Strategic Planning

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NEED A COMMUNITY PLAN ? ?TARGETED ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENTProviding CARE for Healthy
Communities

• Planning for Success!

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Strategic Planning for Local Economic
Development An Outline

• Economic Development Options
• Defining Economic Development
• The CARE Model
• Benefits of Strategic Planning
• Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future
• Strategic Planning Concepts
• Successful Planning Efforts
• Tools to Aid in Developing a Strategy

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Economic Development
Can Mean Many Things to Different People
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Economy
is a system for meeting the needs and wants of
people in a particular geographic area.
Development
is the improvement of well-being for residents
in a particular geographic area.
Economic Development
Any activity which provides additional jobs and
income given a communitys standard or quality of
life.
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The CARE Model of Economic Development

• Create new employment opportunities!
• Attract business activity!
• Retain existing business and industry!
• Expand current job/income sources!

Which option is the best for your community?
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Creation New Businesses Need Support in Several
Areas

• Capital Financing
• Labor Supply
• Technology
• Management Assistance

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Attraction or Business and Industry Recruitment

• Is the most well-known economic development
  option.
• Local communities should assess their chances of
  recruiting a basic employer.
• Major metropolitan areas will
• attract most larger employers.

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Factors that Influence Larger Employers Include

• Labor Supply
• Transportation
• Location of related businesses
• Water and other resource constraints
• Community attitude and/or preparedness

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Retention of Existing Incomeand Jobs

• Do your local consumers spend money for goods and
  services in other communities?
• How much?
• Could special events and promotions lead to more
  local shopping?
• What would this mean to
• your local merchants?

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Expansion of Existing Firms

• This can become an important source of new job
  growth in the community.
• Existing businesses can be supported by
• Training Programs
• Financial Assistance
• Positive Attitude from the Community
• On-site visitations can red-flag
• the needs of the business community.

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Strategic Planning

• Is similar to a business developing a business
  plan.
• Is the process of identifying future goals and
  how to achieve them.
• Does require forward thinking and anticipation of
  the future

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7 Benefits of Strategic Planning

• Outlines the steps to follow. A community must
  identify the steps necessary to achieve its final
  goal.
• Promotes efficient use of resources. A
  significant amount of time, money and people will
  be required for economic development efforts.
• Improves coordination. Many different groups
  should be involved.
• Builds consensus. The public and private sectors
  must agree on the major issues.
• Increases public awareness. Without public
  support, economic development cannot happen.
• Strengthens the communitys competitive position.
• Encourages forward thinking.

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Theres nothing mystical about developing a
strategy.
Communication
Cooperation
Hard Work
Thought
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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future

• Begin/Continue the Process Someone must make the
  initial decision to build a community strategy.
• - Are the benefits worth the effort?
• - Outside resource providers (such as OCES may
  be called in at this time.

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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future

• Engage the Community. Broad community support is
  critical. Seek support from the following
• - Public Sector
• - Private Sector
• -Volunteer Organizations

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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future

• Form an organized structure. Utilize an existing
  group or form a new organization.
• Conduct community assessments. Data and
  information can be very useful.
• Develop a strategic plan. Identify goals and
  measurable objectives.
• Seek community feedback and commitment. Share
  the draft with the community. Involve the local
  media.

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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future

• Implement the plan.
• - Are adequate resources available.
• - Are adequate volunteers available?
• - This is the stage when most plans falter.
• - Will your plan end up sitting on the shelf?
• - A lack of resources will insure
  disappointment.

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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future

• Evaluate the effort. Set benchmarks and document
  success.
• Celebrate successes. Reward yourself and the
  entire community when goals or tasks are
  accomplished.
• Create an ongoing process. The effort does not
  end, but should be re-evaluated annually.

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Ten Steps to Your Communitys Future
(2) Engage the Community Legitimize the Process
(1) Begin/Continue the Process
(10) Create Ongoing Process
(9) Celebrate Successes
(3) Form An Organized Structure
(4) Conduct Community Assessments
(8) Evaluate the Effort
(5) Develop a Strategic Plan
(7) Implement the Plan
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Strategic Planning Concepts

• Mission Statement
• Goals
• Objectives
• Strategy

If you dont know where you are going,
any road will get you there.
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Mission Statement The communitys philosophy for
development.

• To make Sulphur a better place to live, to
  work, and to conduct business.
• (Example)

To create an environment that allows Coalgate to
provide reasonable business growth and employment
opportunities for Coalgate residents.
(Example)
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A mission statement will answer some of the
following questions

• Who are we serving?
• What markets will be served?
• What are the major outputs or products of the
  organization?
• What defines the organizations constraints?
• What functions does the organization perform?
• For whom does the organization perform these
  functions?
• How does the organization fulfill these functions?

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After Defining the Mission,Set Some GOALS

• An end-state or result to be achieved.
• Specific statement of what the community would
  like to be.
• The more explicit the goal, the better.
• Based on more than wishful thinking.
• Must contain a sense of economic reality.
• Provides specific direction for the planning
  process.

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Examples of Goals

• Bring customers back to the downtown shopping
  area.

Become a retirement destination community.
Expand the agricultural processing industry in
the southwestern part of the state.
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For Each Goal, List Some OBJECTIVES
Each objectives should define

• The key result to be achieved.
• Numerical measures of the progress.
• Target date for completion.

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Objectives vs. Goals(Whats the Difference?)

• Goals are aspirations while objective are
  targets.
• Objectives are actions that allow the community
  to reach its goals.
• Progress toward objectives is measurable.

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The Goal Bring customers back to the downtown
shopping area.

• Some Objectives
• Make the area more attractive to customers by
  June of next year.
• - Add benches and planters
• - Bring in new stores
• - Clean up the downtown area
• Make shopping more convenient by next June.
• - More on-street parking
• - Access to alley parking
• - Add a parking lot in specified location

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Strategy or Strategic ActionA project or
activity undertaken to accomplish the defined
objective.

• Objective Make the area more attractive to
  customers by next June.
• Strategies
• Add benches and planters
• Bring in new stores
• Clean up the downtown area

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Concerns when selecting strategies

• How much will the proposed program cost?
• What are the relative costs and benefits of
  various options?

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Strategic Planning/Economic Development Action
Workplan
Goal Objective Agency or Group Project Manager
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Successful Planning Efforts
Three Community Scenarios
?
Future
Present
A community with no shared vision of its future.
A community with a vision and action plan that is
not supported by its citizens (no alignment with
the vision).
A shared vision and action plan supported by
community (community organizations and
institutions aligned with the vision).
You are seeking the alignment of organizations -
their agendas, their resources, and their actions
- to an overall vision for the future which they
help develop.
SOURCE Mark Peterson, Cooperative Extension
Service, University of Arkansas
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Three Conclusions about Successful Community
Strategies

• No strategy should be dismissed automatically as
  inappropriate.
• There is no unique formula that can work in all
  places under all conditions.
• Careful analysis of unique local situations is
  required for success.

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Keys for Success

• Local Commitment
• Broad Community Involvement
• Community Ownership
• On-Site Visits
• Reliable Survey and Secondary Data
• Exposure to New Information
• Timely Response

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TOOLS to Aid in Developing a Strategy

• Survey Instruments
• Helps identify strengths and weaknesses in the
  community.
• Helps set priorities for economic development.
• Helps inform a cross-section of the community
  about the economic development effort and can
  help gain their support if they are given an
• opportunity to express their opinions.

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Whats Good About Your Community
Here is a list of things that are important to a
town. Be absolutely honest, how do you rate your
town? In answering the questions below, please
make a check mark in the appropriate column.
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Quality of Life Community Profile Survey

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our
  town? Your answers to this survey will assist in
  the development
• of the Economic Development Strategy for . Our
  objective is to identify the needs we have
• in and to find out what you feel should be
  done to make this town a better place to live,
• work, rear children, do business, and enjoy life.
  Please be as candid and as specific as possible
  in your answers
• (each survey is confidential).
• In your opinion, what are the biggest strengths
  or advantages in which could lead to future
  growth?
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• What would you say are some of the biggest
  problems and obstacles faced by for the future
  growth of the area? (note in order of
  importance)
• 1. 4.
• 2. 5.
• 3. 6.
• C. Identify in your opinion which of the
  following are most important with highest
  priority rated 1.

• Rank
• Attracting New Industry
• Expand Local Industry
• Retail Commercial Development
• Expand Tourism Industry
• Expand Community Services

• Rank
• Create Community Organizations
• Downtown Revitalization
• Retirement Industry Development
• Create Home Grown Businesses
• Other