7 Rivers Alliance Annual Conference Looking Forward

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Welcome

7 Rivers Alliance Annual Conference
“Looking Forward”

Compact Signers
Economic Development Partners Government
• Allamakee County Economic Development • Town of Holland

• Community and Economic Development Associates • Town of Onalaska
• La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce • Town of Shelby
• La Crosse Area Development Corporation • Town of Washington
• La Crosse County Economic Development Fund • Village of Bangor
• La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium • Village of Holmen
• Juneau County Economic Development Corp. • Village of Rockland
• Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission • Village of Trempealeau
• Village of West Salem
• City of Onalaska (finalizing)
• City of Sparta
• City of Tomah

Non-Profit Organizations Private Businesses
• CouleeCap • Coulee Bank
• Family and Children’s Center • Credit Bureau Data, Inc.
• Franciscan Skemp Medical Center • Johns, Flaherty and Collins
• Gundersen Lutheran • Kwik Trip
• La Crosse Area Builder’s Association • New Albin Savings Bank
• Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical • Synergy Leadership Group
• Riverland Energy Cooperative • Wieser Brothers General Contractor
• School District of La Crosse • Xcel Energy
• Western Technical College

Regional Conference
80 Attendees

Wisconsin
34%

Minnesota
66%

Thank You
• Event Sponsors • Promotional Partners

– AgStar – Allamakee County
– Coulee Bank Economic Development
– Minnesota State College – – La Crosse Area
Southeast Technical Development Corp.
– Synergy Leadership Group – UW-La Crosse Small
– Western Technical College Business Development
Center
– Western Wisconsin
Workforce Development – Western Wisconsin
Board & Workforce Workforce Development
Connections Board
– Winona State University
– Workforce Connections

Thank You
• Cornerstone Sponsors • Corporate Sponsors

– Festival Foods
– Franciscan Skemp
– Minnesota State College
– Southeast Technical
– Organic Valley
– AT & T

• Members

Let’s Celebrate 2010
• Connecting Businesses

– 300+ Attendees
• Government Contracting
• Impact of Globalization Conference
• Counties Collaboration Conference
– Cluster Development


• Strengthening the Region
– Federal Application
– Economic Development Professionals Meetings
– Regional Connections


• Strengthening the Region
• Inspiring Innovation
– I & E Rendezvous
– Video
– $200,000 Marketing Campaign


Marketing

Board Honors
• Outgoing • New

– Dan Braund – Mike Kroening
Minnesota State College
– Christina Friederichs – Southeast Technical

– Jim Johnson – Steve Bowen
PlastiComp

– Rich Mikrut
Mikrut Properties

Other Board Members
• Terry Whipple • John McHugh

Juneau County Economic Kwik Trip
Development
• Joan Mueller
• Lee Rasch Franciscan Skemp
Western Technical College
• Judith Ramaley
• Joyce Iverson Winona State University
Rushford Institute of
Nanotechnology • Brent Smith
Johns, Flaherty & Collins
• Jerry Arndt
Gundersen Lutheran • Teresa Wiemerslage
Iowa State University Extension
• Gary Evans
Hiawatha Broadband • Cecil Wright
Communications Organic Valley
• Joe Gow • Ron Ziegler
UW-La Crosse Community Economic
Development Associates


LOOKING FORWARD TO 2011


PAST PRESIDENT


Looking Forward

BUILDING OFF WHAT WE KNOW

What We Know
• What Business Leaders Told Us

– Grow Within/Emotional Connection
– Receptive to partnerships and collaboration
– Biggest Impact
• B2B Partnership – Leverage Assets
• Add jobs
• Education Partnerships
• Vendors in the Region

What You Told Us
• What do you think is our region’s unique

selling proposition?
• Scenic beauty and recreation 45 responses
• Strong education system 18 responses
• Available and qualified workforce 16 responses
• Location of the region 11 responses
• High quality of life 11 responses
• Friendly people and strong communities 10 responses
• Low cost of living 9 responses
• Arts and Culture 8 responses
• Concentration of the healthcare industry 7 responses
• Transportation and infrastructure 4 responses

Cost of Healthcare -

Lack of funding for capital improvements and/or research -

Finding and/or retaining a skilled workforce -

Cost of labor and materials-

Lack of proximity to a major metro area-

Energy cost and policies-


Spotlight success stories in the region -

Host regional conferences with keynote speakers and a roll-up-your sleeves session-

Promote funding resources for start-ups-

Attend industry specific trade shows and promote regional assets -

Other -

Positioning
• Strengths that differentiate:

– Natural beauty and recreational opportunities
– Strong network of higher education
– World-class medical and research
– Major food processing center
– Organic farming
– Strong high school graduation rates
– Dynamic corporate presence
– Commitment to innovation development
– Strengths in welding, soldering, brazing occupations
– Historically and geographically strong in ag
– Advanced manufacturing
– Cluster of computer and software engineering
– Will support knowledge-based industry clusters

Positioning
• Weaknesses

– Low rate of college grads
– Limited venture capital funding
– High taxes
– Semi-rural setting can impede access to
employees and resources

So Who Are We
• 7 Rivers Region is a vigorous region

whose people are connected through
a shared love of the magnificent
landscape, a passion for excellence
and a commitment to each other—all
of which support a way of living
without boundaries.

Looking Forward 2011: Short Term
What We Heard What We’re Doing

• Help Companies Get into • Tri-State Exports Conference
New Markets
• Use Local Vendors • Supply Chain Management
Training & Regional Tool
• Grow Within • Continued marketing that
• Promote Beauty benefits both internally &
externally

• Innovation • Creative Class Attraction

Looking Forward: Short Term
What We Heard What We’re Doing

• Government to collaborate, • Eco Devo
especially on infrastructure • Regional Council of
& remove duplication Government
• Sending Message to State
Governments to Work
Together
• Compact Signing – Engaging
• Changing the Mindset:
Community Presentations


The Long Term

WHAT ELSE WE KNOW

It’s Global

The world has 20x the population of the U.S.
•New markets
•High Competition

Situation
• Can’t compete

– on price: Other countries have that “advantage”

• Can compete on innovation
= Brainpower to create and sustain our competitive
advantage over the long run
– Focus on high-skill, high-value products

Top Factors to Competitiveness
(manufacturing)

Exports: High Skill, High Wage

Exporting Local Sales
Companies Companies


Our Economy

Regionalism
• High-skill, high-wage (high-value products)

• Regionalism =
– long range use of assets
– to enhance global competitiveness.

• Porter: Rarely to regions lack assets, rather
the ability to think, act & plan regionally.

Path
1 Develop a new approach mindset

2 Use new tools to create a regional strategy
3 Focus investment priorities that put regional
strategies into action quickly

The Mindset
• Blur Borders

• Think Win-Win

• Tasks that do both are key!
– Lean Training Example
– Kwik Trip-Organic Valley

• Builds Trust

Strategic Innovation
• Build an Innovation Eco System

From Silos … … to Collaboration
(industries, funding, programming, & “Cooptition”.
jurisdictional)
Economic and Industry Policy:
maintaining a robust economy in
which innovative activity thrives and
supporting industry development.

Education Policy:
Regional Policy:
identifying skill
building
shortages and
competitive
training needs for
regions by
re-skilling or up-
developing skills
skilling and
and initiatives
investing in skill
that boost local
development
economic activity
programs.

Science and technology policy:
supporting collaborative research
involving networks with industry
and stimulating the
commercialization of research.

Effective Regions
• Link innovation assets – people, institutions,

capital and infrastructure – to generate
robust, localized ecosystems that turbo-
charge a region’s economy.

Use Tools as Base for Strategies
• Industry Clusters

– Business linked in production, process, similar technology,
infrastructure needs & shared labor
• Occupational Clusters
– Education linkages that make us adaptable
• Innovation Index
– Measures our capacity to turn our unique knowledge/human
capital into innovation.
– Ability to exploit new and emerging markets
• Regional Strategy & Investment Framework
– Use all this information to move leaders forward toward a
regional strategy & action
– Help prioritize investments aligned with the region’s strategies

The Innovation Platform

Input Output

• Assets • Innovation
• Networks • Productivity
• Culture • Prosperity

Output
Higher Output per Unit Skill level is not
Prosperity

Productivity

Innovation
of Input enough.
Goal

Standard of
Value of product
Living per labor and • Not High
We must be
capital employed
As to make it
Innovative to Research
measured develop
products lower Rankings
by: Determines the wage
• Per capita level of wages areas/countries • Not New
income
cannot yet offer
and maintain the
Business Creation
• Median productivity
advantage that
• Not Jobs
household
supports their
income higher wage.
• Poverty Increase the
levels
prosperity of the
region’s citizens.

How Do We Start?

• Identify Assets Input Output

• Evaluate our Assets • Assets • Innovation
• Networks • Productivity
• Act • Culture • Prosperity

3 Critical Outcomes
• Open, Resilient Regional Partnership

– Compact
• Flexible Strategic Action Plan
• Shared Set of Investment Priorities

Create Metrics
– What we want to change

– Create a metric
– Base decisions on what will change that metric

See the Benefits
REGIONALISM OPPORTUNITIES BENEFITS

Region

Locality
Increase
Expand competitiveness
Leverage Broaden recognition in to attract, retain, Workforce
critical set of Industries
the and expand
resources assets marketplace industries

Increased productivity

Quality jobs and
Expanded tax base
pipeline of talent

What Can You Do
• Sign the compact

• Join as a member (+)
• People-power
• Open doors
• Seek out & encourage collaboration

Words to Remember
• There’s a reason this region has a lower than

national average unemployment rate. It’s
because people are committed to hard work.
It’s not about the hours, it’s about results.”
Don Weber, owner, Logistics Health

Words of Inspiration
• When you live in a northern environment it

takes a certain amount of craziness and
robustness to live and work here. The ability
to work hard and play hard is definitely here.
• Kevin Stay, Matthews Bows/NoVoc Solutions

• For More than 40 years the Mississippi has

served as an inspiration and helped us
develop countless design ideas. We have a
passion for creating high performance canoes
from high tech materials, and this region
supports our values and passion.
• Mike Cichanowski, Wenonah Canoe

• We feel blessed to live where we live. We say

at Kwik Trip our biggest resource is our people.
If we work on training to make them
productive, they will do so. We have the
lowest turnover in our industry.
• Steve Loehr, Kwik Trip

Word of Inspiration
• This region attracts people to organic farming

because there is quite a bit of infrastructure
here. If you were to move to the area and you
were interested in organic agriculture, you
absolutely would have support for your
business. There are hotbeds of organic
opportunities in the 7 Rivers Region.
• Louise Hemstead, Organic Valley

• The 7 Rivers Region is ahead of the game. You

have the assets – healthcare, education,
skilled workforce. You are asking all the right
questions. You are doing this on a regional
basis. You have a lock on the future. You see
the pathway. You’re moving in the right
direction.
Richard C. Longworth
Author, “Caught in the Middle”


Pyramid Award


THANK YOU!

7 Rivers Alliance Annual Conference Looking Forward

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