Windsor's Economic Non-Development

Rumour has it that the search for a new CEO for the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Commission is not going well. In fact, it has stalled.

It has taken us several years to get one going, a Board appointed, a Chair selected and a search started for someone to lead it. Why bother you may ask since the Mayor, seemingly single-handedly, according to the press clippings, is able to get us all of those high-paying, high tech (minimum pay, call centre) jobs after all that will create a new economy here.

I have heard from two well-placed sources that the search for the new head of the Commission is not going very well due to "meddling." I have a better idea....Why go through the search process...Just appoint Remo Mancini as the head. After all, he has written a number of Star Guest Columns recently, has appeared on Cogeco and given his work experience (sorry, I am forbidden to mention his previous employer's name), he should be a natural for it. He would make it work. Imagine him and Sandra butting heads on what's good for Windsor!

We do need some credibility with this Board if it is to succeed. Remember what the Chamber of Commerce said back in MARCH of this year, over 8 months ago:

• "URGENT NEED FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
  
  The Chamber recommends a number of measures that would expedite the transition stated in the current Economic Development initiative. These include:
  • Regional scope for the new Economic Development organization.
  • Business-led and driven Board of Directors.
  • Appropriate and proportional funding for Economic Development.
  • Transfer all responsibilities of the current Advisory Group and Transitional Board to the new Board of Directors as soon as possible.
  
  The Chamber urges the City of Windsor, our municipal governments and the regional government of Essex to work as full partners on a regional team basis in order to achieve the goals of the current initiative. The Chamber calls for a recast organization that understands and knows the needs of the business community. The new Economic Development organization should have a business-led Board of Directors from the region that would be capable of making binding decisions for this organization.
  
  The Chamber thanks the current Economic Development Advisory Group that assisted in creating a regional approach and guiding the process to this point. To provide the final stage of the initiative with a clear beginning and a clear mandate, political leaders should transfer all responsibility and the necessary tools to a single leadership group, the new Board of Directors."

Then in JULY, 4 months ago, the Chamber said,

• "CHAMBER APPLAUDS NEW REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD ANNOUNCEMENT
  
  The Windsor & District Chamber of Commerce applauds the announcement of the appointment of a new Board of Directors for the Regional Economic Development Board.
  
  The Chamber now looks forward to the immediate appointment of a new Executive Director by this new board.
  
  “The Chamber looks forward to working with a regional, business-focused economic development team, unified in purpose and action. We know what businesses need and want. We believe we can assist this organization in bringing new development to this area. With these new appointments, the real decision-making will now begin to promote regional economic prosperity"

In other words, the Chamber was slamming the Board concept as it originally was set up calling for more business involvement. There was muted endorsement in July but even then the point was made that "We know what businesses need and want." It was made based on the fact that at least there were some business people on the Board and that there was an expectation that a CEO would be appointed soon therafter.

Ask the Board now what they think. I am sure that they will be as frustrated as anyone with the lack of action.

Thanks to a reader for pointing this article out to me. If I were advising the new head, here's what I would send him to show him how this really ought to work with all of the talented people in this town. If Detroit can do it, so can we and we should have a looooooooooooooong time ago!

• "CEOs offer fix-it plan
  November 27, 2006, by Daniel Howes, Detroit News
  
  Metro Detroit's most influential group of corporate CEOs, determined to make a difference in tough times, today will unveil a regional economic development plan that would theoretically deploy its know-how for creating jobs and seizing opportunity.
  
  Detroit Renaissance, in a strategy paper dubbed "Road to Renaissance" and obtained by The Detroit News, says it aims to "craft a collaborative regional strategy that links and leverages resources and leadership critical to building the economy across boundaries."
  
  What could be yet another study by a civic group trying to drive change in a region chronically resistant to it instead signals an innovative effort to get things moving in spite of traditional barriers. And it comes as six prominent civic groups, including Detroit Renaissance, each move to combine their expertise into a grand strategic blueprint under the name "One D: Transforming Regional Detroit."
  
  "Road to Renaissance," scheduled to be detailed in a news conference today, is intended to be one answer from the region's top CEOs. Culminating months of interviews with 600 business and civic leaders representing 500 organizations throughout the region, the plan aims to focus the energies and resources of Detroit Renaissance's CEO board members on what they know best.
  
  "This is business," Cynthia Pasky, CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc. and a member of the Detroit Renaissance board, told me. "If we can't do this, how can we run our business? This is what we know. Step out and drive change in an area you really know what you're doing."
  
  Working with New Economy Strategies, a Washington-based consulting firm, Renaissance concluded that the region's "challenges to competitiveness" included a "geopolitical divide" between its urban core and surrounding communities and problematic race relations that impact "all aspects" of the region's fabric.
  
  It said a 50-year history in the automotive supply chain hampered entrepreneurialism; that the "factory town" entitlement mentality fostered low expectations for career growth and low motivation for educational achievement; that "legacy leadership" in the corporate community -- in effect, the same ol' folks from the same ol' companies -- stifled development of new leaders and would-be philanthropists.
  
  "We're not going to change all of that old stuff -- it's too ingrained in the psyche of the people," said John Rakolta Jr., chairman of Walbridge Aldinger Co. "We're in our own state of depression, but it's not like it's something we can't fix. We need to have some successes to show people that there are possibilities out there."
  
  Eager to avoid controversial political causes like the governance model for Detroit's schools or the failed cultural arts tax, Renaissance is focusing its influence and limited resources on economic development. The group and its consultants identified six strategic priorities that stand a legitimate chance of being "achievable" given the region's history and persistent tensions, its technical and business expertise and its economic and natural assets.
  
  The plan, likely to be met with the customary cynicism that greets most initiatives that don't hew to southeast Michigan's culture of division and negativity, doesn't hinge on participation of political leadership, at least initially. And that's probably a good thing.
  
  Detroit Renaissance recruited "implementation team" leaders from think tanks, construction, real estate, higher education, media, technology, job training and civic groups -- not the same old players -- to lead teams of about 20 members each. The expectation after the teams begin work next month: Deliver results and, if not, be held accountable.
  
  "We all fundamentally believe that what gets measured gets done," said Domino's Pizza Inc. CEO David Brandon, who helped quarterback the project for the Renaissance board. "What the process is intended to do is set out goals and hold ourselves accountable.
  
  "What I like is there's a new generation of leadership saying, 'We're not going anywhere.' It's a more diversified group of voices that are coming at this than the old institutional voices that used to run Detroit."
  
  Yes, it is. It's also hard to overstate how important that shift to a new generation is for southeast Michigan's business leadership, dominated for too long by automakers whose interests didn't necessarily coincide with the region. Like, for example, right now.
  
  To leverage the region's automotive heritage and technical competence while at the same time diversify away from it, "Road to Renaissance" proposes to:
  
  First, use southeast Michigan's automotive expertise and transportation infrastructure to become a global center for mobility. That would include lobbying for government funding to support research in alternative fuels, clean energy and developing an automotive public policy agenda.
  
  Second, become a global logistics hub by integrating the region's industrial design capability, advanced manufacturing and distribution expertise. Also, support the "Aerotropolis" effort that would link Detroit Metropolitan and Willow Run airports into a cargo-and-people hub that could someday rival Chicago's.
  
  Third, organize and showcase the region's creative community, from its museums, the College for Creative Studies and Cranbrook Academy of Art to its reputation, past and present, as home to innovators in the global music scene, from Motown and rock to techno and hip-hop. Also, back the city of Detroit's push to establish a "creative district" to attract business and development.
  
  Fourth, expand "entrepreneurial capacity" by making gap financing more available to would-be entrepreneurs, a chronic problem in a business community dominated by traditional Old Economy companies and those who service them.
  
  Fifth, leverage the know-how of such new board members as University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon to create programs to encourage and retain talent schooled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Also, develop regional internship programs to match qualified students with business and apprenticeship programs for non-college youth.
  
  Finally, the business group would launch a series of marketing programs that would highlight the region's assets -- its cultural organizations; world-class universities and airport, sports and entertainment venues; waterfront; and proximity to an international border.
  
  The campaigns would be aimed nationally, overseas and even here in Detroit because Metro Detroiters, the group found, rated their community last among major metro regions nationwide as "a great place to live and work. Participants in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston and Indianapolis rank themselves at the top of the list," the study says. "Greater Detroit participants ranked themselves last."
  
  Indeed, a core message of the Renaissance effort is that Metro Detroit is mired in a kind of pessimistic self-loathing that simply doesn't reflect what Detroit Renaissance President Doug Rothwell calls the region's "asset base."
  
  "Everyone else thinks we're bad, and we think we're worse," he told me, referring to the regional perception survey. "What we don't do is recognize any of the good stuff going on in this region. We can't win as a community if we don't have confidence in ourselves to win."