STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT · PDF fileSTRATEGIC PLANNING FOR...

Arizona Basic Economic Development Course

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

Presented to: The 2015 Arizona Basic Economic Development Course

David RoderiqueDowntown Phoenix Partnership

David B.


Any activity that creates, generates or increases economic activity in a

region/community; often measured by increases in the number of jobs, local tax revenues, new capital investment, and

construction activity.

What is Economic Development?


“Real” Economic Development

Increasing area’s standard of living by:

• Creating jobs with higher wages than the area’s average

• Creating tax revenues greater than cost of providing governmental services

• Supporting projects which will enhance, not detract from, the overall quality of life


The Strategic Planning Process

“The process by which a community envisions its future and develops the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future”

Source: Dr. David Kolzow “Strategic Planning for Economic Development”, 1988, IEDC.


Why Do Strategic Planning?

• Communities have limited resources

• Helps you realistically target opportunities with greatest likelihood of success

• Helps a community understand its strengths and weaknesses, and helps to prioritize its desires/improvements

• Brings together key stakeholders to help shape a community’s future, and promotes better understanding and communication

• It helps provide metrics to measure success


Five Key Elements of a Strategic Planning Process

1. Initiating/organizing the process

2. Data collection and analysis

3. Formulating the plan

4. Implementation

5. Evaluating the process


1. Initiate andOrganize Process

Strategic Planning Process

I

2. Data

Collection &

Analysis

4.Implementation (Responsibilities

& Resources)

5. Evaluation (Performance

Measures)

3. Formulate

Goals, Strategies

and Actions

OngoingProcess


Phase 1: Initiation/Organization

Key questions to think about before you start:

• Why? Is there a desire for change, a key issue the community is facing, major need, etc.?

• What? What is it you want to impact? Economic issues only, or quality of life issues? Are you trying to improve life for current residents or for future generations?

• Who? Who are you serving with this plan?• When? What is your timing? When is the best

time to do this? During stability or crisis?


Key Questions (cont.)

• How? Do you do this internally or hire a consultant?

• Who? You need to identify key community stakeholders who have a long term stake in the area, and who are committed to the process (the broader the base the stronger the likelihood of success).

• Finally, who should initiate the process, and serve as the “champion”?


Advantages: Internal vs. External

Internal -- do it yourself• Better control of process

• Typically much less expensive

• Usually quicker (if you have time to do it)

External -- hire a consultant• Time savings for your organization

• Greater experience and knowledge

• Independent, unbiased view of situation

• Often have greater credibility to community


Who are the Key Stakeholders?

• Economic Development Agency• Public Sector (City, County, State)

� Elected officials� Key staff (planning, building, finance)� Schools and Universities

• Private Sector� Business Organizations (Chamber, unions)� Banks, Utilities, Major Businesses� Developers, Realtors, Landowners

• Area Stakeholders/Residents/Naysayers


Strategic Plan Stakeholder Hierarchy

1. Champion -- runs process

2. Exec. Committee – approvals,

establish policies, raise funds

3. Committee - Key Stakeholders

4. Subcommittees – focus on

specific issues

5. Community

1-2

5-20

20-100

50-200

100-1,000’s


Key Takeaways of this Phase

• Pre-planning often is what makes or breaks a strategic planning process

• Must pull together a committed team with broad community representation, and must actively involve them in order to establish a true sense of ownership

• Building community consensus often takes time, but is imperative for the process to be successful.


Phase 2: Data Collection/Analysis

• Why?� Important to ground the vision in reality

� Focus on those possibilities with the greatest likelihood of success

� Helps community take an honest look at itself

• Key Components� Data collection – facts and SWOT

� Issues identification – local perceptions

� Analysis of all the collected information


Key Considerations

• Internal vs. External forces� Internal: those factors controlled by the

community

� External: those factors outside of your control

• Current vs. Future

• Facts vs. Perceptions

• Important to be honest and realistic


Data Collection

• Need to collect a variety of relevant and current data about the community

• Useful to have comparative data about your region and key competitors

• Focus on data that potential prospects are going to want in their own evaluations of the area

• Critical to keep data updated


Typical Data Requirements

• Demographic and socio-economic info.• Access to markets / transportation• Access to resources• Labor force (education, skills, availability)• Land, facilities, infrastructure, utilities• Access to capital / financing capacity• Governmental impacts (taxes, regulations)• Quality of life• E.D. program – resources, incentives, etc.


Community Assessment

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats


SWOT Analysis

Strengths and Weaknesses• Focus on current situation (static)

• What are the current assets and liabilities?

• What today makes us unique or puts us at a disadvantage compared to other places?

Opportunities and Threats• Focus is on the future trends (dynamic)

• What are changes that we know will occur?

• Look at future scenarios and determine how they will impact the area positively/negatively


Issues Identification

• What does the community see as the key economic issues – now and in the future?

(unemployment, low wages, lack of future opportunities, need to diversify economy, etc.)

• Community perceptions may not necessarily match with the facts, but nevertheless are a factor that needs to be considered.

• Often surveys are used – leadership, business, and residents

• Issues should be prioritized


Analysis

• Once you have collected all of the data, the next step is to analyze it to look for issues, trends, opportunities, problems, etc.

• Comparison to other areas is very useful to “see where you stand” in particular categories to determine your selling points

• Focus on key strengths and weaknesses, and then try to match those to the needs of particular industry sectors


Target Market Analysis

There are many different types of analysis and models which can be used:

• Economic base analysis

• Location quotients

• Shift-share analysis

• Input output analysis

• Cluster analysis

The bottom line is to focus on target markets


Target Market Analysis

The purpose of target market analysis is to try to match your area with strategies and industry sectors that need the strengths you offer, while avoiding those sectors that rely on key things your area is weak in. It can be done more generally for your area to help provide a guide for prospecting, or you can do a very detailed analysis designed to go after specific targets.


Target Market Analysis: Examples

Likely Prospects:

1. General: Your community has an underused airport, centrally located in the country, with many large, vacant warehouse buildings adjacent – you may want to think about a focus on air freight shipping/distribution as a target

2. Specific: Your region has a growing population of about 19,000 people with no major home improvement stores. You find that Home Depot or Lowe’s usually look for a trade area of about 20,000 so you target those specific retailers.


Target Market Analysis: Examples

Unlikely Prospects:

1. Your community has limited water supplies and high electricity costs compared to other areas, so you don’t want to target industries that require lots of water and power, such as semiconductor manufacturing.

2. While your area has all the locational attributes desired by book publishers, you probably don’t want to go after publishing since that is a rapidly declining market segment.


Target Market Analysis• While you can do this work yourself, especially if

you are doing a cursory level of analysis, most places will either hire a specialized site selection consultant, or purchase existing data sources that help to provide this information.

• Difficult to know needs of every industry

• It is also critical to look at what is happening within the industry sectors you desire – are they growing/shrinking?

• One drawback is that this information has short shelf life, so once done you have to move fast.



• In this phase more is often better, and timely data is critical

• Need not only facts, but also perceptions

• Look to the future – not just the current

• Target market analysis can help you start to focus on the most likely opportunities and prospects


Phase 3: Plan Formulation

• Once the second phase is complete, you will have a significant amount of info:

� Community facts and data

� SWOT analysis

� Issues identification and prioritization

� Target Market data

• The next step is then to take that data and use it to help formulate your new strategic plan


Strategic Plan Hierarchy

1. Vision – the “big picture”

2. Goals – Specific statement of what the community wants to be (aspirations)

3. Objectives – Specific performance targets to achieve the goals

4. Strategies – Specific programs and actions needed to meet goals/objectives

5. Workplan – Most specific – who, what, when, etc. (implementation stage)


Example of Hierarchy

Vision: “A growing and diversified economic base”Goal #3: “Provide the local E.D. organization with

resources needed to carry out strategic plan”Objective #3a: “Within the next year, the Board will

raise $1 mil. in public and private sector funding”Strategies: 3a1: “Develop fundraising materials”,

3a2: “Organization will make a formal request to City for funding”, 3a3: “Meet w/ local businesses”

Workplan: “Joe will develop a fundraising brochure by September of this year”

Note: a detailed workplan is typically not part of the Strategic Plan, but rather a separate annual workplan


How do you formulate a plan?

• Using all the information that has been gathered (facts, SWOT analysis, issues and perceptions, target market analysis), start to formulate the strategic plan top down

• Often done by subcommittees or small groups• Take a look at the plans for similar places• Individual responses are combined in an

iterative process, with prioritization and consensus-building being the key goals

• Typically will go through several drafts, and will need to seek community input throughout


Formulating the Plan

• Ultimate goal is to create a series of specific strategic actions that will help the community achieve its vision and goals

• It needs to take into account:

� Community’s vision, goals, and objectives

� Amount and type of resources available

� Creating maximum positive impact

� Local leadership’s level of commitment


Create a Holistic E.D. Plan

While many communities tend to focus their E.D. plans only on new business attraction, a good strategic plan should also consider other components that are just as critical to a complete economic development effort. These can work holistically to create positive economic and quality of life success for a community.


25 Strategies to Consider “Building Communities: 25 Strategies to Advance America” by Brian Cole

1. Business Recruitment

2. Business Retention and Expansion

3. Business Cultivation

4. Entrepreneurial Development

5. Energy Development

6. Environmental Restoration

7. Transportation Distribution Center

8. Telecommunications Businesses


25 Strategies (cont.)

9. Value Added Agriculture10. Value Added Forest Products11. Value Added Fisheries12. Value Added Mining13. Destination Tourism14. Cultural Tourism15. Local/Regional Tourism16. Pass Through Visitor Services17. Downtown Development


25 Strategies (cont.)

18. Education Development 19. Health Care20. Bedroom Community21. Infrastructure Development22. Attracting Retirees23. Attracting “Lone Eagles”24. Attracting Government Jobs25. Attracting Government Funding

Source: “Building Communities: 25 Strategies to Advance America” by Brian Cole, 2010, www.buildingcommunities.us


Key Takeaways of this Phase• Using your collected data develop a plan

which a hierarchical structure from broad to detailed – start with your overall vision, and work to create goals, objectives, strategies

• This is an iterative process, and will require significant time and community input both to develop and to prioritize the plan

• It should be holistic and look at a variety of potential economic activities


Phase 4: Implementation

Once the strategic plan has been developed the next step in the process is to develop an “actionable” implementation strategy.

It is important to transfer the desired outcomes into a series of specific action steps that can help the community realize its vision.


Strategic Actions

Implementation phase needs to include:

• Organizational responsibilities

• Time schedule

• Funding requirements

• Desired impacts

• Monitoring and evaluation process


Organizational Responsibilities

• Many options for who will carry out plan:� Public (City E.D. department)

� Private (Chamber of Commerce)

� Public/Private Partnerships

� Regional agencies

� Multiple agencies

• No “best answer” – depends on many factors, such as the community’s needs, resource availability, leadership, etc.


Specific Work Program

• Translate the strategic actions into a specific workplan (usually 1-2 years)

• This should include:� Specific tasks to accomplish� Prioritization of work effort� Timeframe� Staffing responsibility� Resource requirements� Performance measures


Implementation

• It is important to remember that the implementation is a community effort – you can’t just develop a strategic plan and then expect the E.D. organization to do everything and be successful

• Often, there are infrastructure needs, community services, etc. required for the plan to be successful

• This is a team effort• It also typically will take many years – so

make sure you manage expectations



• Once the strategic plan is developed the next step is to implement it

• Figure out who will do it, what resources are needed, what the priorities are, and how you will measure success

• Implementation is a community-wide team effort which can take a long time, but if you have engaged the community throughout the process it will be easier


Phase 5: Monitor/Evaluate

• Final phase is the ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring is tracking of performance, while evaluation compares outcomes towards goals

• Typically it can be measured 2 ways:� Direct Performance – those things in your

control (did you accomplish specific tasks?)� Indirect Results – out of your control (did those

actions result in the desired outcomes?)

� E.D. organizations are measured on results in both areas


Managing Expectations

• Need to be realistic in terms of timing of the economic development effort

• E.D. tends to be a long term process –rarely will you have immediate success, and most often the plan will evolve

• It is important upfront to try to manage expectations, and let stakeholders know that it will take time for the Strategic Plan to show desired results


Evaluation

• Evaluation needs to be honest and fair• It is not meant to be a “blame game”• This is a critical tool to help the

community understand what has been accomplished, what it can reasonably expect to achieve, and what changes need to be made

• Communication is critical• Don’t try to do infrequently – regular

communication is better


Economic “Dashboard”

• Newer technique which tries to measure and benchmark economic performance on a relative basis to region/competitors

• Can use a variety of metrics -- including employment, productivity, per capita income, and gross regional output – to help gauge the success of a plan

• By comparing yourself to similar cities or regions, you can better see how you are fairing with your program.


Continuous Change

• As a result of monitoring and evaluating the strategic plan, there will likely be the need to make ongoing changes

• Why? Changes in priorities, changes in resource levels, evaluation of success/ failure, changing community desires, changes in local/national trends

• The strategic planning process should be one of continuous evaluation and adjustment – it is a dynamic process.


1. REInitiate andOrganize Process

Strategic Planning Process

I

2. Data

Collection &

Analysis

4.Implementation (Responsibilities

& Resources)

5. Evaluation (Performance

Measures)

3. Formulate

Goals, Strategies

and Actions

OngoingProcess


Revising Your Plan

• Therefore, every few years you may need to go back and redo this process

• You don’t necessarily need to scrap the entire thing and start over, but rather do an abbreviated version that takes into account changes that have occurred

• Keep your plan current, relevant, and use it as a key tool for your organization


Common Problems

• Failure to involve broad representation of leadership and the general public

• Misunderstanding strategic planning

• Too much time spent on visioning, and not enough time spent on prioritization

• Strategies that don’t address real problem

• Failure to assign implementation actions

• Failure to monitor/evaluate progress

• Lack of commitment – plan “sits on a shelf”



• Your strategic plan will be a constantly evolving “work in progress”

• Honestly evaluate the progress made, with the understanding that this will take time, and that many factors are out of your direct control

• Benchmark not only against yourself and your goals, but also against a competitive set, in order to effectively evaluate progress


Summary

Strategic planning is the critical first step in the development of an effective economic development program. This ongoing process enables a community to most efficiently and effectively focus its resources to create desired outcomes.

Sample Plans

• City of Phoenix: https://www.phoenix.gov/econdevsite/Documents/072436.pdf

• Downtown Phoenix: https://www.phoenix.gov/econdevsite/Documents/104204.pdf

• Greater Phoenix Economic Council: http://www.gpec.org/sites/default/files/FY15.ActionPlan.pdf

• City of Maricopa: http://www.maricopa-az.gov/web/economicdevelopment/ED-ResourceCenter?Download=951:Economic-Development-Strategic-Plan

Contact Information

David RoderiquePresident and CEO

Downtown Phoenix Partnership101 N. First Ave., Suite 1450

Phoenix, AZ 85003602/744-6400

[email protected]

www.downtownphoenix.com

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