By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Every five years throughout its 25-year existence, Right Place Inc. sets a five-year strategic plan outlining goals for regional economic development and jobs retention/creation. The Strategic Plan 2009-2013 unveiled recently, if successful, will establish unprecedented capital investment in West Michigan and create thousands more jobs.
Here are the measurable accomplishments of the most recent strategic plan that wrapped up in 2008:
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Capital investment, goal $340 million. Actual: $467 million.
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New-payroll, goal $75 million. Actual: $228 million.
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Jobs created/retained, goal 4,500. Actual: 8,366.
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Companies assisted, goal 2,000. Actual: 2,332.
The 2009-2013 strategic plan (A.K.A. the West Michigan Action Plan) sets the bar even higher with new five-year targets:
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$500 million in new capital investment
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5,000 new/retained jobs
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$175 million in new payroll
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Right Place assistance to 7,500 companies.
“We have to be very agile to stay ahead of the competition, we’re going into new businesses like life sciences and aerospace, and we’re looking at clusters where we think we have strategic advantage,” says Birgit Klohs, executive director. “We’re already working on diversification plans with 25 companies straight off the Automotive Diversification Summit held February 18th.”
The strategic priorities for the next five years are to:
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Lead West Michigan business development efforts to retain and expand existing businesses; attract new businesses from global and national markets; and promote sustainable land and building use.
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Identify and develop emerging growth opportunities, including life sciences with special emphasis on medical devices and biotechnology; advanced manufacturing; sustainable practices including renewable products, services and technologies; renewable energy sources and suppliers of solar, wind and biomass power; aerospace and defense.
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Strengthen the global competitiveness and innovation of our existing regional manufacturers by supporting commercialization of regional, national and international intellectual property; develop and implement innovative products and services to support best-in-class manufacturing.
Source: Birgit Klohs, Right Place, Inc.
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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