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Combined forces and
common purpose
moves the world.
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What is Economic Gardening?
Economic Gardening refers to community economic development activities focused on
increasing the competitive capabilities of local business owners,
especially those with specialized skills and high potential goods and services.
Why is it important?
Research by David Birch at MIT, and corroborated by others, indicates the
great majority of all new jobs in any local economy are produced by the small,
local businesses of the community.
Evidence also suggests that luring larger corporations is far more expensive in
terms of public resources, and, in the long term, is largely "hit and miss".
Larger, multi-national corporations change as markets
and industries change, and they are always subject to takeovers. A common response and
result is that they simply pull up stakes one day to chase additional profits.
Does economic gardening work?
The term and program was first applied and refined in the
late 1980's by Chris Gibbons,
the director of economic development for the City of Littleton, Colorado, the
concept has gained many followers across the USA, Australia and Japan.
Why? Because from inception in
1989, to 2005, the number of jobs in Littleton more than doubled from approximately 15,000
to over 35,000 while sales taxes almost tripled to 20 million. During that
same period, the city’s population grew by only 30 percent. These key statistics
far outpaced those of any other center in the USA, AND this period saw two
recessions!
 The Canadian Landscape.
In Canada, The Federal, Provincial
and Municipal governments do pro actively seek out and support smaller, growing
"gazelles", those companies in favoured industries with job growth and export potential,
and did so even before the term economic gardening was popularized by
Littleton's experience, but
for local business owners generally, there is no real support unless they can
take advantage of specific programs with mandates designed by the different levels of
government for larger strategic purposes.
Local business owners need access
to cheap strategic know how and information, and to the right networks of people
with the kind of information and experience they need, who can pro actively help
them build better businesses for themselves, their employees, and their
communities.
There is good support for start
ups locally via provincially and municipally funded enterprise centers, Industry
Canada's Community Futures Development Corporations, and municipal
economic development departments. This support though is largely "customer pull"
from what's available, and the quality of what's available is
largely dependent on the capabilities of local staff and the
quality of their resources.
Good programs too
are sometimes not fully taken advantage of. Ontario's Wisdom Exchange is a good
example of a well kept secret with lots of potential.
We really believe progress is incremental, and that people "put things together"
from their interaction and collaboration with other smart people.
One area government shines is use of the internet. The federal and provincial
governments do a solid job linking information and function. BTW, Rule One in
navigating a government website is always check their site map because done
right, the site map is a superior access point with its overview of the logic of the site.
Canada Revenue Agency for example,
has done an excellent job of organizing its material coherently in their site
map. But really, everywhere you look in Canada, the internet is being used smartly by its
various levels of government.
So what are we adding to it?
We start with the premise that business is all about people, their activities,
and their resources, collaborating and improvising with others and aiming
towards a particular purpose or set of goals.
We believe in the power of the right question, asked by the right people, with
the right resources, adapting and growing into their answers.
We believe in you never get it right the first time. You try to come close, and
improvise towards envisioned solutions, adapting on the way, changing
here and there. It's a journey with a dedicated purpose.
We believe that all what you do and learn and develop on this journey has to be organized into some coherent and easily accessible whole,
so that you can easily retrieve what you've done and learned, and draw on it and use it and
adapt it and strategically grow it forward.
To that end we've created
Knowledge Tools and resources for Canadian business owners, that they can easily deploy and adapt and grow
into their corporate
business memory.
We've also been busy building other related assets and intellectual properties, each with people and
experiences and
strengths and purposes of their own.
We believe our mix of assets provides us with a unique opportunity to offer TeamStart forums
and other resources to "community cohorts"
who want to collaborate on and promote local community economic gardening.
Cohorts must agree to undertake and promote building the capabilities and
competitiveness of their local business owners, and to work towards
allocating local economic development budgets to ensure local business owners
can readily access important strategic information, people and opportunities.
Cohorts must also agree to work
towards helping each other improve their businesses and experiences, so they
might better help their communities become more successful.
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Better support
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Better businesses
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More and better jobs
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Better communities
What we offer
community cohorts
Assistance in
setting up collaboration forums at TeamStart.ca
Important experience in our operating networks
Support from our
Alliance Resources.
What are collaboration forums?
They're on line communities you join with others
in your cohort.
Your cohort can have a totally private set of discussions, plus
access and interact with others outside your cohort.
The entire community is private, and inaccessible to the general public.
Ideal
Community Cohort
Local driving force
recruits 2 inspiring, experienced allies.
They assemble key representatives from
local and regional
Chamber of Commerce
College, university
Libraries
CFDC, Enterprise Centers
Reputable, "Trusted Wisdom" type business services professionals
Decide together on and articulate a "Jim Collins"
Big Shaggy Audacious Goal...
how you can help your city, town or region become what it can be best at?
Work together and as you interact and improvise your way forward...you
will grow together.
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