It’s often said that what makes an effective leader is the ability to collaborate for the greater good. The same can be said for an effective economic development professional.
In economic development, no single organization can drive transformation alone. Success stems from collective effort—from cities, chambers, state agencies, nonprofits and private sector partners all aligning on and working toward a shared vision. Often these players can have competing immediate priorities, which may be fine in the short term, but sustained regional competitiveness requires strategic alignment and constant communication.
The Economic Development Ecosystem
Economic development thrives in ecosystems – not silos. A successful strategy requires a lot of players, each with different but corresponding roles. These players, whether they know it or not, come together to form an ecosystem. The proper alignment of the ecosystem is what determines economic development success.
Let’s take Detroit for example, a city with a vast economic development ecosystem:
- Visit Detroit serves as the city’s brand steward, promoting tourism and resident engagement.
- The Detroit Regional Partnership drives business attraction and external marketing.
- The Detroit Regional Chamber focuses on business retention and expansion.
- Michigan Economic Development Corporation supports efforts from the state level.
- The Regional Transit Authority supports connectivity through regional transit planning.
- And groups like MichAuto and Automation Alley advocate for high-growth industries, vital to the region’s prosperity.
And that’s just a few. Dozens of organizations across the region contribute to talent development, quality of life, infrastructure, innovation and so much more. But overlap can create inefficiencies unless there’s a shared understanding of roles and priorities.
Take talent for example – one of the most essential ingredients for the economic success of any region. To compete nationally and globally, a region must have:
- Strong education pipelines and systems to establish high-quality talent early on.
- Engaged industry groups or associations to help train talent and guide them in the workforce.
- High-paying, desirable jobs from good companies that value their workforce.
- A city where people want to plant roots and one that offers state-of-the-art hospitality and entertainment.
Meeting these needs requires collaboration across education, industry, government and placemaking organizations. One player can’t do it all.
Regional Collaboration = Regional Competitiveness
Regional collaboration begins with a shared vision. When each partner aligns their priorities with the region’s broader goals, they amplify each other’s efforts. On a tactical level, priority alignment is essential to effectively leverage funding opportunities and access a wider range of funding sources. On a philosophical level, priority alignment helps all entities remember what they are working toward and stay focused on what is best for the common good.
It’s important that this vision defies policy. At its core, economic development is about creating opportunity, and partners cannot allow happenings in policy or administration to distract them from aligning to reach the long-term vision for economic development.
The next step in effective collaboration is ensuring each player understands their unique role. Each partner needs to have a defined role to ensure they are serving in a position where they are strongest and aren’t wasting resources by duplicating the efforts of other partners.
We helped the Detroit Regional Chamber do exactly this, identifying the Chamber’s unique value to small businesses, ensuring efforts complemented – not duplicated – those of partner organizations.
Understanding the role of each partner is only one part of the challenge. The hardest part is determining when to lead and when to pass the baton. Another good example of this is our work with MichAuto. We supported MichAuto to identify their role in mobility and innovation, helping them focus their impact where it mattered most and clearly identify where they should engage partners.
This level of collaboration in a highly complex ecosystem requires one key element to be successful: frequent and clear communication.
The Role of Communications
Clear, consistent communication is the cornerstone of effective collaboration.
At Franco, we always say messaging is an important component to any communications program, but it is absolutely critical for any economic development work. For economic development to be effective, there needs to be a clear and concise narrative that can easily be adopted by a variety of partners.
Because at the end of the day, economic development is really all about telling a compelling story: “Why visit our city? Why invest here? Why build your life and career here? Why establish your business in this community?”
It’s the role of communicators to develop that storyline in an authentic and accessible way and then unify stakeholders around the message to build lasting brand equity for the region.
Economic development is a complex, long-term play. It requires clarity of purpose, aligned priorities and coordinated communication.
Learn more about our economic development work, and how we can help your destination tell a story that drives results: https://franco.com/economic-development/
Emily Hebert is an Integrated Communications Supervisor at Franco. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
