Baltimore Fails to Merge ED Groups

Despite pressure to unite, The Greater Baltimore Committee, the Greater Baltimore Alliance and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore have decided to remain separate entities with individual presidents and boards.

To strengthen regional economic development, the organizations will form a coordinating committee charged with "achieving savings in the area of common financial and accounting systems, enhancing communication, clarifying individual missions and overseeing scorecards designed to evaluate performance”, according to a report delivered by a consulting group assigned to evaluate the three organizations.

My experience indicates that merging groups of this size and stature is never easy, even if it is the right thing to do. In many cases, mergers of this sort might be the best idea from a resource conservation standpoint, but they are not good for organizational effectiveness. Coordination and collaboration are solutions to many problems in economic development and other areas, but they are not the only answers to performance problems. The first questions I ask in the situation like this is how well are the EDO's performing and what factors have the greatest bearing on their ability to achieve results. Organizational structure or form should follow and support functioning. What are the key economic development jobs to be performed in developing the Baltimore region and then who and how should these jobs be organized?

Some areas, including the Baltimore region, have struggling economies that are not changed easily or transformed over-night. It pays to have a future economic vision, but that vision should be both pragmatic and realistic in line with an area's resources and capacities.

There are some definite bright spots in the Baltimore area's economic base, including its education and research resources, but the region also struggles with cost-competitiveness problems, image issues and many urban problems that simply work against development.

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