A week into the Great Reinvention, as I like to call the Greater Richmond Partnership's recession-sparked reevaluation of its effort to keep Richmond at the top of the heap for new and relocating businesses, and I wonder how it's going.
More importantly, I suppose, I wonder what industry segments the Partnership decided would replace the once-golden geese of finance and insurance as Richmond's next economic beau. Richmond BizSense has some of the details:
“Finance and insurance [industries] is a business we have been trying to attract,” said Director Greg Wingfield. “Given what’s happening, should we forgo that for a while and put time and energy and resources into an area that has a higher growth potential?”
Here are nine ideas: Green, green, green. Health care, medical research, assisted living. Engineering, creationeering, education.
Curious about what ideas the Partnership came up with, I decided to take a gander at the 90 day plan itself. (You can also enjoy the pleasure of reading it here.) A few key takeaways after breezing through "RESPONSE TO CHANGING ECONOMIC TIMES IN THE RICHMOND REGION: A 90 DAY ACTION PLAN" follow:
- It might be about 90 days out-of-date. The report states that "many existing companies plan to expand and hire new employees in the next six to twelve months." I think that window just slid into 2010. To its credit, the Partnership acknowledges that at the end of this dramatic slide the region will experience "a launching pad for new startups, growth, and job creation." I just don't think we're going to see that in any significant sense until mid-2010. Of course, I'm not an economist. Not that they've been a lot of help lately.
- The plan asks some good questions -- such as, "What are the priorities and the expected qualities and capacities? Is our goal to focus on businesses that bring in jobs? Do we want job quantity over job quality? Is capital investment more or less important? Do we want to recruit traditional businesses in mature industries or invest in those of the future? Do we focus our efforts on small businesses or larger multinationals? Is their an appropriate mix of these strategies that we can support?" (It also boasts some grammatical errors.)
- The plan suggests looking at some of the very areas I pulled out of nowhere, and listed quite a few that weren't on my radar. Which might be why they get paid to do this stuff. Some of the possible industries for the region to pursue: Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology; Alternative Energy; Organics and Nutraceuticals; Corporate and Division Headquarters; Advertising and Public Relations; Engineering and Architecture; Information Technologies; Software Development; Cyber Security.
- The Partnership does not ignore the reality that thousands of Central Virginians are suddenly trying to figure out where they will be employed next week. Keeping good workers in the region is as important as attracting new industry. The plan calls for the creation of a regional online jobs portal, as well as ways to connect displaced workers and growing or new businesses.
