Economic Development Leaders from Atlanta, Charlotte and Baltimore share Key Take-Aways for Philadelphia
By: Sylvie Gallier Howard, CEO, Equitable Cities Consulting and Vaugn Ross, CEO, Rvesta Consulting
On September 6, 2023, three economic development leaders - Katie Kirkpatrick, CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber; Janet LaBar, CEO of Charlotte Regional Business Alliance®; and Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, came to visit with the Roadmap for Quality Jobs Steering Committee (see Background below for more information) to share their wisdom and experience in areas such as: fostering regional collaboration, growing quality jobs, and more.
Below we’ve encapsulated five key take-aways from our expert guests for Philadelphia to consider as we chart our own roadmap:
The importance of a defining moment to catalyze economic cooperation: In all three cities, there came a moment when local leaders came together - often prompted by the business community - to declare that the status quo isn’t going to cut it anymore in moving their city and region forward, and called for a more unified economic development structure. Whether sparked by a crisis or sustained underperformance, it is this defining moment where leaders were bold enough to disrupt organizational structures, leadership, and systems, that led to more collaborative, higher impact economic development outcomes. Kirpatrick shared that in Atlanta, the business community threw down the proverbial gauntlet, declaring that they had had enough of counties poaching businesses from each other; they shook up the leadership and pushed the various partners to come together and sign an MOU. In Baltimore, Thomas shared that it took several failed attempts to move past having two competing business development entities, before finally forming the merged organization that he now leads. The fact that Baltimore has been continuing to bleed residents also helped prompt the recent merger. Notably, we also heard that robust, high-quality data was essential for the changemakers to compel others to come on board to chart a new path forward. When business leaders saw the hard data, they knew they needed serious change.
Economic development must move from a business-focus to a people-focus: Our visitors spoke of a new framework and an evolving definition of economic development - which moves from a traditional singular focus on business development to a more comprehensive approach that puts people at the center. Kirkpatrick described how she often refers to economic development as a three-legged stool– representing community, the economy, and talent– and the importance of each of those legs being equal in length for the stool to stay balanced.
The key role of a backbone organization to steward shared responsibility for regional economic growth: In Charlotte and Baltimore, the backbone organizations are recently merged economic development entities, while in Atlanta, the over one-hundred year old Chamber has reinvented itself to lead the way. We learned that while regional economic development stewardship doesn’t come without its challenges, all three leaders agreed that they have found success by serving as a convenor, collaborator and connector, bringing corporate and civic leaders together to invest in the region. Kirkpatrick spoke of the importance of fostering a “peer civic ethos” and LeBar stressed that corporate leaders must transition to seeing themselves as investors and partners in economic development, not merely as beneficiaries.
Quality job creation should be led by employers, but catalyzed by the regional organization: We heard from all organizations that they are becoming more and more engaged in fostering quality job creation, mostly by sharing a common definition for “quality jobs” and by catalyzing employer-led efforts, providing data, infrastructure support, and tools that help to accelerate their efforts. Kirpatrick gave an example of how Atlanta employers had previously defined quality jobs as any job with a six-figure salary, but this over-simplified definition left out a large swath of the population. Today both the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the CLT Alliance are convening major employers to agree on a more comprehensive definition of quality jobs and to support their efforts to reimagine their hiring processes and develop partnerships with local support entities.
The importance of a long-term vision with major milestones, but also short-term detailed activities: When asked about their thoughts on the importance of a plan or roadmap, all three leaders stressed that a long-term vision is key to creating a rallying cry and urgency. According to the speakers, major milestones established in a long-term plan should remain evergreen, while short-term plans should be revisited regularly and revised as needed. Thomas spoke of the nascent plan his organization is developing already serving as a tool to galvanize stakeholder action around big, bold ideas. “When you organize around big ideas, it's quite amazing. People come to the meetings now because we are new things at every meeting,” said Thomas.
While always informative to hear best-practices and lessons learned from our peers in other cities, our panel discussion elicited our audience to remember the strengths and opportunities that lie within our own city and within our control. In our own backyard, the Chamber for Greater Philadelphia has recently launched a new 5-year strategic plan called Chamber 2028: Amplify. Advocate. Grow. and Governor Shapiro recently announced plans to build the first statewide economic development strategy in nearly two decades. Importantly, coordination across all of these evolving initiatives is underway.
The successes and failures of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Charlotte all represent pieces of the larger story of each place just as our Roadmap effort is but one page of Philadelphia’s evolving tale. As we heard from our experts, we, through our co-sponsors and steering committee members, have many of the same tools necessary to create our own defining moment.
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Background in The Roadmap for Quality Jobs Initiative:
The Roadmap for Quality Jobs initiative was launched in the fall of 2022 with the backing of The Pew Charitable Trust and the co-sponsorship of the City of Philadelphia Commerce Department; Philadelphia Works, Inc.; PIDC; the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia; and Visit Philadelphia. The Steering Committee, a group of Philadelphia’s economic and workforce development leaders and doers came together around a shared mission: generating an economic development roadmap centered in equity and focused on quality jobs; encompassing both workforce and business development, crafted through a stakeholder-led process. Over the course of nearly a year, the Steering Committee participated in multiple sessions, facilitated by Equitable Cities Consulting and Rvesta Consulting, to review and reflect on data about Philadelphia and peer cities, discuss challenges and opportunities, and select priorities that can build on Philadelphia’s prior economic and workforce development successes and add momentum to current promising initiatives. In the winter of 2023, the Steering Committee formed three subcommittees – Small Business/Community Economic Development; Talent Pipeline/Workforce; and Drivers of Growth, Resilience, and Inclusive Prosperity – to identify potential priorities for action.
With feedback from the subcommittees, the Steering Committee determined that two recommended priorities – if advanced in combination – have the greatest potential to drive positive, equitable impact through deep integration of workforce and economic development:
1. Regional, industry-focused, equity-centered economic development strategy with a permanent oversight structure. To maximize Philadelphia’s current and future potential to drive inclusive growth and to foster greater collaboration through a unified vision, establish a regional, industry-focused, equity-centered, economic development strategy – along with a permanent structure to oversee its implementation, including an ongoing research team and data hub.
2. Employer-centered Talent Hub. Build an employer-centered Talent Hub to help businesses navigate the youth and adult workforce system and the community of related providers; engage employers in the design and delivery of effective workforce training; and expand equitable opportunities for Philadelphians to secure quality jobs and advance along a career pathway.