Greenville Business Magazine 2009 November : Page 28
››quarterly update
>>quarterly update - Greenville Chamber to Accelerate! the Upstate's Business Community
Ben Haskew
Over the past three years the Greenville Chamber has worked to sharpen our focus and narrow our vision to one ultimate goal – to build one of the premier business communities – not in South Carolina – not in the United States – but in the world.
Some may think our goal is too ambitious, but we believe it is the duty of the Greenville Chamber.
The first step in pursuit of that goal is to objectively evaluate how the Greenville economy stacks up versus our competition. To that end, the Chamber’s Advantage Greenville program commissioned Clemson University to create an Economic Scorecard to analyze how the Greenville area is doing relative to competing communities across the U.S.
A premier business community is highly productive and innovative – creating products and services that bring wealth into the region from other areas of the country and beyond. This wealth translates into a high level of per capita personal income (PCPI), relative to the U.S.
For twenty years Greenville outperformed the U.S. in income growth and saw the quality of life of our citizens rise steadily. However, for nine consecutive years, income growth in Greenville has lagged the rest of the country and we find ourselves back to 1986 performance levels. This unprecedented decline has resulted in a loss of over $1.3 billion in spendable income in Greenville County every year. That is a staggering amount of lost income; one which, if regained, would impact every business and household in the area.
Numerous studies of our economy have taken place in recent years and all point toward the same conclusion – to compete in today’s global marketplace, Greenville must retool and expand its efforts for growing our local economy. New results-driven development strategies proven successful in other peer communities must be developed to improve our competitiveness and regain our economic momentum.
To that end, the Greenville Chamber, under the advisement of business leadership, has crafted a five-year program, ACCELERATE!, to build economic momentum in our community.
ACCELERATE! will produce a significant, tangible return-on investment, leverage growth strategies proven successful in other communities and augment the traditional business recruiting efforts of our development allies.
ACCELERATE! will increase job growth through its focus on three strategic areas: optimizing business “soil conditions,” building and attracting a world-class talent pool and supporting the growth of high-impact startup companies.
The projected economic impact at the end of the five years will be 15,000 new jobs, representing a 10-percent increase in job creation versus prior year trends. These new jobs will significantly boost the regional economy as each new job ripples through the economy generating additional “indirect” and “induced” jobs, as well as the associated income and state/local revenue.
Now that we have a plan, our next step is to obtain new capital to support these programs and make the changes needed to become one of the premier business communities in the world. Over the past few weeks, the Chamber has been meeting with potential investors throughout the Greenville area to raise the capital needed. More details will be announced at an official kick-off scheduled for December 2009.
In order for Greenville to become the highly productive and innovative community we aspire to be, we need to come together as a community. We must work together to create a brighter future for our Greenville.
Ben Haskew is the president and CEO of the Greenville Chamber. For more information contact the Chamber at 864-242-1050. The Chamber would like to thank the leadership of ACCELERATE!, which includes Michael J. Hayes, president and general manager of WYFF as general chair; Jane Sosebee, director of external affairs of AT&T South Carolina as co-chair; and, Merl F. Code of Ogletree Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC as co-chair.
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