OPINION: Another way to look at job recruitment in our area

*Note: This is a reader-submitted opinion piece. Opinions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@clarksvillenow.com

New Year’s resolutions are anathema to some, just as listening is to some politicians. The resolutions some of us make are new, like reading more or developing a hobby, while others simply move old resolutions to the top of the new list. I take seriously the setting of goals, or making resolutions since to set a goal is to issue a challenge, and I take challenges very seriously. So it is with all seriousness that I suggest our community make a resolution to think differently about economic development, or in today’s parlance, job recruitment.

Undoubtedly we have had success identifying greenfield sites (farmland), asking our local governments to make the investment, then set off on recruiting a large manufacturing company to locate here. That investment is usually accompanied by financial investments with lots of zeros behind the dollar sign, and hundreds of jobs for our region. Beyond that investment is a commitment by state and local governments to entice the company to locate here, and often overlooked is the money we spend on getting the site ready, making sure utilities are available, developing roads and various transportation access points, and finally, giving the company a property tax break for the privilege of being in our community. All are tried and true methods for success. But I submit there are other ways to measure success.

And it is our success that is precisely why now is the time to expand our economic development strategy. Let’s look to our urban core to develop innovation corridors that entice companies to locate in our community. We could use the same formula to attract jobs to our community, but not just any jobs. Jobs should be cutting edge and technologically sound, pay higher wages, perhaps focus on research and development, match and stretch our educational offerings, and have the potential for spin-offs in the same industry and probably smaller and more fragile, but locally developed and owned. Jobs that keep our spouses, children, or grandchildren from making the drive to Nashville every day to find them.

We speak fondly about the education and skill qualities of our work force, and rightfully, Fort Campbell and our diversity are at the center of every conversation. But let’s harness the brain power of veterans, and graduates of Austin Peay State University, our flagship university, and nurture companies that are organically grown. We should encourage companies that invest in our community, hold their money in local financial institutions, buy furniture and supplies here, and have local decision makers. Jobs that will create individual wealth and are building blocks to finance start-ups. Companies that complement our current roster of manufacturers. Businesses that focus on innovation. We’ve also got the gigabit availability just aching to be maximized.

I can hear the traditionalists saying “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” But the recent kerfuffle with the proposed mega-site that will straddle the Montgomery and Robertson County lines suggests our community may be ready for less of a farm depleting land grab, and a more diverse approach to job creation. After all, they aren’t making more land, and farms mean food, and food means survival.

So, as other communities have entered the sweepstakes for the second Amazon headquarters, or HQ2, we should use our community’s collective intelligence and leverage our contacts to figure out how we join the “new economic frontier.” As much as I deplore task forces, let’s form a kitchen cabinet (no consultants need apply) that will earnestly look at what our community needs to do to achieve success in this segment of economic development.

Put together the best and brightest minds of our region, and give them the charge to identify sites, industry types, workforce needs, realistic weaknesses, and opportunities for success. Set a deadline for their work, twelve months, and charge them with creating a plan that casts a broad vision, a “moon shot” if you will, and establish realistic objectives. I also have a suggestion for the co-chairs of this cabinet, but will keep those names to myself for now.

I offer this idea for consideration and conversation. Lest you think it is a criticism of our current economic development staff or organizations, it is not. Rather it is an opportunity to think bigger, and longer term about what we want to be as a community — not just four exits off the interstate. So as we look to a new year, let us resolve to do something different.