Big Fish. Great Pond.

David Myers, head of economic development in Ponca City for the past two years, talked to me about his goals for development. “It is the people’s money and we need to use it wisely. The vast majority of our job growth is going to come from within our existing businesses. When a company looks at moving here they are going to want to talk to their peers and we want that to be a good conversation.”

“Our new campaign is: Big Fish. Great Pond. Let me give you an example of the type of person we are bringing into Ponca City. Shane Herman is a blue collar kind of guy who makes oil field spill prevention devices. He got the idea from working on the north slope of Alaska. He moved here from Yuma, Arizona last year because he wanted to work with Conoco-Phillips and be closer to the oil companies. We helped him get a purchase order from Conoco-Phillips that will allow him to grow his company from 5 to 10 employees. We are going to help him continue to grow. I call it growing your own.”

Myers also related this approach to economic gardening as opposed to “buffalo hunting”, or going after the huge projects. My own experience is that too many communities spend WAY too much time “buffalo hunting” for projects rather than growing their own small companies. Ponca City is on the right track and I love their slogan, “Big Fish. Great Pond.”