As we work to grow the greater Gainesville region, we will continue to work toward our stated goals of creating new jobs and capital investment in our communities
When the Council for Economic Outreach rolled out the “Transforming Greater Gainesville” five-year economic development strategy in late 2014, many people questioned the broad nature of its scope, often asking why it included initiatives supporting public policy (transportation and local government policy), workforce and talent, regionalism, etc. I often heard the question, “What does that have to do with recruiting and growing new jobs?”
As a 15-year chamber and economic development veteran, these questions reminded me that those of us who live, work, and breathe business and economic development often need to explain these connections more fully so everyone can understand them. To put it simply, “It all really does matter.”
Chris Mead, author of the recently published book “The Magicians of Main Street,” noted that, “Transportation, security and infrastructure, all critical to commerce, had appeared on the agendas of North American Chamber meetings since at least 1768.”
The concept of comprehensively addressing factors relevant to growth is not new to those of us in the chamber world but bears referencing in the context of today’s economy. As we work to grow the Greater Gainesville region, we will continue to work toward our stated goals of creating new jobs and capital investment in our communities, which together will provide opportunities for our region’s residents at all levels of skill and education.
But, creating new jobs requires work far beyond the scope of just “recruiting them” or trying to grow our own in a vacuum. The corporate entities we pursue — and of equal importance, the talent that fuels them — have to see Greater Gainesville as a place they can easily do business while living a high quality life.
I’ll underscore this point: The ability for companies to “easily do business” cannot be overstated.
This ability includes critical factors such as cost of business, regulatory environment, transportation network (to move residents as well as goods and services efficiently), talent base, leadership capabilities and regional collaboration, to name several. Quality of life encompasses an even broader basket of inputs such as investments in the arts, outdoor activities, sporting events, transportation (yes, it belongs in both categories!), safety record, and on and on. Our Gainesville Area Chamber structure has been organized in a way to address these critical inputs to support growth so that our area can see success. Our five lines of business — economic development, public policy, regional growth, talent alignment and business development — as well as multiple councils and committees, outreach and collaboration activities are all centered in context around this concept.
Early in my career, a very wise business leader tutored a regional leadership session on this concept by remarking, “We can’t do just one or two of these things and expect success — we have to do them all simultaneously and do them well.”
That’s what makes a region successful. I can say with confidence that our five-year strategy in conjunction with our chamber leadership and the 1,400 companies that make up our membership base are working diligently to make this happen. It takes a “village of leaders,” and these businesses have stepped up to the plate to ensure this formula ultimately equates to success for Greater Gainesville.
This spring, the Council for Economic Outreach tapped three regional business leaders to study what metrics we could highlight to drive a “community report card” of sorts to help us measure our strategy more broadly than jobs and capital investment. They recommended we highlight twelve areas, and I think it’s instructive to list them here: talent supply, educational achievement, infrastructure, innovation, economic prosperity, quality of life, leadership, transportation, safety, health and wellness and regional collaboration. As work to refine these categories and the final metrics continues, we will use them to measure “community success.”
I hope we continue to discuss the importance of all areas of community and regional activity and remind ourselves: They all really do matter!