Let’s use the transition time to make a big time transition

Transition time is always a good time to, well, transition. Sometimes it’s the best time to transition in a big way.

If you, Kind Reader, need an example then you’re in luck, because I’ve got one.

The key players in economic development in the Fort Smith region in recent history have been the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the city of Fort Smith and the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Transition has found two of those key players. If we are lucky, we might discover aggressive, accountable and sober economic development emerging from said transition.

UAFS, the lead dog in funding and managing the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in Fort Smith, is now in the process of finding a replacement for Michelle Stockman. Stockman began April 23, 2007, the tough and thankless job of working with entrepreneurs and attempting to convince a regional populace that entrepreneurship can be just as vital an economic development engine as the more traditional forms of business and industrial recruitment. We ignore entrepreneurs and their needs at our own economic peril.

Stockman performed entirely too well in the task of developing a respectable and influential organization. The Arkansas Capital Corp. has hired Stockman to replicate her Fort Smith regional effort around the state. Sonsabitches stole our rainmaker. Can’t blame them. In their shoes, I would have gone after her. So would you. The good news is that Stockman will remain based in Fort Smith. (Link here to learn more about the importance of entrepreneurship development.)

But we find UAFS Chancellor Paul Beran with the opportunity to tweak the university’s economic development role. And it is here we might mention that economic development INCLUDES entrepreneurship (e-ship) development. In fact, one might make a valid argument that e-ship development should be the primary effort, with job recruitment being a close second. But that’s an argument for another day.

And then we find the city of Fort Smith rethinking its economic development place in the world. Or at least that’s what Dennis Kelly, the shiny-new city administrator, is thinking. He said so. Said he wants to suspend consideration of a budget for economic development until he gets a better handle on the city’s role. That consideration should take no longer than five months, and will include a review of how the city interacts with other regional economic development players, Kelly said. The city’s economic development operation consists of two employees and a budget just short of $500,000.

Next on the list is the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce. It’s a damn mess, really. Mat Pitsch, the primary driver of any success in 2008 the chamber can tout, got so tired of the goofiness there that he quit. The chamber has become an embarrassment among those who possess even the slightest understanding of how things should get accomplished in terms of economic and community development.

So here’s the point of this essay: Maybe, as a region, we all step back, reflect, and evaluate the pros and cons of creating an economic development corporation tasked with the responsibility of coordinating economic development issues, events and opportunities for Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties in Arkansas and LeFlore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma. Or maybe we start small and just cover the Arkansas counties.

Jim Fram, president and CEO of the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce and head of the Bartlesville Economic Development Corp., said he’s been involved in several successful regional economic development partnerships.

And let’s stop here and clarify that by, “regional partnerships,” we mean a true regional collaboration and not just slapping the word “regional” on an organization’s title, or using the word “regional” in speeches. We’re not talking about talking regionalism. We’re talking doing regionalism. Understand? Good. Let’s move on.

Fram says true regional collaboration is not only “doable in lots of places,” but it’s the only way to achieve consistent economic development success.

“Companies look at an entire area. They don’t look at just one city or work with just one chamber,” Fram explained. “They are creating a short list from their Internet searches, and then they want to look at an area. And if they don’t get a regional-type response, then they’ll just move on to a place where they get a regional picture.”

Fram cites the Tulsa Area Partnership as a great example of regional success.

“If I tell someone I’m from Bartlesville, I might get a dumb stare. If I tell them I’m from the Tulsa area, then I get a response. I’m for doing whatever I can to get a response.  And I think the people from those towns around Fort Smith would think the same, that they would want to be part of what would get them a good response,” Fram explained.

Two must-haves for a regional economic development corporation to succeed are trust and accountability.

“Within your team, those (trust and accountability) are necessary,” Fram said. “Everyone has got to understand that they have a role in economic development, and that it’s a team that works together.”

Everyone also must understand that economic development is more than just job recruitment and marketing. It’s about entreprenuership. It’s about existing business support. It’s about workforce development. It’s about infrastructure development. It’s about quality of place development. It takes a lot of selfless leaders to position a region so that it becomes and remains competitive in the game of economic development.

Let’s dream, for just a second, that we find ourselves in mid 2009, and officials from Alma, Fort Smith, Greenwood, Ozark, Van Buren and other regional communities and entities stand in front of a podium. Interested citizens, responsible media folks and television reporters mingle in the hot summer afternoon to await the news. One of the regional officials moves to the microphone and says something along the following lines:

“OK. We’ve sorta dicked up this regional economic development thing in the past few years. But that’s over. Starting today, the folks behind me have agreed to financially, politically and collaboratively support a regional economic development organization that will be tasked with diversifying our regional economy so that we have a healthy balance of high-tech jobs and starter jobs. What’s more, we’ll be accountable. We’ll have no patience for drunkards, the financially incompetent, smart-asses, or those who simply can’t perform. You see, this is serious business. We have an obligation to current and future generations to create a flexible economy; a dynamic economy that can adjust quickly and wisely to whatever the global economy throws our way. For each economic development obstacle any critic can cite, we can cite the thousands of good people in this region, the thousands of regional assets and the will of a populace ready to tackle the hard work necessary to make good things happen. Anybody who thinks this is folly is just spoiling for a fight. The old egos attached to the old sacred regional cows are either dead or will soon succumb. We can. We will. Join us. Let’s succeed.”

Transition time is always a good time to transition. It’s often the best time to transition in a big way. Big is often the best way to transition.

Let’s think big. It’s time to transition to a regional organization dedicated to delivering aggressive, accountable and sober economic development.