How can Brandon go about systematically and strategically building it's economic base?
One approach that has been very successful in other cities and regions is a concept called "clustering". Clusters help to define key competitive advantages through indepth analysis of related industries, suppliers, services, and foundations such as workforce training, and regulatory environment. Portage la Prairie has made a committment to cluster analysis and has already used it to identify and promote industries in hitherto under-appreciated areas... to their economic advantage as a community. And if Portage can do it, surely Brandon can use this type of information and analysis to strengthen our own economic base.
So what is a cluster? Clusters are systems, not aggregation of firms. They may be connected by functional relationships (suppliers, distributors), or by competition for similar markets (cars, trains, buses, and planes could be part of a transportation cluster). They are defined by relationships, not memberships. They are often overlapping and interdependent. And most importantly for econmic planning in Brandon, they can only flourish in an area that offers the needed human, intellectual, financial, and social capital which includes supportive public policies and programs.
It might be helpful to think of an example to help define the concept. An alternative energy cluster could contain companies that sold products, companies that built products, R&D inputs, workforce training providers, the regulatory environment, marketing and public relations support, and government programs. Cluster analysis would show strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for the cluster (not necessarily individual pieces of the cluster). The strength of the cluster would attract investment and growth.
A real world example is in Minneapolis, which is also known as "Medical Alley", where over 200 companies are clustered around medical technology, pharmaceutical, bio tech, and health care products. Minnesapolis has all the ingredients of a successful medical device cluster - industry leaders, young growing companies, entrepreneurs, education and training focused in this area. There are venture capitalists that know the industry, established medical centres that are early adopters of the technology, a strong professional association. This cluster employs only 1% of Minnesotans, but its jobs are high wage.
What would be the critical economic clusters in Brandon? In Westman? An aggressive economic development strategy would need to know this information. An upcoming blog posting will look at what City Hall could do with this information to benefit our City's economic clusters.
The Prosperity Agenda is a series of postings dealing with economic development in Brandon. City Hall needs to provide leadership to provide a progressive economic strategy for our community, to encourage a new era of income growth, as well as promote a broad-based prosperity that produces the widest possible impact. I'd love to hear from you and can be reached at shariformayor@gmail.com.
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