Education for Sustainable Development

A growing number of economic development organizations aree giving attention to sustainable development, and with good reason--it is essential to the survival of local economies and communities. Here is a resource you should know about.

Education is an essential tool for achieving sustainability. People around the world recognize that current economic development trends are not sustainable and that public awareness, education, and training are key to moving society toward sustainability. Beyond that, there is little agreement. People argue about the meaning of sustainable development and whether or not it is attainable. They have different visions of what sustainable societies will look like and how they will function. These same people wonder why educators have not moved more quickly to develop education for sustainability (EfS) programs. The lack of agreement and definition have stymied efforts to move education for sustainable development (ESD) forward.

Go here for more information.

Planning in the People's Republic of China

The American Planning Association (APA) will undertake an unique and valuable conference on planning in China in June. Here are the details.

June 28-30, 2004
at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

Since China's economic reform in 1978, APA has established a close professional relationship with Chinese planners. With the rapid development in the last decade, virtually every Chinese city is in need of a new plan. APA has been repeatedly requested by the Chinese for consultation, design competition, professional contracts. China has opened her door for good planning and its market is very promising.

Learn how to take part in the fastest growing economy in the world.

- Emerging Power with Rapid Industrialization and Urbanization
- 1.3 Billion Population — 31 Provinces — More Than 1,000 Cities
- China Opens the Door for American Planners

Click here for more details.

African Development Bank

We tend to overlook economic development on the African continent. We shouldn't ignore what is happening in this part of the world for a variety of reasons. The 77 countries served by the African Development Bank represent a combined population of 811 million people. This population base is growing very rapidly as a result of economic development occurring in many of these countries. To get up to speed on what is happening in Africa, click here.

Website Excellence: PRIDCO

If you are looking for an excellent example of an industry-oriented economic development website, I recommend you take at look at the PRIDCO site (Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company). I like the site's factual orientation to marketing.

The Risky Business of Hiring Stars, By Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda, and Nitin Nohria

Here is a summary of a great article in the May issue of Harvard Business Review, which economic developers should read before they chart a plan for "talent recruitment" for their area.

With the battle for the best and brightest people heating up again, you're most likely out there looking for first-rate talent in the ranks of your competitors. Chances are, you're sold on the idea of recruiting from outside your organization--developing people within the firm takes time and money. But the authors, who have tracked the careers of high-flying CEOs, researchers, software developers, and leading professionals, argue that top performers quickly fade after leaving one company for another.

To study this phenomenon in greater detail, the authors analyzed the ups and downs of more than 1,000 star stock analysts, a well-defined group for which there are abundant data. The results were striking. After a star moves, not only does his performance plunge, but so does the effectiveness of the group he joins--and the market value of his new company. Moreover, transplanted stars don't stay with their new organizations for long, despite the astronomical salaries firms pay to lure them from rivals.

Most companies that hire stars overlook the fact that an executive's performance is not entirely transferable because his personal competencies inevitably include company-specific skills. When the star leaves the old company for the new, he also leaves behind many of the resources that contributed to his achievements. As a result, he is unable to repeat his performance in another company--at least not until he learns to work the new system, which could take years. The authors conclude that companies should focus on cultivating talent from within and do everything possible to retain the stars they create.

Here to order the article.

The Future of Work

With offshore outsourcing and lots of other major changes occuring in work organizations, Thomas Malone's The Future of Work is a must read for every economic developer and workforce developer.

Click here to read more about The Future of Work.

Young CEO Syndrome

Michael Dell — and a number of other tech titans — are in a tough position. They've been with their companies much longer than the average insider CEO, who steps down after 9½ years, says consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. But they are years from the average CEO retirement age of 58½.

CEOs with too much time at the top can be a huge, hidden liability, says Yale University management expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. They can become complacent, run out of new ideas or become unreceptive to new ways of doing things, he says.

So where does that leave Dell and his contemporaries — Microsoft's Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy, Gateway's Ted Waitt, Apple's Steve Jobs and Oracle's Larry Ellison?

Go here to read more. (This is an interesting issue for all of us to think about.)

Venture Investing Up in Silicon Valley

Venture capital investment is finally on the rise again, suggesting a turnaround for Silicon Valley start-ups after three years of decline -- and with it could come more jobs.

Venture capitalists invested $1.62 billion in Bay Area companies in the fourth quarter -- up a strong 20 percent from the $1.35 billion the quarter before, according to the MoneyTree Survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.

It's the first real upswing in investments in a year and is the most funding since mid-2002.

However, it will take another quarter or two to see whether the trend continues. For the year, 2003 still saw a decline in overall local investments, to $5.87 billion from 2002's $7.02 billion.

A rise in venture investment into start-ups is promising because it is considered one of the earliest signs of a recovering economy, especially in a region so dependent on entrepreneurs. Start-ups have traditionally created the most job growth in the valley.

Here for more.

100 Best Corporate Citizens

Looking to grow companies in your area that are good corporate citizens? Click here to see some good examples of these types of companies.

Social Capital Investing

The winners of this year's Global Social Venture Competition, a contest run by the Haas School of Business, Columbia Business School, and London Business School, were announced last week. Studying more than 125 entries by MBA students, judges selected the following as social venture plans with promise:

-Schools for Community Empowerment This team of educators has developed a model of urban renewal and empowerment that could revitalize neighborhoods, communities, and cities across the country by linking youth education with community development.

-Eco-Friendly Agricultural Products This team will manufacture organic fertilizer with high water retention properties for local farmers in arid regions, thus improving soil quality.

-Distributed Generation Technologies This team will promote renewable energy production and local energy efficiency through multi-fuel technologies.

-IAM, LLC This team will carry out real estate development and research, dedicated to improving the economic development and environmental quality of underserved urban neighborhoods.

Here to read more.

Safe Outsourcing...

How can companies practice "safe outsourcing?" Here is what the Tucson-based Ponemon Institute, a think tank dedicated to advancing ethical information and privacy management practices in business and government. Read this.

-Integrate information security and privacy into vendor selection process.
-Appoint a high-level officer to assume responsibility for evaluating vendors for adequacy to meet corporate policy and legal requirements.
-Evaluate historical experience and reputation of the vendor. One way is to look at complaints and trace patterns back to a given activity or campaign under the control of the outsourced vendor.
-Consider the vendor's location, critical infrastructure and national backbone issues.
-Consider cultural and ethical dimensions that may impact due care in the maintenance and protection of customer or employee information.
-Perform site evaluations and, when appropriate, consider independent audit.
-Provide good faith disclosure to customers about outsourcing risks (including fair redress process to report problems directly to the company).
-Ensure the vendor performs background checks, and provides good supervision to its employees.
-Ensure the vendor has an upstream communication mechanism for security and privacy breaches immediately after they occur.
-Balance sound information security and privacy risk management against economic (cost minimization) objectives.

Here for more.

Human Interest Side of Offshoring

This is a story about the global economy. It's about two countries and one profession - and how weirdly upside down the future has begun to look from opposite sides of the globe. It's about code and the people who write it. But it's also about free markets, new politics, and ancient wisdom - which means it's ultimately about faith.

Click here to read more about what Daniel Pink has to say about offshoring.

More on the Outsourcing Debate

Here is another interesting one on offshore outsourcing to add to your collection.

A More Productive Outsourcing Debate
By Daniel Altman, May 2004 Issue, Business 2.0

Listen to Lou Dobbs or John Kerry and you could easily get the impression that the outsourcing of white-collar jobs is just another form of Enron-like corporate treachery. But the fact is, the service workforce was long overdue for a collision with global competition, and complaining won't make it go away. The real question is what to do about it.

Fifty years ago, a typical service-sector worker produced about $39,000 worth of output (in 2000 dollars). The average worker in a goods-producing industry, like manufacturing or construction, was responsible for only slightly more revenue, about $48,000. Today, the service worker's output has risen by 47 percent, to just over $54,000. But the average output for a goods-producing worker has shot up over 330 percent, to more than $207,000.

There are a number of reasons service productivity didn't keep up, but the lack of international competition is probably the most important. The global market for manufactured goods has been a battlefield for decades. American manufacturers found they could dramatically cut costs by importing, say, Korean steel or Taiwanese memory chips. U.S. steel mills and semiconductor fabs, in turn, had to become drastically more productive or go under.

Meanwhile, international trade in services remains relatively closed. Companies in heavily regulated fields like household insurance and telecom services generally needn't worry about foreign rivals. Nor, until recently, did they have to wonder whether local competitors might steal an advantage with cheap imported parts. After all, how do you source components abroad for, say, investment advice or home health care?

But even if they can't import components, service companies can bring in cheap labor (or export expensive jobs, depending on how you look at it). And it should come as no surprise that they began to do so as soon as telecommunications technology made it possible. Offshoring creates a new kind of global competition, one that pits workforce against workforce, rather than product against product. But global competition will have the same effect on services that it did on manufacturing: It'll make American companies leaner and meaner.

U.S. manufacturers responded to their global challenge by largely abandoning commodity products and improving quality. For American service workers to hang on to their jobs, they will have to make similar changes. Barry P. Bosworth, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, points out that the fastest-growing service fields are the engineering and management of computerized sales and supply systems. To shine in those careers, he says, workers have to master at least four skills: computer literacy, typing, an understanding of how complex organizations work, and the ability to deal with people (either in person or electronically). Yet despite the fact that services account for 80 percent of private-sector employment, how many high schools require courses in typing, computer science, operations research, and interpersonal relations? Talk about productivity: If critics want to be truly effective at keeping jobs at home, they should stop scolding businesses and start crusading for better education reform.

Here for more.

College Grads Find Job Market Slightly Better

The newest crop of college grads will have more job opportunities than last year's graduating class, and in a few cases, slightly higher salaries.

But while analysts characterize the employment outlook as "gradually improving," there's also likely to be a larger pool of applicants chasing the increased number of job openings.

That's because the college labor market was dismal for many seniors over the past few years. So there are grads from the classes of 2001, 2002 and 2003 who are either still unemployed or are dissatisfied in jobs they took because they had to.

"You'll see an incredible amount of competition," said Dr. Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

Here to read more.

Another Wal-Mart on the Horizon?

Aldi is Europe's stealth Wal-Mart. Like the Arkansas-based giant, Aldi boasts awesome margins, huge market clout, and seemingly unstoppable growth -- including an estimated sales increase of 8% a year since 1998. It relentlessly focuses on efficiency, matching or even beating Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) in its ability to strip out costs.

The discount chain already is having a Wal-Mart-type effect on the German economy. The main association of German retailers issued a report on Mar. 8 blaming Aldi and other "hard discounters" for running 35,000 small shops out of business last year. On the same day, Bavarian dairy farmers picketed Aldi stores, which they blame for a ruinous 15% plunge in milk prices since 2001. Aldi must take care not to let such criticism tarnish its reputation among German consumers.

What's next? Aldi now shows signs of stepping up the pace of its expansion on Wal-Mart's turf. Aldi opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976 and has sales of $4.8 billion in North America, according to M+M. And Trader Joe's Co., a specialty grocer owned by a family trust that Aldi co-founder Theo Albrecht created for his sons, has become the hottest thing in U.S. retailing by extending the Aldi concept to upscale products like wine and cashew butter.

Go here to read more.

Opinion Piece on Offshoring

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You Can’t Stop the Outsourcing Tornado
By John Challenger

With fear and anger growing over the rapid expansion of offshore outsourcing, there has never been a more important time to initiate a summit of education, labor, government and business leaders to determine how to fast-track programs that will help the growing number of displaced workers.

Right now, many people are attempting to stop the wave of globalization that is sending an increasing number of American jobs overseas. Such efforts are a waste of valuable time, energy and resources.

The fact is, there may be no way to halt the migration of jobs to foreign countries where labor is highly educated and less costly. Evidence of this can be seen in a new survey: despite the growing threat of a backlash against outsourcers, 86 percent of companies polled expect to send more jobs overseas in the next 12 months.

A widely cited 2002 report from Forrester Research estimated that by 2015, the number of service-sector jobs relocated to foreign countries such as India, Korea and China could reach 3.3 million--a figure that may be conservative given recent trends. A later study by the University of California-Berkeley concluded that as many as 14 million white-collar jobs could be at risk of moving overseas.

The movement toward a global economy will be filled with disruptions and hardships for American workers. We’ve already seen its effect in manufacturing, where many people in their 40s and 50s were stranded with few options after their jobs were sent to wherever the labor was least costly.

The solution isn’t to halt outsourcing. The globalization of the workforce is a natural force, like a tornado. We don’t try to stop tornadoes. Instead, we research and develop ways to limit the damage they cause. We should take the same approach with offshore outsourcing. Instead of trying to halt the expansion of the global economy, we must direct our efforts toward preparing the workforce to compete in it.

Just as our country and workforce have adapted to the globalization of manufacturing jobs, we’ll adapt and survive the globalization of service and information jobs. There’s no reason to think that our workforce cannot be redeployed in new directions and endeavors. However, to do this we must restructure our education system to reflect the fact that lifelong learning is crucial to our economic growth. Not doing so will not only worsen the plight of American workers but also actually increase the need for outsourcing as companies are forced to go offshore to find the workers with the best skills.

In 5 to 10 years, the problem will not be the lack of jobs caused by outsourcing. It will be the lack of workers who have the advanced technical, management and problem-solving skills that the jobs here require.

The government has estimated that in less than six years, when the baby boomers start retiring, there will be nearly 168 million jobs in our economy, but only 158 million people in the labor market to fill them--a shortfall of 10 million workers. These expected labor shortages will be exacerbated by a decline in the number of workers with technical skills.

New projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that computer- and math-related fields will add 1,051,000 jobs between 2002 and 2012, or an average of about 105,000 new jobs per year.

The Department of Education found that the number of people earning bachelor's degrees in computer and information science grew by just 5,500 between 2000 and 2001, the latest year for which data are available. Meanwhile, the number of degrees awarded in mathematics fell by 400 during the same period.

Engineering is another field where demand for workers will grow, by about 22,200 jobs per year through 2012. Yet the number of degrees earned in this critical discipline has dropped significantly, from a peak of 95,828 in 1985 to 72,287 in 2001. The only factor keeping the level from plummeting further is the growing number of women earning degrees in this area.

We should develop programs that encourage companies, schools and government entities to offer skills training and tuition reimbursement to adults throughout their lives. Education cannot stop after high school or four years of college, but for many, the ability to go beyond these levels is limited by financial considerations. We need to find a way to topple this barrier.

The responsibility cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of our education system. Employers have a vested interest in making sure that there are jobs and skilled workers to fill them here in America, if for no other reason than that these companies rely on our ability to consume their products and services. Without well-paying jobs, this isn’t possible.

While many corporate leaders decry the lack of fundamental and technical skills among those exiting high schools and colleges today, very few are actually doing anything to remedy the situation. Federal, state and local governments should also be making a concerted effort to train tomorrow’s workforce.

One area where government and businesses can contribute is through school-to-work programs. Unfortunately, funding that helps communities create unique school-to-work programs has also been cut in recent years. These programs would be instrumental in developing the future workforce.

Some of the most successful programs are the ones that reach down to the elementary-school level to plant the seeds that could one day influence a career choice. For example, take the program operated by Opportunities-Jobs-Careers in Omaha, Nebraska, which won the 2002 School-To-Work Excellence Award presented by SHRM (and sponsored by my firm). It not only helps high-school students with career guidance, but also sends representatives from the business community into the elementary schools to talk about opportunities in their industries.

We need to expand school-to-work programs both in number and in scope. Currently, most of these programs seem to focus on the skilled trades, and the programs target kids who are at risk of not going to college. Schools and employers must consider how to expand into areas such as computer science, mathematics and engineering, so that children who are likely to go on to college are directed into these areas where shortages will be most prevalent.

If we fail to get children interested in math, science and computer technology, fail to increase the number of graduates in these areas, and fail to expand opportunities and accessibility to lifelong education, America will be wholly unprepared to compete in the global economy we helped create.

Reprinted from Workforce Management.

Is Performance Measurement Working in Workforce Development?

Read this one.

Only 30 percent of employees agree that their company's performance-management program actually improves performance, according to a Watson Wyatt survey of 1,190 U.S. employees.

Sixty-one percent of respondents strongly agree or agree that they were evaluated accurately in their most recent appraisal. Still, only 19 percent say the program helps poor performers improve and only 35 percent say they receive clear performance goals for the current year.

Here for more.

Newell Rubbermaid Completing Journey to Atlanta Area

Let's look at some employer training initiatives that sparked economic development. Here's one you will find of interest.

Newell has its roots in Illinois. Rubbermaid has its in Ohio. The combined company, coping with sales and management problems, is making its way to Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Rubbermaid was an institution for years in Ohio, first making dustpans in 1933. To company executives, however, moving to Atlanta represents change and innovation for a company lacking both, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

By the way, Rubbermaid is nearly gone from Wooster Ohio, ikts longstanding home base. It's a real loss to the community and region.

Originally, the company was going to move to Alpharetta, Georgia, where it would build a big training facility. Tim Jahnke, vice president of human resources, says that when the company started doing some training in Georgia, it changed its mind. "Early last year, we conducted a couple of training sessions at the Marriott…and the training went so well, it made us think, why do we need to build an auditorium when we've got good facilities already available?" he said, referring to local hotels’ meeting spaces and the Cobb Galleria, a local convention center.

"When this space became available, from a cost standpoint and timing standpoint, it made a lot of sense," Jahnke told the Journal-Constitution, referring to the new Sandy Springs home vacated by Coke. Moving to an existing space in Sandy Springs rather than building in Alpharetta meant that Newell Rubbermaid could speed up the relocation by 15 months.

Here to read more.

International Business Links

Click here to access some very useful international business links. This is GREAT stuff!

Business With a Heart

Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation, has written a great history and appraisal of the modern corporate citizenship movement. What Matters Most, this month's Fast Company Readers' Choice, dwells on a generation of enlightened entrepreneurs and suggests that this network has established models of corporate responsibility that bigger corporations are increasingly embracing. The argument is optimistic, but also intelligent and convincing.

Here to read more.

America's Fastest-Growing Small Companies

What kinds of businesses can thrive in a down market? Find out in Fortune's third annual ranking of the brightest stars in small business. Click here.

Promising Practice: Rural Economic Development

My promising practice award for a rural economic development program goes to...the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center...for building a wonderful web portal of rural development resources for NC communities. test drive it and see for yourself. Click here.

Nano This and That

Got nanotech on the brain? Read this article and it will help you come to your senses a bit.

Nanotechnology is the latest rage among states and regional groups looking to revive battered economies. Nanotech research centers are sprouting on university campuses from Atlanta to Phoenix to Fargo, N.D., and states are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get in on the ground floor of what is alternately described as the "next big thing" and "next industrial revolution."

Despite the promise, nanotechnology is still in its early stages and must overcome a number of hurdles before its widespread commercial adoption. That makes nanotechnology a gamble for states.

Here for more.

Philly Reaches Out to the World

Here is another example of global partnering--just the kind of thing I've been urging for the past 2 years.

Greater Philadelphia Global Partners (GP2) provides a forum through which businesses and organizations can reach out to one another, learn from one another, and work together to establish the Greater Philadelphia Region as an international leader in commerce. The Partnership was created to coordinate and mobilize the resources in the Region to facilitate international trade; to identify opportunities for foreign trade investment; to encourage travel and tourism; to attract and retain talented students and skilled professionals; and to promote cultural and economic linkages with global partners.

The leadership of GP2 is comprised of many of the Region’s most active business organizations – all with missions dedicated to enhancing the international economy.

GP2 has a dual mission: to help organizations in the Greater Philadelphia Region develop international business opportunities and to assist international organizations in expanding their business into this Region.

Here to read more.

Creative Economy Council

Click here to learn more about the Creative Economy Council of New England. There are some great ideas to steal from the Council's website.

Folk Culture and Economic Development

Here is another good one on the arts and economic development. This one discusses the role of folk culture in economic development.

The Arts and Economic Development

If you are interested in this subject, you may want to read a couple year old report by the National Governors Association on the arts and economic development. We need more of this stuff.

Poetry is Economic Development

This weekend I had the opportunity to read one of my poems at the James Wright Poetry Festival in Martins Ferry, Ohio, which is the Pulizer Prize-winning poet's home and mine.

The Festival was quite successful. These are just the type of events that communities should be capitalizing upon for tourism and economic development. This is a good example to learn from.

Click here to read more about what the local news media had to say, and here to learn more about the event