Bill Mitchell
Executive director
Waukesha County Economic Development Corp.
The โgameโ of recruiting businesses has changed significantly in todayโs economic landscape, according to Bill Mitchell, the executive director of the Waukesha County Economic Development Corp.
โThere was a day when the recipe for economic development was indeed simple โ attract a business to a community with a well-written โquality of lifeโ sales pitch, toss in a few financial incentives, find a suitable business or industrial park and it would score jobs, investment and tax base.
โToday the game is much more complex and feels like an economic version of medical triage.
โWe dig into the companyโs decision matrix for an expansion or relocation. We must quickly learn the talent, training, technology, real estate and supply chain needs of the business, bridge the company to state, county and local governmental units and then if the project still makes sense, scope out access to capital to finance it.
โWhat Iโve learned is that this new economic game requires that we broker great partners in each of these areas to make deals happen. No one organization, whether an economic development corporation, chamber of commerce or business association, can provide all the resources needed to close deals that create jobs and investment dollars in a community.
โPartnerships are tricky โ lots of profit-minded stakeholders, agendas and plenty of egos at the table โ and building trust among these project partners is not for the weak of heart. The global reality for economic growth is brokering world-class partnerships and the chutzpah to sew the partnerships together successfully.โ