It Takes A Community to Recruit an Industry

Effective July 1, the City Manager has reorganized some departments in this city and my department was one. As some of you may know, I have now been assigned responsibilities of city economic development. While a large portion of my new responsibilities will be to focus on fostering an environment for development, I will continue to work with other economic development organizations including Carter County Tomorrow. More importantly, today I want to talk briefly about the economic development world of today.

Economic development today is vastly different today from what it was 20 or even 10 years ago (which I will refer to as yesterday). Yesterday, large factories employed hundreds of workers to produce products to be sold around the world. Today, these same large factories are reduced to half the physical size they once were and employ one-third (or less in some industries) of the workforce they once did. Much of this is due to advances in automation. A single machine or robot can take the place of many workers producing the same product faster, with less errors, and those machines don’t need to go home at night to sleep or take a break.

It is no secret that the US economy has shifted from a production economy to a service economy. Service industry jobs like accountants, customer service specialists, sales persons, and food preparers have taken the place of production industry jobs like a factory line worker. Yesterday these types businesses chose a location based on proximity to customers, tax incentives, and workforce availability. Today, businesses look for a location with proximity to their customers and have a high quality of life. Quality of life includes things like parks, recreation programs, good schools, unique places to hangout, entertainment options, and things to do -- the things that make a community enjoyable. Big businesses know that the community they choose will have a large impact on their employees and want to choose the best one so they can have healthy and happy employees with increased productivity.

Yesterday cities were largely responsible for the development of the local economy mainly through incentivising businesses to locate in an area. Today, cities, counties, schools, and other businesses in the community all play a very important role in recruiting a new business. This approach must include EVERYONE in the community. So as we look to the future of Elizabethton’s economy what can we do today to make our community an attractive location for business tomorrow? Let’s talk about it!