Gotta Keep Fishin!

One of the frustrations of working the area of economic development is far and few between actual projects can be. At Agracel we compare it to looking for a needle in a haystack. There just aren’t enough projects for all of the ED groups that out there looking. I recently saw a study which showed that there are only 200 projects/year with over 200 new hires. There obviously are going to be more losers than winners in this game, if you just look at the numbers involved.

But, to be successful you’ve got to continually be out there fishing, with your line in the water, hoping that a big fish or project will snag onto your line. Ponca City, OK (population 25,919) has impressed me with their program of economic development. Here is how they summed up their past fiscal year, which ended on June 30th, “For the fiscal year, PCDA contacted 316 new companies, had 566 meetings with existing companies, 162 with consultants, 158 with regional partners and 269 with government officials. At the beginning of July, PCDA had 15 open projects and four open leads with a potential job count of 1,951, most in one of the leads.”

The ED game is not for “one shot wonders”, it is a long term, continuum of constantly being on the lookout for expansions and new projects. You’ve got to keep your line in the water and you’ve got to have a lot of patience.

Earlier this week Ponca City announced that Host Analytics, a fast growing software company is opening a North American Center of Excellence in the community. The 50 person operation will include customer service, sales and testing operations. It’s a nice fish for them to land!