The Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC) is shifting its focus from recruiting out-of-state businesses with big-bucks incentives to helping local companies grow.
Maureen Brockman, the commission's vice president of marketing and communications, said one of the group's goals is to "increasingly re-energize and reinvigorate our own existing industry-outreach program.
"I think people are recognizing there is a new normal, and we can't expect our economies to be built from the outside in," she said, adding that the commission has already embraced what is a national trend toward "economic gardening."
About 60 percent to 70 percent of the region's job growth already comes not from companies relocating to Central Florida but from businesses already here, Brockman added.
Chris Schmidt, a former deputy executive director at Orlando International Airport, said the region's troubled housing market has made it difficult to recruit workers from other cities. So educating and training workers from Central Florida is key to corporate expansion and employment growth, he said.
"One of the things that has to be focused on in the future — in my view — is Central Florida-based work-force growth," said Schmidt, now a consultant with Knob Hill Group. "Helping the people here grow so they've got more education, so they can take on more responsible jobs, as jobs are created here."
The EDC is seeking a new president who can bolster local business and build regional bridges "As part of this work, it has become apparent that the primary role of the president and CEO should be to strengthen relationships with our community leaders and mobilize them around shared goals," said Meg Crofton, the commission's chairwoman and president of Walt Disney World.
Regionalism hasn't always worked well for Metro Orlando, whose four counties have squabbled about things such as construction of a beltway around the city and other issues.
See the full story, “New strategy for adding jobs to Orlando region: Focus on boosting local companies, not luring others” (8-22-2010), at the Orlando Sentinel online http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-edc-new-direction-20100820,0,4969277.story
Important Local Note: One of the key findings from JCCI Forward's Job Growth Issue Forum held in 2003 was, "Eighty percent of all new jobs in Jacksonville are produced by existing businesses. These businesses do not receive the same attention, support, and services by the local public and private partners as new or relocating businesses."
This excerpt indicates Orlando and the Central Florida region will employ “economic gardening” to promote development of local and regional businesses and, as a result, job creation. It will be interesting to see how well it works given the difficulty in getting disparate counties to agree on common goals and plans. The concept of economic gardening should be a more prominent component of a regional economic development plan for Northeast Florida. Most of the economic development-related conversation, action, and news in Northeast Florida focus on bringing businesses into the region rather than generating from within. This seems to indicate that regional economic planners have a narrow, and somewhat, shortsighted, approach to job creation.
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