Ben White, Vice President of Economic Development at the Round Rock, Texas Chamber of Commerce, joined us for our October episode of Economic Development Secrets. Ben discussed their Eight Pillars of Economic Generation that are the action items to fulfill their strategic plan. See the excerpt and graphic below to see how Round Rock uses this unique tool.
Well, I think the great thing is our focus on economic generation, and so we’ve gone through a remaster of our chamber and we’ve focused on eight pillars of economic generation. I oversee three of those pillars, and they are economic data to help support projects, business retention and expansion, and business attraction. Then we have other pillars that are community enhancement, and that has to do with business climate. Those are health care, national resources, regulation of tax policies. Then there’s another pillar for entrepreneurship. It’s really helped grow these new budding companies out there and how can we help them grow. Another pillar is infrastructure. Do we have what we need to grow? We don’t want to be behind the eight ball on roads, on water, on sewer, on fiber, and that type of infrastructure. We got to make sure that’s in place so we can grow responsibly.
Then the seventh pillar is talent development. Do we have the skillset needed for those future job? Can we grow, can we improve the skillsets in our kids coming through the school district and into our higher education programs to help us attract the jobs that we want in our communities. That’s been a vital role for us, talent development. We also have chamber enrichment, and those are your chamber programs that help bring the business community together. Those are our eight pillars for economic generation of Round Rock. I think that’s pretty unique for a community where economic development housing chamber, how we all can work together to really be a generator for economic growth and vitality for this area.
…We’re in the second year of having these eight pillars, and that’s our path for our strategic plan. What we do, everything that we do falls into one of those pillars, and has really given our organization a lot of focus. For example instead of just going out there and holding golf tournaments, just hold golf tournaments just to raise money. We’re doing entrepreneurship programs, and we’re doing start up programs, and we’re doing specific events to help specific needs in the pillar, and I think that’s really brought in the focus of this organization, and has really taken us to the next level.
Photo credit: Round Rock Chamber of Commerce
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