Saturday, March 05, 2005
Faced with duplication and confusion in their economic development efforts, civic leaders have two strategies they can follow: consolidation and alignment.
Consolidation is often difficult and time-consuming. Political roadblocks are everywhere. When they are "successful", consolidations often leave in their wake a wave of bag feelings. Like mergers in the private sector (remember HP?), they may look good on paper, but they are very tough to pull off. Recently, Hampton Roads pulled off a merger, but it was tough in coming. Talks have been taking place for over a decade. Read more.
Alignment, on the other hand, focuses on building flatter, more networked organizations. Here's a good example from Rochester. Notice the language: "the economic development space in this region" (suggesting multiple actors); "figure out if there are any ways that we can work together on specific things that make sense"; "these sets of questions weren't really asked before"; "you're seeing more collaboration"; "I don't have all the answers"; "the most important thing for us to do is to ensure that we are communicating to each other what our direction is so that we avoid the potential for duplication". Read more
posted by Ed Morrison |
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Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
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Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Consolidation v. Alignment
