Economic Development Matters Blog

News, Events, Reports

A Fresh Lens

March 4th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

Last week our team visited Washington, D.C. to meet with seven other metro areas from around the country at The Brookings Institution to further our work on the Metropolitan Export Initiative. A series of meetings were held that included debate and dialogue, the sharing of best practices, and learning about shared interests around job creation, investment and the building of middle class jobs.

Along with Columbus 2020, our region’s team consisted of leaders from The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, Franklin County, the City of Columbus and the State of Ohio. We engaged in conversation with national experts and colleagues from around the country about accelerating exports as a way to grow our regional economies. The Brookings team framed the issues, and we walked away enthusiastic about our mission and what we learned from others.

The fresh lens from which we held our discussion provided an opportunity to think about the many ways in which we still can grow our economy. Some of these growth opportunities are emerging as the world’s middle class grows, or rather, as the ability to spend disposable income on goods and services grows. Some other growth opportunities lie in our ability to unleash and reimagine existing opportunities by doing things differently.

The morning papers are filled with economic and political news that makes it seem we are always left to choose the lesser of two evils. However, in terms of the U.S. and the practice of economic development, we still have greater options than anyone else – more options that we can currently imagine. The different approaches offered by colleagues from the other metro regions was a sharp reminder of that fact. We can prepare our communities better, we can surface opportunities worldwide that will connect our companies to global markets, and we can create dynamic local markets that diversify and strengthen our communities and our economic base.

-Kenny McDonald

Columbus 2020 Update

A huge thank you to Verizon Wireless for their continued investment in the Columbus Region. This commitment of resources to our region and to their existing workforce is a testament that one of the world’s largest companies thinks our region is a great bet.
Our team traveled to New Orleans for the Site Selectors Guild, where the discussion was about trends and best practices in the business of locating operations. It was a firm reminder of the competition for jobs around the world and within the U.S., with dozens of metro regions and other states attending to listen and learn.
This week our team will be in Orlando meeting with real estate and site location professionals at the annual Jones Lang LaSalle Academy, and we’ll also spend time in the San Francisco and Seattle market areas meeting with companies and site location advisors.
One more week and our team will depart for Japan to meet with over a dozen companies considering expansion to the U.S.
The Columbus Region has been extensively profiled in the March issue of Delta Sky magazine. The magazine flies on board Delta’s domestic and international flights this month, read by more than 5 million travelers worldwide. Our thanks go to Columbus 2020 investors and members of the Columbus Partnership for your advertising support, and to our partners at Experience Columbus for their collaboration in this effort.
We encourage you to check out the JobsOhio 2012 annual report and 2013 strategic plan. 2012 was a year of significant accomplishments for JobsOhio. Working together with them and our local partners, we are continuing to drive a positive economic future not only for the Columbus Region, but for the State of Ohio.

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Employment, Education and Poverty

February 25th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

Economically, the Columbus Region is fortunate to be gaining ground. Ohio is ranked No. 6 for job creation nationally and No. 1 in the Midwest, and since January 2010, the Columbus Region alone has gained an estimated 45,000 net new jobs. Our ability to act through public-private partnerships has made an incredible difference and will help sustain our long-term economic development efforts.

However, these gains are proportional. Whenever I’m asked about economic development’s link to education and poverty, I point to the disparity you’ll find when looking at unemployment rates by degree of educational attainment. Jobs gains favor the most educated, the most prepared to work immediately and those who are not subjected to the hardships poverty creates.

According to the American Community Survey, individuals without a high-school diploma are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, and those with a bachelor’s degree have an unemployment rate that’s less than half of those without. The link between education and the ability to earn a living could not be clearer.

These are facts that are widely known and largely understood, but still they remain. As with many things, we don’t need to be informed as much as we need to be reminded. Greater alignment between economic development organizations and educational and workforce development partners is imperative if we are to gain ground in this fight.

-Kenny McDonald

Columbus 2020 Update

Columbus 2020′s team enjoyed a great retreat with over a dozen regional economic development leaders last week to discuss our region’s path forward. Our thanks go to Anthony Jones, president of MODE and development director of the City of Gahanna, for his time and help in organizing this important activity.
Last week, our team traveled to Atlanta with JobsOhio to promote the state and to continue building relationships with customers and allies.
This week, we’ll attend the Site Selectors Guild in New Orleans. We’ll also be in Washington, D.C with The Brookings Institution discussing our Metropolitan Export Plan.
Our upcoming trip to Japan is only a few short weeks away and our schedule is filling up. On a related note, we are extremely excited about the news from Honda last week. The addition of 50 more key jobs is a great testament to their commitment to Ohio and the Columbus Region.

Posted in Community, Education, Workforce |
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Finding Surprise

February 18th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

I learned something last week about the Columbus Region’s history that I felt I should have known before. This surprise was presented in this video and can be researched here.

It’s hard to be surprised today, when information regarding every subject is at our fingertips. When you are truly surprised and truly learn something about your community, take it as a gift - whether what you learn pleases or disappoints you. Surprise gives us the excuse to act.

Consider for a moment that we all have a lot to learn about the world we work and play in every day. This week, let’s search for these surprises and use them to strengthen our communities.

Columbus 2020 Update

Today and tomorrow, we’re meeting with site location advisors in Chicago.
Our team will attend this week’s 2013 Commercial Developers Power Breakfast, which will feature New Albany’s economic development success.
Columbus 2020 and MODE are teaming up for an economic development leaders’ retreat later for two days of collaboration and strategic planning.
Our partners at the Knox County Area Development Foundation are consistently focused on improving the local business environment. We will join them and other Knox County stakeholders for a meeting to explore enhancing workforce resource collaboration.
The Quarterly Economic Update for Q4 2012 is now available. Click here for a PDF copy.
Welcome and thank you to our newest investors: Hamilton Capital Partners, Centric Consulting, Van Arsdale Management and Production, Online Computer Library Center, Gilbane Construction, IGS Energy, Crowe Horwath, Suburban Steel Supply Company, Superior Beverage Group, The Montrose Group, W.W. Williams Company and The Kirk Williams Company.

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Model Changes

February 11th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

The rise of the corporation as a business model changed America. It changed how and where work was done, and it changed our communities.

Over time, we’ve begun to take the evolution of technology that made those changes possible for granted. The rise of the automobile, the suburb (fueled by housing material innovations among other things), and the clustering of employment centers into industrial and office parks fundamentally changed the economy. Academic facilities essentially mirrored this trend, becoming large factories of education.

The automobile, the interstate and the Internet have become normal parts of society, and our lives are clustered around them. Work standards, including the hours we work and the commute patterns we follow, are aligned to allow for these norms.

In working with our clients and acting as consumers and customers ourselves, we are seeing new business models that are caused by sophisticated, low-cost technology advancements. These business model changes will eventually change our communities and the way we practice economic development. This will force important changes on the way we organize, fund and tax economic activity.

The generation entering the workforce and starting companies in 2013 has grown up in a different world – a digital world. The advantage of capitalism is that as changes occur, new opportunities are created. Creative destruction of businesses and business models regularly occurs. This rapid change can have a less desirable effect on communities that have built up around these ideas. As business models change, so do workplace standards and norms, and patterns of transportation and communication.

One example includes the rise of e-commerce, which has resulted in more companies without a storefront. This will change suburbia and it will change Main Street. As you purchase both everyday goods and large items from your smartphone, you are accelerating this change.

The Affordable Care Act will be just as disruptive in healthcare, causing new behaviors, reducing competitors and increasing collaboration, while generating new ways that healthcare is delivered and administered.

Government is typically a last-mover, but it will change within this environment as well. Competition for new industries and business models will force tax modernization. Both private companies and governments will know more than they ever have about their “customers,” causing services to be more pervasive and creating an ever-increasing need for personal and organizational security.

How will the Columbus Region meet these rapid changes in business and society? How will your organization respond? How will these changes impact the way we plan and develop our cities and towns?

-Kenny McDonald

Columbus 2020 Update

Our team is headed to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to meet with companies and location advisors.

The Columbus Region Economic Update for the fourth quarter of 2012 will be released this week.

Columbus 2020 is working with the Brookings Institution and numerous regional partners to develop a Columbus Region Export Plan. Part of this effort will include evaluation of how to increase the sale of both goods and services in international markets, as services exporting in particular is growing at a rapid rate. For more information or to participate, contact Jung Kim at 614-225-6913 or jung_kim@columbus.org

Posted in Business, Technology |
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The Impact of Manufacturing

February 4th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

“He is desperate for a steady job. He has been unemployed for most of the three years since he graduated from a community college here after growing up on a farm. The young man, 25, has worked only several months at a time in low-paying jobs, once as a shopping mall guard, another time as a restaurant waiter and most recently as an office building security guard.

But he will not consider applying for a full-time factory job because, as a college graduate, thinks that is beneath him. Instead, he searches every day for an office job, which would initially pay as little as a third of factory wages.”

The paragraphs above are excerpted from this New York Times article. It’s about a young man from Guangzhou, China, but could have easily been set in almost any region of the United States.

As noted in this BusinessWeek article, 600,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled according to the Manufacturing Institute’s skills gap assessment. There are many reasons for this perception and manufacturing is not a career everyone can pursue. However, it is indeed a career very well suited for thousands of bright people who have not given it enough consideration.

Knox County, Ohio made this video that promotes the profession, and we are happy to share it with both employment seekers and parents of kids considering career options. Manufacturing is important to the economy in the Columbus Region – an area that’s home to great manufacturing companies like Worthington Industries, Rolls Royce, DuPont, PPG, Honda, and Anheuser-Busch Inbev.

The manufacturing industry is full of interesting and lucrative career paths within innovative companies. Manufacturing is safe, stimulating and provides a sense of accomplishment that few professional jobs can offer. Good training programs are offered at low costs and are available throughout our communities. Salaries and wages can be quite good, and in some skilled positions they can be outstanding. Business training learned on the shop floor has led countless workers to the board room, because of the intimacy with the products produced and the people they worked with to produce them.

The growth and health of our regional economy depends on the production of quality, innovative products. Manufacturers can and will continue to provide good jobs, great career opportunities, and a point of pride for our entire area. We have work to do in order to help them.

If you’d like to learn more about manufacturing in Ohio, visit this page on the JobsOhio website and check out the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.

For more about manufacturing in the Columbus Region, visit this page on our website and check out OH!Manufacturing. You can also view manufacturing opportunities available in the Columbus Region at this link from Ohio Means Jobs.

Posted in Business, Manufacturing, Workforce |
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The One Thing

January 28th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

One thing is certain in today’s economy – that no “one thing” will lead us to the growth and jobs that will sustain our communities. To provide that growth we must consider new approaches to programs and initiatives that have existed for many years, but have not been well-funded or given the priority that they deserve today.

The Columbus Region is fortunate to be working with the Brookings Institution and eight other areas around the U.S. on a metropolitan export strategy that fits each of our economies. We are currently conducting a market assessment, asking current and potential exporters to weigh in on the challenges and opportunities they see in growing their international markets. Please click here to provide your input via a short survey.

Export services are readily available at the federal and state level. However, they have been underleveraged by companies and communities because they haven’t been promoted or aligned with many traditional economic development strategies.

One in every nine jobs in the Columbus Region is supported by export activity – a number that has grown by nearly 20 percent in the past 10 years. The value of goods and services exported from the Columbus Region accounts for nearly nine percent of our metro gross domestic product. Nearly $8 billion of goods and services are exported from our market every year, and the international relationships developed through this activity can lead to foreign direct investment and powerful partnerships that lead to even greater growth.

Services are just as important as manufactured goods, evidenced by companies like OCLC and Chemical Abstracts. These two companies service clientele in dozens of countries as the need for library services and scientific information becomes more prevalent. Exports in research, engineering, finance and other knowledge industries may grow even further as the U.S. government enters trade talks with 47 countries to remove barriers in the global trade of services.

An export strategy is not the “one thing” that will lead us to the growth and jobs we seek, but it can be a powerful contributing factor. If you have an interest in this strategy, we welcome your comments.

Columbus 2020 Update

Our team is attending the International Economic Development Council’s Leadership Summit, the German American Economic Forum in Chicago and visiting clients in Atlanta and Chicago later in the week. We are preparing for several site visits to finish a strong January.

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Differentiating Ourselves

January 15th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

Our team has the great fortune to work with nearly 250 companies each year as they build their business cases to expand or locate new facilities. Their evaluations are thorough, as they try to reduce risk and assess opportunity. The decisions impact lives and often involve millions of dollars.

An increasingly sophisticated and intense focus is placed on people - a.k.a. human resources. The quantity and quality of existing talent, the ability of state and local government to support the company and train workers on a just-in-time basis, and the area’s ability to deliver over the long-term through its educational institutions.

Within the United States, we take for granted that there will always be sufficient quantities of workers with the skills and motivation necessary to grow the economy. Demographic changes, dramatic economic turmoil, various public policy decisions and changing attitudes about work and the workplace are impacting the ability to find, train, and retain productive people.

Differentiating our workforce will require:

Changes to our educational systems (some of which are already underway)
Realignment of federal, state and local dollars to programs that address the most pressing issues, while still providing a net for good people who find themselves in tough circumstances
Willingness from companies to recruit, screen, and train differently, and to embrace partnerships and internship programs
More resources for training programs and workforce training providers
Alignment of economic development strategies

The Columbus Region is young, it aspires to great things and it’s poised for exceptional growth. A focus on and an investment in the Region’s workforce is one of the very best ways we can spend our time and treasure. In doing so, we will not only differentiate our workforce, we will set our entire economy apart.

Posted in Business, Company, Workforce |
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Pushing Through

January 7th, 2013 by Kenny McDonald

Mike Tyson used to say that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

On that note, economic prospects for 2013 are quite uncertain, with forecasts varying widely. What will the global economy throw our way? What will disrupt us, what innovations will take hold and thrive, and what tactics will be required to take advantage of opportunities presented?

Our team has done its homework. We’ve planned our program of work and determined where we will invest time and resources to grow the economic base within the Columbus Region. We know that some tactics we’ve planned will change based on unique opportunities and others will have to be tabled, but our strategies for the year are straightforward:

Take care of business - consistently reach out to our economic base companies to learn about their issues and opportunities

Educate and inform – create awareness of the Columbus Region as a business location

Serve with excellence - put our best foot forward by providing service to existing businesses and companies considering the Region

Invest in growth – recognize, support and promote companies with exceptional growth potential

Engage the community – leverage public and private leadership and resources, and fully utilize our region’s diversity

We’ll see what 2013 brings. While we are very optimistic, we know there will be times we’ll have to push through whatever comes our way. Let’s have a positive, productive year and enjoy the ride!

Posted in Business, Company |
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Community Matters More

December 17th, 2012 by Kenny McDonald

My short notes each week focus on economic development matters. But in today’s message, the last of 2012, it is appropriate to say that community matters more.

In this time and in this season, communities should unite. Be it your family, your neighborhood, your city or the entire country, good things happen when we come together. It’s how we get through tough times and how we celebrate good times. It’s how we achieve great goals and overcome great obstacles.

Let’s all take time to put just a little extra community in the holidays this year. Thank you all for your support of Columbus 2020. We’ll see you in 2013.

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Simply Put, Thank You

December 10th, 2012 by Kenny McDonald

“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” -Gladys B. Stern

We have a great deal to be thankful for at Columbus 2020.

Throughout 2012, hundreds of Columbus Region business and community leaders have spent countless hours of valuable time helping guide our organization. They’ve provided regional strategy input, opened doors for our business development team, made connections for our existing industry team and assisted us with selling the Region.

The time and financial resources that our partners invest each year is the fuel that drives this organization.

So, simply put, thank you. Thank you to nearly 300 public and private sector investors for every minute and every dollar invested to support the Columbus Region’s economic growth and development.

Columbus 2020 Update

The inaugural ED411 and quarterly Columbus 2020 Investor Update was a success. More than 400 public and private sector partners participated in regional dialogue on economic development issues.

Special thanks to the elected and appointed leaders in attendance – including Governor Kasich, who joined us to share his vision for Ohio. Our appreciation also goes to MODE, MORPC and The Ohio State University for executing such a great event.

To share your feedback about ED411, please take our attendee survey here.

Tags: ED411
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