By Ron Starner
Executive Editor of the Janus Reporter
If you don’t rigorously measure your organization’s economic development efforts every day, you might as well close up shop.
That was the not-so-subtle message of a standing-room-only workshop at the International Economic Development Council’s annual conference last week in Fort Worth, Texas.
Organized in response to a National Public Radio program that three years ago compared professional economic developers to “job fairies,” the workshop pulled no punches. If economic developers want to be respected for the work they do, the IEDC panelists said, they’d better start measuring their performance and transparently reporting it to every stakeholder in the community.
Otherwise, you end up being called a “job fairy” or worse by reporters who don’t know better, said Ben Wright, founder and CEO of Denver-based Atlas Advertising and the moderator of the panel.
Indeed, the packed room was silent as Wright played a clip of the radio broadcast that openly made fun of hard-working economic developers who were attending an IEDC conference in 2011.
The entire piece struck a tone that said — if you choose to do economic development for a living, you are basically a shameless huckster.
While IEDC President Jeff Finkle wrote a scathing rebuke of NPR – a rebuttal so strong that it prompted NPR management to issue an apology for the controversial piece – the damage had been done.
How damaging was the piece? Here’s one take on it:
“The thrust of the radio report was that local and economic developers across the country actually do little to create jobs for the nation as a whole; that they largely ‘steal’ jobs from one another; that they are ‘lying’ or at least ‘spinning’ in selling their communities; that even their local impact is negligible; and that their real interest may be to protect their own jobs.”
Jeff Finkle didn’t write that; the NPR ombudsman did.
Economic developers had been lambasted; and on October 21 in Texas, Wright and the IEDC panel members acknowledged that without objective measurement and transparent reporting, their work should be questioned.
“The media refer to winners of incentives as ‘corporate tax dodgers,’” Wright said. “The question is – how do we change the dialogue?” It changes, he noted, when economic developers become transparent in tracking and reporting their own performance metrics.
“Performance tracking is a moving target, but it can be done,” said Wright. “More deals are happening today, and the investor-stakeholder mindset is changing. But one thing that will never change is that elected officials are always going to count jobs.”
Susan Davenport, vice president of economic development for the Gainesville (Fla.) Area Chamber of Commerce and Council for Economic Research, said that “metrics are front and center in anything we do. Our metrics are bold and bolder, and the corporate community has embraced what we are doing.”
Kenny McDonald, chief economic officer for Columbus2020 in Ohio, said, “We are transparent and accountable, and all of our metrics are driven by extensive McKinsey analysis. Our goals are a 30 percent increase in per capita income, $10 billion in capital investment, and the creation of 150,000 new jobs. Through August of this year, we are at 98,000 net new jobs and $4.5 billion in capital investment.”
McDonald explained that “you are going to have some ups and downs. The key is to remain consistent in how you measure your progress and in how transparent you are in reporting it to your community.”
Chris Camacho, vice president of business development for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, said that “we are really passionate about metrics. Our advice is to have them and share them. It helps to have a healthy paranoia. Also, have a reputation plan. Preemptive preparation is the key.”
Davenport added, “Be transparent and be an educator. Manage the dialogue to ensure a positive outcome for your organization.”
McDonald added, “Understand that this is hard work. Invest in a ton of training and then accept that you won’t see the fruits of your efforts until three or four years later. But if you stick to following your master plan and pursuing your goals, it makes decision-making much easier.”
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