Aerospace Attraction &
Retention Strategies
Opportunities in the aerospace industry are expansive. Whether your community has identified a carveout in testing facilities, manufacturing operations, research and development, or the like, Hickey Global is uniquely poised to help communities like yours thrive in a dynamic aerospace industry.
Our Tailored Services
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Aerospace Industry Analysis: Comprehensive market research and analysis to identify key opportunities and challenges specific to your community.
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Aerospace Attraction Strategies: Design of targeted business development strategies that grow the presence and sustainability of aerospace operations in your community.
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Site Selection & Development: Assistance with identifying and securing suitable sites for aerospace companies, including infrastructure assessments and development strategies.
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Skills Gap Analysis: Skills and program gap analyses reveal threats to required aerospace talent and shortcomings in workforce training, followed by guidelines for developing the appropriate strategies.
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Talent Attraction & Workforce Development: Strategies to attract and retain a skilled aerospace workforce, including workforce training programs and talent pipeline development initiatives.
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Community Outreach & Engagement: Building strong partnerships with local stakeholders, including businesses, educational institutions, and community organizations.
Case Studies
Strategic Opportunity for Commercial Space Flight
Greater Houston Partnership
SCOPE:
The Partnership represents a 12-county area with more than seven million residents and is well-known, in part, because of NASA’s presence. In 2023, Hickey Global was asked to provide an Aerospace Strategy to establish a path forward in regaining the region’s aerospace prowess. The strategy development was a multifaceted approach that integrated site selection expertise, stakeholder engagement, and custom research into actionable strategies for the Chamber’s business development team.
PROJECT COMPONENTS:
The Hickey Global team implemented several components to build a foundational knowledge base and create buy-in with the Chamber. We used several approaches to identify industry trends and growth opportunities that could generate future investment in Greater Houston, including consulting with our site selection partners. Site selection factors were determined based on traditional Aerospace investments and emerging activity in the New Space Economy to ensure cutting-edge outcomes. Competitor markets were identified and compared to the Houston region on important indicators, for example, the availability of qualified talent, demographics, and educational outcomes. A robust stakeholder engagement process rendered input from important members of the local ecosystem and stakeholders in the Partnership’s future success. We stacked these project components to generate a meaningful understanding of current and future Aerospace opportunities in the region and build strategies with implementation.
RESULTS:
The Aerospace Study yielded 27 strategies across various categories that the Partnership could implement based on existing resources and priorities. The strategies were split into short--, medium--, and long-term actions with phased implementation guidance to best support the team’s efforts. Strategies included partnership opportunities, business development outreach, and talent recruitment and development recommendations. Results were shared with the client’s leadership and stakeholders to allocate responsibility and ensure regional alignment.
Taking the Aerospace Ecosystem to New Heights
Invest Puerto Rico
SCOPE:
Invest Puerto Rico, the economic development organization handling business development for the island, needed assistance creating a broad strategy for expanding their aerospace cluster. By working with Hickey Global to better define and market its value proposition, the organization sought to elevate itself to national and international talent, companies, and capital investment in the aerospace industry.
PROJECT COMPONENTS:
The project was thorough and included multiple components. Hickey Global conducted an ecosystem mapping exercise to validate the existing aerospace and defense sector and its supply chain. This step also included a stakeholder engagement effort to gather input from business representatives, education and workforce development entities, and local government representatives. A benchmarking exercise identifying aerospace centers of excellence in the US was also completed to provide insights about employment and organizational strengths that could be utilized in Invest Puerto Rico’s final strategy development. The project work culminated in the development of a set of strategies and implementation guidance.
RESULTS:
Hickey Global delivered a final Aerospace Strategy, including all key findings and a description of the study’s process and methodology. The culmination of research, site selection experience, and stakeholder engagement, the strategy and implementation plan includes 32 strategies crafted to aid InvestPR in further developing Puerto Rico’s aerospace sector. These strategies are divided into five strategic focus areas: Marketing, Talent, Business Attraction, Strategic Partnerships, and Ecosystem & Infrastructure. The recommended Implementation Stage for each strategy is listed on their corresponding one-pager as: Short Term (1-2 years), Medium Term (3-5 years), and Long Term (5 years and beyond).
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Interested in learning more? Complete the form below for our Aerospace Strategies brochure.