This year, we had the pleasure of working with lots of great clients from all corners of the country. While we pride ourselves on recognizing the unique attributes that make communities stand out, we couldn’t help but notice some common themes in economic development that seemed to keep rising to the top of the trend list. Read ahead for a recap of the top five trends in economic development that Hickey Global witnessed during 2024.
Strategies are in.
This trend is worth mentioning first because it’s such a foundational driver for broad economic development success. Communities compete for a finite number of “wins.” Based on factual information, the most well-thought-out plans for success often win the day. Strategies can be big and broadly designed to guide an organization's work or focused on a smaller component of operations like foreign direct investment or marketing. Regardless of focus, these actionable roadmaps should present a clear path toward economic development progress and be supplemented by detailed implementation guidance. The Hickey Global preference is to include stakeholder input when we can to ensure the data and community sentiment align.
Narrow your clusters.
If I had a penny for every community that lists Advanced Manufacturing as a target cluster, I would have a lot of pennies. This isn’t to suggest that communities far and wide don’t excel at some facet of advanced manufacturing, but exactly which facet that is can be tricky information to come by. Instead of settling for the big bucket sectors as descriptors of cluster expertise, we’re seeing communities want to hone in on their expertise, and we're helping our client communities discover their target cluster mix down to the six-digit NAICS code. By empowering a community to say they’re an excellent fit for machinery and equipment manufacturing, we can help them speak directly to a target company and convey a much more meaningful message to start the conversation.
Being laser-focused is cool.
Lots of our clients have come to us this year with a desire to build a strategy for attracting a single industry. Such a refined targeting effort is made even more possible when cluster data can validate the investment of time and resources as communities go “all in” on marketing and outreach that focuses on a single slice of the pipeline pie. We’ve worked on everything from aerospace to cold storage strategies, helping communities refine messaging, focus development, and skill up the workforce to build a brand and rack recruitment and retention wins.
Stakeholder Engagement for the win.
We’ve blogged about Stakeholder Engagement before and continue to see our clients benefit from the qualitative insights community members offer during the project process. Often traditionally reserved for strategic planning, using this tactic to shape work plans has been beneficial for many projects, ranging from cluster studies to business retention and expansion plans. It boils down to the fact that economic development is a team sport with many players contributing to overall success. Understanding what those players think or know about an economic development process, their ideas for improvement, and how they’ve perceived their interactions with services and offerings is the best information for shaping a new and improved approach.
Know thyself, know thy neighbor.
If you ask most economic developers who their biggest competitors are, many could rattle off a list, but it may be scant on deep rationale. Our clients have seen great value in our ability to provide data-backed peer community and competitor community lists. This research provides data-supported information about communities on which aspirational best practices can be based or against which your location may repeatedly compete. These apples-to-apples comparisons can be powerful guides for making meaningful improvements and identifying the key differentiators your community brings when measured against the competition.
There are lots of ways to move the economic development needle, and these are just a few examples that have been in heavy rotation this year. Have you used any of these tactics to achieve success for your community? Are you still looking for the best approach for your pressing economic development challenges? Connect with our team today and let us know what you’re dealing with. We’re eager to help you find the best solutions for your needs.
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