Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
by Judy Newman

“George Austin, who has been a key player in some of Madison’s biggest projects, will help carry out MadREP’s new initiative, Advance Now: Madison Region’s Strategy for Economic Growth.

Austin joins MadREP as director of community outreach. He will head the effort by the eight-county regional economic development group to meet with business and community leaders and see what they think the area should do to bring in new businesses and to help existing companies grow.

Advance Now is a ‘very exciting initiative,’ Austin said. ‘It’s going to result in a detailed economic development plan and a very action-oriented strategy. Given the times we live in, the timing couldn’t be better for such an approach.'”

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Advance Now: Madison Region’s Strategy for Economic Growth is a comprehensive, action-oriented regional economic development strategy that will systematically move the Madison Region’s economy forward. The eight-month strategy development process for Advance Now relies on feedback gathered from citizens who live in Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Iowa, Green, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk counties.

Lend your voice to the conversation and help shape the future of the Madison Region by taking the Advance Now public input survey.  Please encourage others to do the same. Survey topics include education, workforce, quality of life, and business climate. The survey closes October 11, 2011.

 

MadREP, the economic development partnership for the eight-county Madison Region, announces the launch of the eight-month strategy development process for Advance Now: Madison Region’s Strategy for Economic Growth. The process relies heavily on public input and engages both public- and private-sector leaders to define the region’s roadmap for sustained economic growth.

“Though our region has tremendous assets, we’ve lost ground over the past few years in terms of business growth and job creation,” notes Jennifer Alexander, president of MadREP. “The time for a unified vision and bold action is now.”

In the wake of the recession, the Madison Region sits at a pivotal moment for shaping its economic prospects. While the region’s many assets position it for success on several levels, the region is falling behind on the road to economic recovery. MadREP’s 2010 State of the Madison Region Report revealed that the area was outpaced by four of five peer regions in employment and business growth, and that per capita income is dropping at a higher rate than peers. Wisconsin ranked #43 in Forbes’ 2010 rankings of the Best States for Businesses, and Moody’s February 2011 analysis ranks the Madison MSA 327 out of 392 nationwide for projected employment growth through 2014. Advance Now will directly address these challenges, positioning the Madison Region to compete in today’s global marketplace.

The project begins with the online community survey found here. All citizens from throughout the eight-county region (Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk Counties) are encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions on topics including education, workforce, quality of life, and business climate. The survey is available now until October 11, 2011. 

This information will be used for the first of four distinct phases of the Advance Now strategy development process. The initial Competitive Assessment phase will provide analysis of the region’s position using economic and industry data and feedback from key constituencies. The second phase includes a Target Cluster Analysis, identifying the most important existing and emerging targets for regional leaders to pursue. In the third phase, leaders will define the Core Strategies of Advance Now, combining research with action items aimed at addressing challenges and capitalizing on opportunities for visionary growth. The development process culminates in the creation of a detailed Implementation Plan that MadREP and its regional stakeholders and partners will be poised to execute, with clear goals, action steps, and performance measures, as well as a structure for updating the process in the coming years. 

The development process will be overseen by a strategy committee of 24 community stakeholders led by co-chairs Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), and Bill Johnston, publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal. The strategy committee, along with the region’s Economic Development Professionals Network, will provide leadership and insight while committing to the successful, timely implementation and evaluation of the plan.

The entire Advance Now process will be directed by leading economic development strategist J. Mac Holladay, CCE, PCED, and his Atlanta-based firm Market Street Services. Mr. Holladay has a proven track record for facilitating economic transformation in cities and regions across the country and will lend a critical external perspective to this process. Mr. Holladay has been in the community and economic development field since 1972.  He served three Chambers of Commerce over a 13-year period and is the only individual to head state-level economic development organizations in three different states.

The creation of the Advance Now strategy also positions MadREP to obtain a federal Economic Development District (EDD) designation for the Madison Region. The U.S. Economic Development Administration granted MadREP $97,500 in funding assistance to create a comprehensive economic development strategy, which leads to the EDD designation. This designation will create much-needed funding opportunities, including seed money for revolving loan funds, planning grants, and infrastructure funding. With seven EDDs already in Wisconsin covering 85 percent of the state, the attainment of this EDD designation will cover the important missing piece of the Madison Region.

Additional funds for Advance Now are provided by sponsors Madison Gas and Electric and American Family Insurance.

MadREP will document the Advance Now process at advancenow.madisonregion.org, a dedicated website with research findings, blog updates, and opportunities for public involvement.

ABOUT MadREP:
MadREP is the economic development partnership for the eight-county Madison Region, established to grow the region’s economy in ways that preserve and enhance quality of life. We are committed to providing businesses and communities with efficient access to capital; growing the industries and sectors that comprise our region’s greatest assets; informing smart decision-making by delivering valuable research and data; and collaborating across communities to share best practices and promote our region. We create value with initiatives that focus on long-term, sustained results, aimed at building the region’s competitive advantage. The Madison Region includes the counties of Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, and Sauk.

ABOUT MARKET STREET SERVICES & MAC HOLLADAY:
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Market Street Services, Inc. was founded in 1997 as an alternative to the traditional community and economic development consulting firm. The company’s experience and perspective is firmly rooted in the knowledge gained from being practitioners in the field, rather than looking “from the outside in.” The firm’s founder and CEO, J. Mac Holladay has more than 30 years of experience in community and economic development, both as a Chamber professional and as state economic development director. Market Street’s staff has worked with clients throughout the country to not only devise measurable, achievable strategies, but also have first-hand experience in clarifying what is needed from an organizational standpoint to successfully implement those strategies. 

Market Street’s clients are as diverse as Austin, Texas; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Coachella Valley, California. In the past fourteen years the firm has worked in over 130 communities and 29 states. Market Street has facilitated strategic planning processes for many of the nation’s best-practice economic development organizations, including the last two five-year strategies for Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Gwinnett County, Georgia; Hopkinsville-Christian County, Kentucky; and Waco, Texas. 

 

 

Excerpted from Madison Magazine
by Neil Heinen

“Right about now I’d be more than happy to admit that I didn’t pay close enough attention during my economics class in college. Except I didn’t take an economics class in college. So my lack of knowledge of what’s really happening in the global economy is well founded. Despite my daily reading of the business pages in major American newspapers and respected websites, I can’t seem to escape the feeling that I really don’t have a clue.

That doesn’t stop me from worrying, however, and what worries me the most right now is that we as a country have lost our willingness to invest in ourselves. To be sure this is all clouded by the ugliest politics I’ve seen in my lifetime. Yes, the Civil Rights struggle was bad. So were the Cold War and the Vietnam War. But I’ve never seen so many elected officials so indifferent to the good of the country or the state, so indifferent to the citizens. And it seems to me that indifference is showing up in the painfully slow recovery from a recession, which in fact we may be slipping back in to. And the majority of our leaders simply don’t care.

Part of my impatience may be age. I turned sixty in between last month’s column and the one you’re reading, and the “long term” isn’t what it once was. But even the optimism of youth has to be tempered these days by unemployment rates, housing prices and the cost of gas. Every fiscal instinct I have says we should be investing in business development, new urban communities and green energy. Which brings me to the topic closest to my heart—Madison.

So many people are working so hard to continue to build and grow our city in healthy and sustainable, creative and profitable ways. MadREP has embarked on a new economic development strategy that holds the greatest promise I’ve seen since the Collaboration Council was created five or six years ago.”

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
by Chris Rickert

“Two of the many things that puzzle me:

• Companies and organizations named after random nouns or verbs seemingly unrelated to their missions: Apple, Target, Sprint, etc.
• Federal government grants to encourage business development when the federal government is bleeding red ink and when businesses routinely complain that one of the chief barriers to business development is, well, the federal government — more specifically, its penchant for taxing and regulation.

Put the two together and my head spins.

So I’m a little dizzy after delving into MadREP’s Advance Now.

MadREP is a nonprofit organization based in Madison that tries to encourage economic growth in eight counties by providing information about local taxes, developable land, loans and grants, and other things that help new and growing businesses. It is also something of a cheerleader for all the things that make the greater Madison region an awesome place to live and work.

Jennifer Post Tyler, MadREP interim executive vice president, said the group’s name is the response to a question posed by the people who created it — namely: What is the goal of economic development? (For communities and people to thrive.)

Advance Now is MadREP’s effort to come up with a grand economic development plan. Its name is meant to emphasize what it says is Madison’s faltering position among similar regions when it comes to things such as quality of life and personal income.”

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