Business Retention: Helping Companies Compete in a Global Economy (cont.)

A new way to conduct business

The group chose the consulting firm Executive Pulse, Inc. to design and implement the new program because it offered a customized survey tool, provided regular skills training for outreach specialists and regional resource partners, and had a track record of implementing successful retention programs in other communities. The BusinessFirst! program was developed around the following key tenets:

1. A structured, systematic method of conducting a BR&E program, versus a fragmented, ad hoc approach. (Business owners commonly complained that their time was wasted when multiple organizations called on them separately.)

2. A relationship-based program that integrates regular training for outreach specialists and regional resource partners (those who deliver services in areas such as workforce development, international trade, import/export assistance, information technology, workers compensation, financing and more).

3. Each BusinessFirst! member community must have access to Dun and Bradstreet’s I-Market data for companies located within its jurisdiction. This tool provides valuable data – including creditworthiness, number of employees, NAICS codes, ownership, and more – for outreach specialists to review before interviewing a company.

4. Each community will have direct access to aggregate information for the entire region, in addition to detailed information regarding companies in its jurisdiction. This will assist in developing various trend analyses over time.

5. Regional resource partners will be able to deliver information electronically to each community’s database of company information. This allows communities to know when other organizations have spoken to local companies, so companies aren’t bombarded by EDOs asking redundant questions.

6. Through its technology, the BR&E program must assist in identifying issues that are relevant to the development of local economic development policies, and provide insight into developing new programs that are relevant to the business community’s needs.

Getting results

Upon receiving ED/GE funding for BusinessFirst!, Montgomery County communities agreed to allow Dayton to be the beta test for the new program. This enabled the partners to identify issues that were clear only after implementation – for example, when the technology worked well and when it didn’t, or whether the questions should flow differently – and tweak the program before expanding it to the entire region.

Since its inception, BusinessFirst! has been refined to better serve regional businesses. Some highlights resulting from the effort include

• Stronger relationships between business leaders and outreach specialists. The business community appreciates the coordinated manner in which BusinessFirst! team members are working to serve their companies.

• Between 2004 and October 2006, 317 referrals were made to BusinessFirst! regional resource partners to respond to company needs. To illustrate what happens after referrals are made, below is a breakdown of the results of those 317 referrals:

  1. 183 referrals have been closed (services were provided to companies and completed).

  2. 98 referrals remain open for various reasons (e.g., awaiting financing, ongoing workforce recruitment, etc.)

  3. 36 referrals were unable to close (e.g., the company did not return phone calls).

  4. 156 of the 317 referrals were informationdriven (requesting more information on workforce recruitment, information technology services, marketing, etc.)

  5. 39 referrals resulted in projects that involved assistance such as ED/GE funds or Enterprise Zones (tax abatements). In these projects, companies have pledged to create 1,900 jobs and retain approximately 3,068 jobs.

  6. Collectively, all of the regional resource partners provided over 1,030 hours assisting businesses.

The BusinessFirst! Team has been instrumental in helping many companies stay and grow in the region, including Italybased Eurand Pharmaceutical; British companies IMI Norgren and Smiths Aerospace; GE Consumer Finance; Japan-based SK Tech; Paxar; Dayton-Phoenix, Inc.; Moto Photo; ConSpan Bridge Systems; Appleton; and LORD Corporation, among others.

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