Presented at IEDC's strategic planning course - Jim Damicis 2019

1. Economic Development
Strategic Planning
1
Jim Damicis
Senior Vice President
Camoin Associates
March 7-8, 2019
Phoenix, AZ

2. Jim Damicis
Senior Vice President
• Immediate Past President, Northeastern Economic Developers
Association (NEDA)
• IEDC, Economic Development Research Program, International
Economic Development Council & Course Instructor
• Collaborator – Communities of the Future
• 25+ Years Experience in Economic and Community
Development
Email: jim@camoinassociates.com
Website: www.camoinassociates.com
Twitter: @jdamicis
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jdamicis
Blog: www.camoinassociates.com/navigator

3. Introduction to Strategic Planning
3
I. What is it?
II. Why do it?
III. Context/key factors
IV. Benefits
V. Process
VI. Lessons learned
Economic Development
Strategic Planning

4. What is Economic Development?
Job stability
and creation
Planning, Organizing, and Acting to
Support the Economy
Common end goals:
Tax base
stability and
growth
Diversification
of economy
and tax base
Wealth
creation and
diversification

5. Economic Development is Accomplished
Through…
Tools and techniques:
 Business retention and expansion
 Business attraction
 Global trade and foreign investment
 Workforce development
 Business technical assistance
 Innovation and entrepreneurial support
 Quality of place/place-based development
 Community development
As well as:
 Planning
 Organizing
 Implementation
 Resource development

6. More than just goals and tools!
Economic development operates within a
dynamic system of:
People Networks Organizations
Key functions: Interactions, relationships,
communications, collaboration

7. Economic Development: A Holistic System
Workforce Business
Attraction,
Retention &
Expansion
Local & Regional
Economic
Development
Quality of
Place
Innovation
Entrepreneurship
Incubation
Acceleration
Real
Estate
Sites
Infrastructur
e & Planning
Land and Site
Development
Redevelopment
Downtown
Corridor &
District
Developmen
t
Land Use
Regs
Zoning Plannin
g
Marketin
g
Place-
making
Elements a Municipality can Affect

8. 8
Strategic planning provides a living vehicle for
community leaders to think strategically, to
make sound decisions in a sea of game-changing
circumstances, to focus efforts & to develop
consensus for collaboratively solving problems.
What is Strategic Planning?
Identification
Assessment
Implementation

9. Where are you & what
is your potential?
• Needs &
opportunities
• Situation & context
Where do you want to
go & why go there?
• Community vision
• Development goals
9
Questions Answered

10. How will you get there &
who will help?
• What will you do?
Mission
• Best people & available
resources
• Strategies & projects
What will success look
like for you?
• Key benchmarks &
metrics
10
Questions Answered

11. X A “one off” event or project
X About planning meetings
X Developing a great well-written report
X Fulfilling a grant or regulatory requirement
11
What Strategic Planning is NOT

12. Engaging broad spectrum of people
Inspiring people to work together
Putting individual efforts toward best benefit of
collective whole
Process that requires advocates and champions
Challenging & time-consuming
Results in ACTION!
12
Strategic Planning IS

13. Compatible - with community vision
Feasible - given strengths & weaknesses
Implementable - given leadership & resources
Change-making - addresses difficult and urgent challenges
Innovative - enables forward movement on promising
opportunities though new and innovative ways
13
Ultimate Strategies & Action

14. Market
Feasibility
Financial
Feasibility
Citizen/Political
Feasibility
Organizational
Capacity
Technical
Feasibility
Ingredients for a Successful Plan
14

15. o Organizing & pre-planning
o Identify & recruit players & stakeholders
o Create organizational structure
o Determine necessary financial & technical resources
o Visioning
o Develop shared vision – what you want to be in the future
o Assessing the local community & economic
competitiveness
o Evaluate & define your situation – economic base,
workforce, sites, innovation, industry targets, etc.…
15
Strategic Planning Process

16. o Identifying issues & formulating realistic
mission, goals, objectives & strategies
o Communicating and publicizing the plan
o Identifying, evaluating, & prioritizing
projects (actions, tactics)
o Prioritize based on best approach & return on
project
16
Strategic Planning Process

17. o Developing plans of action
o Set out sequence of events & resources
o Define physical steps
o Implementing plans
o May require an implementation structure or
modification of organizational structure
o Monitoring & evaluating outcomes
o Make sure goals & projects remain realistic,
worthwhile, & relevant
17
Strategic Planning Process

18. oRetooling & adjusting
oPublicizing progress &
outcomes
Ongoing process!
18
Strategic Planning Process

19. Implementation “Must Haves”
• Shared sense of urgency
• Clearly articulated vision and
commitment
• Local champions
• Widespread participation and
buy-in (or rather “join in”)
• Good information (not
necessarily perfect)
• System for measurement for
learning, adjusting, building
trust

20. • Lack of shared community vision –
polarity
• Apathy or complacency – satisfaction
with status quo
• Poor working relationships among
stakeholders
• Feeling of disconnect among citizens,
leaders
• Inadequate volunteer support
• False expectations and impatience
• Lack of leadership
• Consumed by data and information
Common Barriers

21. o Workforce, workforce, workforce!
o Tech of Everything
o Quality of place – amenities, infrastructure,
housing, recreation and culture, etc.
o Regional collaboration and holistic approach to
economic development
o Customer service driven – permitting and approval
processes, transparency, accountability
o Complex Systems requiring adaptability rather than
predictability
21
Factors Behind Local/Regional Development

22. • Don’t bite off more than you can chew!
Break projects into smaller digestible
components based on your organization’s
and partners’ capacity to implement
• Understand what you can have impact over
– i.e. at local level you can impact land-use,
zoning, permitting, customer service
• Give collaboration and engagement within
region, diverse stakeholders, and the public
more than lip service – design and
implement together
• Get comfortable making collective decisions
without perfect information and predictable
outcomes
• Market externally AND internally
Lessons From the Field

23. o Questions?
o Expectations for the next 2 days?
o Issues you would like covered?
23
Questions? Expectations? Issues?

24. Contact Information
o jim@camoinassociates.com
o www.camoinassociates.com
o Twitter: @jdamicis
o Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jdamicis
o Economic Development
Navigator: www.camoinassociates.com/navigator
Economic Development
Contact Information