Greenville Business Magazine 2010 June issue : Page 24
John Moore BY BECKY MANN O G ACCELERATING PHOTOGRAPH BY COMMERCIAL IMAGING n the surface, Greenville seems like a strong player in economic development. Look deeper, and you’ll see that we are losing ground. One of the key measures of a business community’s standard of living is per capita income, and in that measure, we’ve fallen behind stronger communities for the past ten years. So while our per capita income is increasing, it’s not growing nearly as fast as that of our friends and family around the country. That alarming trend and much related research are the basis for Accelerate,a movement within Greenville’s business community to grow our economy. Spearheaded by the Green- ville Chamber, Accelerate’s challenge is to raise Greenville’s per re BY BECKY MANN O G ACCELERATING PHOTOGRAPH BY COMMERCIAL IMAGING n the surface, Greenville seems like a strong player in economic development Moore BY BECKY MANN O G ACCELERATING PHOTOGRAPH BY COMMERCIAL IMAGING n the surface, Greenville seems like a strong player in economic development. Look deeper, and you’ll see that we are losing ground. One of the key measures of a business community’s standard of living is per capita income, and in that measure, we’ve fallen behind stronger communities for the past ten years. So while our per capita income is increasing, it’s not growing nearly as fast as that of our friends and family around the country. That alarming trend and much related research are the basis for Accelerate,a movement within Greenville’s business community to grow our economy. Spearheaded by the Green- ville Chamber, Accelerate’s challenge is to raise Greenville’s per John John Moore, executive vice president with the chamber, began drafting the plan that evolved into Accelerate a year ago. Chamber board members and community leaders helped him polish it. Then a consulting firm, National Community Devel- opment Services (NCDS), was hired to assist. NCDS sought input from 62 Upstate CEOs, who voiced their support for addressing the issue of per capita income right away and helped focus the plan of attack on three areas: business conditions, world-class talent, and high-impact startups. REENVILLE capita income to the level of U.S. per capita income so that an additional $1.35 billion in spendable personal income will flow through our community each year.
Accelerating Greenville
Becky Mann
On the surface, Greenville seems like a strong player in economic development. Look deeper, and you’ll see that we are losing ground. One of the key measures of a business community’s standard of living is per capita income, and in that measure, we’ve fallen behind stronger communities for the past ten years. So while our per capita income is increasing, it’s not growing nearly as fast as that of our friends and family around the country.
That alarming trend and much related research are the basis for Accelerate, a movement within Greenville’s business community to grow our economy. Spearheaded by the Greenville Chamber, Accelerate’s challenge is to raise Greenville’s per capita income to the level of U.S. per capita income so that an additional $1.35 billion in spendable personal income will flow through our community each year.
John Moore, executive vice president with the chamber, began drafting the plan that evolved into Accelerate a year ago. Chamber board members and community leaders helped him polish it. Then a consulting firm, National Community Development Services (NCDS), was hired to assist. NCDS sought input from 62 Upstate CEOs, who voiced their support for addressing the issue of per capita income right away and helped focus the plan of attack on three areas: business conditions, world-class talent, and high-impact startups.
To accelerate business conditions, the plan calls for expanded lobbying efforts including tools, capabilities, and technology and occasionally, additional lobbying support. According to Moore, efforts like the push to attract Southwest Airlines point to the occasional need for elevated legislative advocacy efforts. Additionally, what Moore calls dry powder – money that can be quickly accessed to address a need --- should be available. For example, funds such as those could have enhanced community efforts to help Clemson move its MBA program to downtown Greenville, Moore says.
A two-pronged approach will be used to build a more competitive talent pool. Accelerate will support and enhance employer talent recruiting measures. Talent will be developed through a number of efforts including the Carolina First Center for Excellence and its education quality improvement principles, Greenville Technical College’s Achieving the Dream initiative, a national project that uses data to identify effective practices that can increase student achievement, and higher education partners like the University Center that are working to improve the percentage of residents with bachelor’s degrees.
To grow more globally competitive, locally headquartered companies that bring with them the creation of high-wage jobs which generate wealth, the plan focuses on NEXT, a regional effort to create the infrastructure in which these kinds of companies can develop and thrive, ensuring that start-ups are welcomed like the big employers they may soon become.
Some of the efforts incorporated into Accelerate existed before the plan was created, and some are new. And while several are chamber related, Accelerate wasn’t a fundraising campaign for chamber efforts. “We didn’t start with the programs and go find the funding,” Moore says. “We truly looked at best solutions to the problem, with some of those solutions already underway.”
Accelerate comes with a five-year budget of $4 million. Who is contributing? The businesses that stand to benefit. “This isn’t about philanthropy,” Moore says. “This is about investment that will drive more business for business.” Already, more than $2.1 million has been pledged to the cause, and Moore says some “big asks” are out there. The fact that the answers are coming from cities like Charlotte and Atlanta is another good indication of the fact that we don’t have as many headquarters here as our neighbors do, he says.
One of the successes of Accelerate, according to Moore, is that it’s created a CEO-level discussion in the community about economic competitiveness. The effort’s campaign cabinet involves a number of those CEOs and business leaders: Craig Brown of Greenville Drive, Merl Code of Ogletree Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Michael Hayes of WYFF-TV, Tim Justice of Rescom Construction, Keith Miller of Greenville Technical College, Brian Rogers of Wachovia, Luanne Runge of Gallivan, White & Boyd, Tiffany Santagati and Scott Taylor of BB&T, Minor Shaw of Micco Corporation/Mickel Investment Group, Jane Sosebee of AT&T South Carolina, Toby Stansell of OOBE, Inc., and Frank Wingate of The Palmetto Bank.
What are those leaders saying about Accelerate? Keith Miller, president of Greenville Tech, says the initiative is necessary because we are at a crossroads. “This county is a key player in a global economy, and we have a choice to make,” he says. “We can let our future be created for us, or we can shape and create our own future.”
Toby Stansell, CEO of OOBE, says that Accelerate will allow us to be intentional in our growth, looking at where the business/consumer landscape is heading and seeking companies that create what he refers to as a tornado effect because they do business with lots of suppliers and customers at arm’s length. BMW, he says, is a perfect example. The company assembles cars using parts including shock absorbers, tires, seats, visors and controls made by suppliers that need to be in close proximity. That multiplier effect means that business brings business, and the Upstate benefits.
To create more of that effect, communities need to recruit industries that bring with them complex supply chains. “Five years from now, how is the supply chain/business vertical integration model going to look different? Which businesses are going to participate in that shift to the greatest degree? Those are the kinds of industries that Accelerate is going to target and recruit,” Stansell says.
Michael Hayes, president and general manager of WYFF, says the economic future of our region rests on our ability to update our approach to economic competitiveness to include creating a world-class talent pool, growing globally impactful companies, and maximizing local business conditions. “We have a rich history here of reinventing ourselves economically,” he says. “Now, leveraging our international manufacturing base with aggressive 21st century development strategies, this region is positioned to regain its economic momentum and position ourselves among the most prosperous areas in the country.”
John Moore says Accelerate is about helping people in this community enjoy more fruits for their labor. “Economic development gets caught up in numbers and companies, but at the end of the day, it really comes down to people: people that have lost jobs, people that are underemployed, and people who’ve lost their homes because their businesses didn’t succeed. Improving our competitiveness ultimately means improving lives,” he says. GBM
Previous Page Next Page
Publication List
