy documents.
Please take the time and make the effort to present the most strategic, clear and compelling economic development plan.
Drafting Economic Development Plan Content
In general, each plan should support a framework that is results-oriented. Please focus on aligning and leveraging resources, including the public, private, and non-profit sectors (along with the general public), and emphasizing the importance of asset-based regional economic development. City-based plans should align with and inform greater regional economic development plans.
Each plan will be unique, reflecting the specific challenges and opportunities of the City of Greensboro. Each plan should contain, as mentioned previously, five main elements: summary background, SWOT analysis, strategy/action plan, how the strategy catalyzes Greensboro’s positive economic potential, and evaluation framework. The background should provide an overview of the economic situation enhanced by relevant data and information. The analysis should assess the state of the regional and global economy, the opportunities and threats posed by external trends and forces, and the availability of partners and resources for economic development. The community's vision and goals, together with an appraisal of the region's competitive advantage, should set the strategic direction for the action plan. The strategy should clearly explain the theory that undergirds it as well as how animating it will “unlock” the City’s economic potential. The evaluation framework should establish criteria and performance measures for evaluation of the strategy and action plan and for the periodic update of the document.
Data analysis should be tied closely to the city's SWOT assessment, which should include or be enhanced by G.I.S. (Geographic Information Science) and/or B.I. (Business Intelligence) systems. Many plans focus too much on demographic information pulled directly from Census data and listed in tables and charts with little context or direct relationship to SWOT. Demographic data should be reviewed in order to identify key findings that are relevant to the SWOT, but not all of that information needs to go inyour Plan. For example, if the data analysis reveals that a city's population is significantly older than the state or U.S. population as a whole, that's an important finding because it could impact workforce availability. However, it's not necessary to create detailed tables that break down population by age to prove that point. Conserve real estate in the document by moving that sort of information to an appendix.
Incorporate potential projects in the implementation plan and evaluation framework/performance measurements, not just as a stand-alone section of the document. Such projects can be under city aegis, animated by its partners, or by organizations suitable for collaboration. Show how potential projects align with the findings from the SWOT assessment. However, as you are drafting other sections of the Plan, feel free to incorporate specific references to any major project initiatives that would add substance or material considerations to the points that you are making.
Performance metrics for each plan should address:
- Which conditions are important?
- Which trends need to be reversed?
- Which assets are available to be leveraged?
- How will the plan help achieve an economic vision?
Here are specific topics for data analysis (either in the background or the SWOT) and how they relate to potential implementation:
- Identify clusters with a presence in the city (or region). Which clusters and industries and occupations within the cluster are growing or declining, and why? Identify firms belonging to these clusters and interview or survey them to collect input on opportunities and challenges facing the region.
- Take a "workforce view" of the city's economy. Identify occupations or workforce skills that are more heavily concentrated in the region compared to state and national averages. Are these jobs growing or declining? How can these skills be leveraged to expand the economy? Are any shortages anticipated that need to be addressed? Specifically, how can Greensboro engage the “Knowledge Economy” with education and careers in “Data Science” and “Business Intelligence” as well as other emerging fields?
- Identify and map the most distressed areas of the city. What stands out about these areas in terms of workforce skills, educational attainment, demographics, etc.?
- What is driving job creation or loss (i.e. startups or closures, expansions or contractions, firms moving into or out of the region)? Which industries and clusters are affected?
- Identify sources of exports, foreign direct investment, and other activities like tourism bringing in new wealth to the region. How can these be expanded or accelerated?
Key questions that that should be asked when reviewing each plan (and proposal):
- How does the plan support a more resilient economy (and community) by focusing and targeting the existing and potential competitive advantages of Greensboro?
- How does the plan foster a regional collaborative framework to strategically align public sector investments from federal, state and local sources, as well as private, nonprofit and philanthropic partners?
- Does the plan use modern scenario, data and analysis tools and planning techniques to provide policy makers, stakeholders and the public with evidence-based and factual information?
- Was the process used to develop the plan strategy-driven, focused on regional visioning, priority setting and performance outcomes, or was it a broad-based encyclopedia or narrative of the region with a laundry list of projects and programs?
- Does the plan promote and support peer review and exchanges between planning professionals and policy officials with the following goals:
- increasing collaboration across political boundaries
- enhancing organizational resources
- positioning the plan as a more effective building block for regional and potentially statewide strategies?
- Does the plan communicate in a compelling and contemporary style, including use of executive summaries, high quality print and online resources, social media and other complimentary presentations?
- Does the plan represent public, private, nonprofit and/or educational sector support, along with any signal of general public interest, in the development and implementation of its core strategic goals?
A strong plan, therefore, will foster a strategic planning and implementation framework that is results-oriented. It will focus on aligning and leveraging resources, be inclusive of the public, private and nonprofit sectors, and emphasize the importance of asset-based regional economic development. It will identify clusters, take a workforce view of the city's economy, promote sustainable, place-based location choices, and identify the region's top wealth-creation activities (i.e. it's not just about jobs). It will specifically focus on making the city more resilient to economic shifts, natural disasters, and climate change. Additionally, it should crystalize the “economic identity” of the city by simplifying it down to its core constituent, the citizen/consumer.
A strong plan will effectively link its data analysis to the SWOT assessment, leverage existing tools to augment and bolster its summary analysis, focus on strategies (and how to implement them), and incorporate prospective activities into the implementation/action plan and evaluation framework – rather than just provide a stand-alone list of potential projects. It will consider and align (where appropriate) with other local, regional, national, and international plans. Moreover, a strong plan will be relatively brief, contain an informative executive summary, and be presented in a professional, forward-thinking format that compellingly communicates its concepts to key stakeholders.