making the calls can add the HITS questionsâand they don't have to be ED professionals. They can filter .... beginning
2009 Award Nomination Form Best Innovation in Ohio Economic Development Nominee Information Organization: Community: Contact Name & Title: Telephone & Email:
Greater Springfield Chamber
Greater Springfield Area / Clark County, Ohio
David Zak Vice President, Economic Development
937.325.7621
[email protected]
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Table of Contents 1. DESCRIPTION ....................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Challenges with the Survey Model ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Additional Problems with the Survey Model ........................................................................ 4 1.4 HITS Program & Its Four Questions ....................................................................................... 5 1.5 HITS Integrates Into Conversation ........................................................................................ 5 1.6 HITS Integrates With Other Organizations’ Survey Efforts ................................................... 6 1.7 HITS & the Economic Development “Project” ...................................................................... 6 1.8 HITS & salesforce.com ........................................................................................................... 7 1.9 Marketing/Communication Plan ........................................................................................... 9 2. UNIQUENESS/INNOVATION ................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Reach ................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 HITS Methodology ............................................................................................................... 11 2.3 salesforce.com ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Measuring Value .................................................................................................................. 13 2.5 Branding .............................................................................................................................. 13 2.6 Director of Hiring & Employer Services ............................................................................... 14 2.7 Adaptability ......................................................................................................................... 14 3. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................. 16 4. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION ....................................................................................... 19 4.1 Newspaper Articles ............................................................................................................. 19 4.2 SpringfieldEdge Newsletter ................................................................................................. 28 4.3 BREI Letters of Support ....................................................................................................... 31 (Letters were supplied that were solicited for another award process, but they were supplied here because the content is still relevant and helpful for this application.)
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1. DESCRIPTION Please describe what you believe is the Best Innovation in Ohio Economic Development. (Examples include: podcasts, blogs, guerilla marketing techniques, legislative initiatives, creative development of match funds, combining workforce development with economic development, etc.) Page | 3 1.1 Executive Summary I believe the best innovation in the field of economic development in Ohio right now is the HITS Retention & Expansion Program. Currently being implemented in Springfield/Clark County, Ohio, HITS is a retention & expansion program that was launched on January 1, 2008 (with six months of prep work and team building leading up to it.) Over 41 volunteer and staff people are involved with the effort representing 11 different organizations. The program solves the R&E challenge of not being able to reach and get a response from a large number of companies. It does this by radically simplifying the survey to four key questions, leveraging existing relationships by partners to add these questions to their own surveys, and making it easier to conduct it yourself. For 2008, the program reached out (on a one‐to‐one basis…not via mail or mass e‐mail) to 1,039 businesses and obtained definitive responses from 705 of them on their hiring (H), investment (I), training (T), and site selection/space needs (S). We were able to find out that 468 of them were planning on doing some economic development activity and that by the end of the year, those existing companies announced or started investments of $75 million, the hiring of over 700 new employees, and the retention of over 2200. Furthermore, we were able to show that we directly (through providing services or referring/linking them) assisted 305 of them and that the estimated value of that assistance was $1.4 million. 1.2 Challenges With The R&E Survey Model Most current R&E approaches are based on the survey model: you either personally visit a company and survey them live (via phone or meeting, preferably meeting), or you send them the survey or allow them to access it over the web. The number of questions typically ranges from 30 to 130, with many of them being multiple choice and some being open‐ended. The information is then entered into some type of data management system, and the more sophisticated ones can then produce standardized reports. These reports were the centerpiece deliverable of each of the survey systems, something tangible on the business climate and opinions of a community’s employers that could be used to market to new prospects (e.g., “60% of our businesses rate our workforce productive or very productive”) as well as economic development boards and stakeholders and the media. In addition to the report(s) as deliverable, the very action of conducting an R&E campaign was viewed as inherently good— we care about our business community, we’re talking with them, etc. The third big benefit was the information that were uncovered about a company. Both expansion plans and problems
would be discussed, and each survey system encouraged some type of referral strategy to assist the company with any particular issue. HITS was developed because of the inherent shortcomings in the current methodology. One, the response rate is often anemic. 10‐20% is sometimes viewed as a good response rate. Our Page | 4 response rate was 68%. Two, most ED organizations didn’t have a comprehensive list of the businesses in the community, so the 10% was only of the businesses to which they chose to send a survey. In the case of Clark County and Springfield, the comprehensiveness of the database you use greatly affects the view of your “reach.” Harris Infosource, for example, lists about 700 businesses, whereas InfoUSA lists about 3600 businesses for the same geographic area. In many cases, the poor response rate was viewed as “good” for a survey, a typical response rate, and the lack of comprehensiveness of the list was either unknown or deemed acceptable because the R&E program was targeted to a specific group like large manufacturers, for instance. In addition, with systems focusing on primarily company face‐to‐face interviews, the sheer logistics and time required preclude being able to talk to a large number of businesses, even if you have a large volunteer pool. Doing one interview every business day for a year would only yield 200. So, poor response and poor reach were recognized as inherent problems with the survey model. It would undermine the real quality of the data gathered, analyzed and evaluated in the reports, as it would not really provide an accurate glimpse into the “business community.” And you had this double‐edge sword of impersonal surveys you could email or snail mail to a large number of companies and get a very small response (which you would usually have to hound companies to get), or you could schedule meetings with companies, get 100% response, but only do a small number of companies. 1.3 Additional Problems with the Survey Model But, deeper than that, there seem to be some more fundamental problems with the survey concept. Next, most of the questions posed did not directly help the business but gathered information from the business for other use. In other words, the questions were not customer‐ , client‐, or business‐focused, they were marketing‐, report‐, and ED organization‐focused. The purpose of asking most of the questions was not to help the company but to gather intelligence useful to the economic developer. Asking, for example, the company to rank the quality of their workforce on a scale from 1 to 5 does not lead to a resource that can help the company, but it’s a useful piece of information for marketing and reports. Asking the same company if they intend to hire people in the next twelve months does, in contrat, lead directly to being able to connect the company to resources able to help them. In addition, to the response, reach, and question focus problems, you also had a sheer survey “burden” problem. The more questions, the more of a psychic cost or “pain in the butt” factor the survey is…the more time it takes, the less likely a business is going to participate, and if they participate, enjoy the process or see a worthwhile return on that investment of time.
1.4 HITS and its Four Questions So, HITS had a fundamental Copernican moment with respect to the questions themselves, and it is at the heart of its uniqueness. It started with the principle that a question won’t be asked unless it can directly lead to a company connecting to resources; i.e., it is customer‐focused. Secondly, it sought to reduce the questions to as few a number as possible. It made a Page | 5 comprehensive list of the public and free services that would save a business money and add value and then looked for common denominators to determine whether or not a company would even be eligible. After looking at and evaluating a compiled list of 100‐200 resources, it was discovered that you could quickly determine if a company would qualify for over 80% of the resources by asking one of four questions, each of which is summarized in the HITS acronym. Will you be Hiring, Investing (in the business), Training, or needing new or different Space in the next 12 months? It is also no coincidence that these four questions and categories are a quick barometer of whether or not a particular business is growing or not. The four questions would quickly allow you to prequalify a company before the need to ask any additional questions. In summary, HITS is the shortest and most distilled R&E survey in the history of R&E programs (to our knowledge), and therein lies its strength. The HITS question model solves the psychic cost problem and the question focus problem. Another problem with typical R&E systems that HITS solves is the unsolvable problem problem (number five). With open‐ended questions like “Are you having any problems running your business?,” you are likely to get answers that economic development cannot solve. For example, “I get flooding every time it rains”, is not really something the ED professional can help with. HITS restricts the questions to only areas where the ED can help, and it sacrifices some good questions in order to pack the biggest punch in the shortest number of questions. Do you export or are you thinking about selling overseas is a great question, but fits within the 20% of the resources not covered by HITS. As you get into this 20%, the number of questions increases significantly. The HITS philosophy uses the low‐hanging fruit principle—let’s make sure all of the businesses are taking advantage of the 80% of the resources covered by the HITS questions before we ask more questions. 1.5 HITS Is Memorable and Integrates into Conversation One of the big discoveries with HITS is that program participants always had the “survey” in your head. You knew what the questions were and wouldn’t forget one of the key questions. Instead of formally announcing you were doing an R&E program to a business, you could just ask the HITS Questions in the context of a conversation. You could do your R&E “call” in the space of two minutes at a networking event. You could integrate it into a phone conversation about a whole other topic. Companies could be oblivious that you even did an R&E call. From their perspective, do they really care what you call it? In many cases, they are tired of new “programs” and “initiatives;” they just want to know if you can impact their bottom line now. In many instances (cold calling, for example), a brief line about working as part of a group to see if they can connect the business being cold called to over 100 different resources can help “get your foot in the door”, so to speak.
1.6 HITS Integrates With Other Organizations’ Survey Efforts The extremely compact nature of the HITS questions allows it to do some other things the survey models before it could not do. One, it can easily be added to any other organizations’ own surveys. For example, if a chamber of commerce is calling every one of its members and surveying them on their satisfaction with the chamber, its events, services, etc., the people making the calls can add the HITS questions—and they don’t have to be ED professionals. They Page | 6 can filter the information back to the ED professionals, who then can follow‐up on any yes answers. Second, HITS allows other organizations to include HITS and to claim credit with their own customers when the program delivers value. If I’m with the chamber of commerce, and I connect them with a resource outside of my area, I’ve still added value in the client’s eyes by making the referral. HITS only seeks credit in the aggregate, as a program. This allows HITS to expand its base of people and organizations asking the HITS questions. Eventually, private sector organizations can ask the questions (e.g., banks, accountants, attorneys, etc.), and the goal would be to have the ED & WD (workforce development) professionals handling referrals (prequalified companies who are growing). 1.7 HITS and the Economic Development “Project” The previous sections discussed how the HITS questions originated in response to problems inherent in the survey model R&E systems, and they discussed how the simplicity and memorability of HITS allows it to easily intergrate, often anonymously, with their day‐to‐day interactions with businesses. This, in and of itself, is extremely significant and represents a large break with R&E tradition of the last decade. HITS, though, takes not only a procedural departure from previous R&E efforts but also a philosophical departure on what represents an “economic development project.” There are two large differences between HITS and traditional R&E economic development. Traditional R&E programs have focused on (1) larger companies with a significant number of employees and (2) in certain sectors such as manufacturing, headquarters and R&D. HITS not only recognizes that there has been a tremendous shift in the economy towards services, it embraces that fact. For context, in the US after World War II, services accounted for 10% of nonfarm employment, and manufacturing accounted for 38%. By 1970, twice as many people were working in services as opposed to manufacturing. In 2000, the ratio was four to one, and in 2005, it had risen to five to one. HITS does not distinguish between service and manufacturing in terms of targeting only manufacturing. In fact, HITS even goes so far as to recognize that non‐profits and government entities are often making large investments and hiring or wanting to hire employees (i.e., they are growing) and worthy of help. The embracing of service businesses and even non‐profit businesses and public entities represents a dramatic shift in HITS and is accompanied by the equally striking position that any business of any size is important. The HITS process allows a much larger reach than before thought was possible, and the aggregate investment and job creation of smaller businesses has not been appreciated heretofore. So, in essence, any business is fair game. In fact, research
has shown that 75% of all the new jobs created come from small business. And, on average, 60% of all the businesses in a region have 1‐4 employees. Another 20% have 5‐9. One reason for this development is the increased ease in starting a business with the technological advances in computers and the internet. Sometimes are smallest businesses are the ones with the biggest growth potential. Page | 7 This position only makes sense if the R&E system can connect them to resources to help them grow, and hence help “develop the economy.” Although there are many resources that can indeed help small businesses, there is another fundamental shift occurring in economic development that sheds light on the most important resource for the economic developer— and indeed one that is traditionally not in his or her set of standard tools (tax breaks, public financing, training grants). It is workforce development, or to be more specific, employer‐based workforce development or “job development” as it is sometimes known. It is a general category for any publicly‐funded service which serves to help companies find the workers they need to sustain themselves and grow. In Clark County, there are a tremendous number of these services that have been funded by the Clark County Dept. of Job & Family Services and performed by various entities. In 2003, Area Development magazine’s annual corporate survey put incentives as the number one factor for location decisions. In 2007, the most recent survey, that slipped to number four, and labor costs have taken the lead in the number one spot. Finding the right workers, having the largest pool to choose from (to get the best qualified and least expensive), and recruiting them at the least cost is a, if not the, critical factor in economic development. In fact, although in the US the economic challenges have increased unemployment and led to more availability of labor, there is strong evidence to support the notion that availability of labor will be increasingly important, especially for areas expected to decline in population (e.g., Ohio is expected to decline 6% from 2000 to 2030.) Springfield and Clark County are definitely in that category. So, taking these facts leads to a different definition the economic development project for R&E purposes. No longer is it the project which would qualify for submission to Site Selection magazine’s Governor’s Cup: one which either has at least 25 new jobs being created, at least $1 million being invested, or 25,000 square feet being constructed. Any business (including non‐ profits and government) doing any amount of hiring, investing, training, or space alteration or construction is deemed important and valuable—especially for the local economy. Any company answering “yes” to the HITS questions is now doing an economic development “project.” 1.8 HITS and salesforce.com The HITS program, therefore, is unique in terms of process as well as its economic development philosophy. HITS is also different in a third and critical aspect: information technology. The first part of that difference has to do with the database information used. Both Harris Infosource and InfoUSA have been used to populate the database as well as Chamber
membership lists and other lists of companies, contacts, and projects not included in the aforementioned sources. The second part of that difference is that HITS utilizes salesforce.com as its technology CRM tool. It’s important to understand that the backbone and often the centerpiece of the three existing survey systems is the information technology management system. You basically have Page | 8 four different types of information involved: (1) companies with all of the information associated with a company (employees, facility size, NAICS code, etc.); (2) contacts at those companies (with all of the associated information such as phone, email, title, etc.); (3) projects (HITS along with the details such as number of new full‐time positions, average wage rate, square footage, investment in machinery and equipment), etc.; and (4) partners and participants in the R&E program. There are others, but these are the key “objects.” Around 1999, Mark Benioff, a former Oracle executive, founds salesforce.com. From its beginning in 1999, salesforce.com was conceived of as a as a software‐as –a‐service (SaaS) CRM (customer relationship management) solution company. The company has been wildly successful and went public in 2004. From a little under 5,000 customers in 2001, the company has grown to over 51,000 customers (companies), over 1 million subscribers, and almost $750 million in revenue. For a point of reference, in the private sector, customer relationship management is the integration of marketing, sales and customer service functions within a company. As the list of awards for the software and for Marc Benioff is extensive, some of them are listed here to show the significance and recognition of the company, the technology and innovation in the marketplace. • CRM Market Award (CRM Magazine, 2007) • Technology of the Year (InfoWorld, 2004, 2005, 2006) • Editors' Choice Award (PC Magazine, 2002, 2003, 2004) • Visionary Award (SDForum, 2004) • Best of the Web (Forbes, 2003) • CRM Excellence Award (Customer Inter@ction Solutions, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) • Top 100 Innovators Award (BusinessWeek, 2006) • Innovation Award (AMR Research, 2005) • CODIE Award for Best CRM (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) There are three important things to understand about salesforce.com to see why it is an excellent and value‐added IT solution for R&E programs, not just for HITS. First, it is a software‐as‐a‐service (SaaS) solution. It is not a piece of software, such as Microsoft Office products. You pay a fee to access the service on the business web, which now due to broadband internet and computer processing speeds is a very effective way to do business. All upgrades, technical support, and additional features that come over time are included. With a software product, not only is it a lot more expensive, your technical support is limited, you have to pay for upgrades and newer editions (e.g., Microsoft has gotten wealthy off upgrades to its operating system). To give you a sense of price, to use the group edition for smaller
organizations, it costs as little as $9 per month per user. When you upgrade to more than five users and get full‐fledged CRM functionality, you are only paying $65 per user per month. To give a sense of scale, a full‐fledge ERP solution (Enterprise Resource Planning) such as Oracle and SAP, which integrates different business functions like CRM, can cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Before this millennium, SaaS was not an effective solution; now with Page | 9 broadband, now it is. And the development In 2008 of salesforce.com (and Fastenal) being added to the S&P 500 to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underscores that it’s a technology whose time has come. Second, the level of customization is very high. Large numbers of customized fields, easy to customize view screens, easy to create customized reports that are sophisticated and exportable to Excel, dashboards which allow for real time measurement of progress, and other sophisticated tools galore mean that salesforce.com functionality and flexibility make it a great IT choice for HITS and R&E. This is also particularly important to the HITS program in that multiple organizations cannot only use it for HITS but as their central business CRM choice, meaning fuller use of the system and better data, tracking and results. Third, it is a complete CRM solution. Referrals can be assigned as tasks. Salesforce.com also provides a complete calendar and task solution which allows synchronization to Outlook and other systems a breeze, meaning that work you do in salesforce.com tracks and syncs with all of your other workflow systems. Use of such a system in economic development has only begun, but there are a few early adopters including Springfield and Clark County; Arlington Economic Development (Virginia); and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Team Ohio, the trade show and company call program marketing arm of the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Business Development Coalition, is now using salesforce.com as their solution of choice to manage trade show leads, as is the Dayton Development Coalition and PolymerOhio. In summary, HITS is an entirely unique approach to R&E that differs substantially from previous and currently popular R&E approaches in process, philosophy, and information technology management. 1.9 Marketing/Communication Plan The HITS program also has a unique and comprehensive multi‐pronged marketing and communications plan. 1.9.1 PR/Media Relations through relationships with reporters at the Dayton Business Journal and local Springfield News‐Sun, four articles were produced in 2008 and in January 2009, some on the front page of the business section. There were two articles that appeared at the beginning of 2008, one in the middle, and one summarizing first year results locally 8 days ago. We write our own press releases, and our press releases are sent to print, radio, and TV media.
1.9.2 Branding The Chamber worked with a local design firm to develop a brand for the HITS program itself, complete with logos, images, and unique innovative business/resource cards (see innovations). These are passed out by partners and at Chamber functions and used also as business cards. Page | 10 1.9.3 E‐Newsletter (SpringfieldEdge) Using ConstantContact, a monthly newsletter was developed and launched in July 2008 (issue 8 is coming out Feb. 2009). The newsletter incorporates images developed through the branding effort and has a highly professional feel. It is produced in‐house and features 4‐5 stories about economic development projects and/or resources available to businesses. The first paragraph allows for comments about anything going on, and I (David Zak) continually talk about the HITS program and where we stand from a metrics standpoint. Partners are helping to write articles as well. 1.9.4 Chamber & Partner Communication BR&E has been identified as, if not the most, then one of the most important core activities of the Chamber. It's highlighted in everything from the Annual Report to the print RegionView newsletter. Partners are also spreading the word. 1.9.5 Monthly Meeting Speakers/Resources Once a month, we bring in resource partners and opportunity speakers into the HITS team meeeting to talk about something they can provide to our businesses. We in turn inform them and market to them the importance of the program. 1.9.6 HITS Blitzes If our numbers are not at target, we will mobilize volunteers (Chamber Ambassadors) to make calls on members to see how satisfied they are with the Chamber as well as ask the survey questions. Partners have incorporated our pre‐qualification questions into their surveys, and we continue to work with them to add value to them to allow for this continual communication about the program as well as conducting the program itself.
2. UNIQUENESS/INNOVATION How or why is this new or unique? The HITS program is unique in many ways. The following are the key areas of innovation: Page | 11 2.1 Reach The first was the sheer ambitious nature of the reach goal, to touch 1,000 businesses in the community one‐on‐one. In a community of 3,600 businesses, we felt that it was critical to reach out to a significant part of the business community, and do it on a scale that was not done in the community before. 2.2 HITS Methodology HITS is very innovative in terms of how it approaches surveying a business. In looking a previous programs in which they had participated, team members knew that response rate was very low to traditional surveys, whether they be online or in paper form OR there wasn't enough time and resources to schedule enough onsite visits to hit the aggressive reach number. Regardless of format, there was a ruthless reduction of the questions based on the principle of not asking any question which did not directly lead to connecting them with a resource. Questions such as how you rate the labor force or utility costs or what are your competitors doing were sacrificed in the interest of reducing the survey to the smallest number of questions possible. Looking at a list of all of the public and non‐profit resources available to business, it was realized that most (ca. 85%) of the over 100 resources available to businesses fell into one of four activities: Hiring new employees, Investing in the business/assets, Training new or existing employees, or finding/constructing new and/or different Space. Thus, the HITS acronym is born‐‐the acronym contains the (pre‐qualification) survey within itself and can be done by anyone ‐‐ regardless of whether they know the programs and resources or not (e.g., our Chamber Ambassadors). Once there is a positive response to the HIT or S question (are you planning to hire/invest/train or find new space within the next year), one of the team partners calls on that company to do an onsite visit or detailed phone interview to begin to assess for which resources they might qualify and to help them access/obtain those resources. To recap some of the items discussed in section one (Description), there are four significant consequences to making such a radical reduction of the R&E survey. One, the HITS survey can be done at any time and anywhere. It takes very little time, and you don't have to explain what you are doing to the business. If you happen to be networking at an event and see a business you can ask the questions (again, very memorable and easy to recall), and IF a business answers yes, you can offer to connect them. Two, partners love it because the very fact that there are only 4 questions means everyone is amenable to adding any of the questions they aren't already asking (it's not a big burden for them to participate). The Small Business Development Center, which administers several loan funds was surveying customers on whether they were planning to buy equipment (invest) or do
a building expansion/construction (space). They were more than happy to add the hiring and training questions to their survey, because they know they will be getting referrals from other entities like Clark State, who was only asking the training question, but is now asking the other three. Page | 12 Three, not only is it simple for the partners and not only are they getting referrals, they get "credit" for making the connection in the eyes of their clients/people to whom they are talking. This builds value for them in the eyes of their clients. We are thrilled this is the case and makes the program a true win‐win scenario for us and our partners. Four, businesspeople love it because you aren't wasting their time. You are quickly determining (2 minutes) if there is any reason to connect them to someone in economic, workforce, or training development. If not, they are grateful you asked. The last thing worth mentioning about HITS methodology is that the binary (yes/no) nature of the HITS questions prevent the open‐ended Pandora's box of business woes, whereby the ED or other professional avoids the company discussing a problem they cannot help them with. One reason R&E programs are so difficult to do is that problems are discussed that you try to help with but aren't in your sweet spot (your services). You can spend a lot of time chasing your tail trying to help a company with an issue you can do little about. You aren't raising false hopes or expectations on behalf of a company who may think you can help them with some issue ("There's a huge puddle in front of my factory, can you fix it?" or "Utility costs are through the roof," that's really out of your control. The HITS program focuses on low‐hanging fruit and getting the sweet spot resources to as many companies as possible. 2.3 salesforce.com As was also discussed in the Description section, the use of salesforce.com for R&E and ED in general is very unique in Ohio and especially for R&E. About 4‐5 years ago, the only ED organizations using salesforce.com, that I was aware of was Arlington, Virginia, and Fairfield County (where I was). Within the last three years, PolymerOhio started using it. In 2008, we provided assistance to both the Ohio Business Development Coalition and the Dayton Development Coalition in setting up lead management systems with the technology. All of the customization was done in‐house using experience with the program and ease of the program. Our partners are also active users of the technology. Clark State has purchased four licenses, the Small Business Development Center has a license, the WorkPlus Center (Job & Family Services) has a license as well as several licenses at the Chamber. Clark State uses the software as its primary sales (for training) and marketing tool. As they record information in, it allows them to do their own business better plus it keeps our overall numbers real time and on track. Furthermore, salesforce.com allows us to assign each other tasks and referrals, thus creating an effective way to virtually manage and work with companies. It is the fact that the SaaS program is so robust that partners can use it to manage their own business through it, instead of using another program to manage their business and one to participate in BR&E, that makes it unique and different.
2.4 Measuring Value I have not yet seen (doesn't mean it's not going on, just that's it's innovative here) programs quantifying the value of the referrals and service they give. Traditional economic development measures yes, but can you specifically tell how much money the companies are saving as a result of the R&E effort. When the WorkPlus and other partners post jobs for clients and help Page | 13 them recruit workers, we ascribe a $750 per employee value. When a $16,000 training grant is obtained for a company, we add that to value. When a company receives a tax credit worth $100,000 over ten years, we add that in. We can say with confidence that we have added $1.4 million of value to the 305 companies that we directly assisted. 2.5 Branding it is not entirely uncommon to see BR&E programs with their own logo, but it is unusual to see them take it as far as we did. The resource business card, for example, is very unique. It made from very thin (think thinner than a credit card) plastic. Corners are rounded. The info is vertically oriented.
The idea is to communicate the program AND provide a quick list of the most often used resources. The idea is to communicate the program AND provide a quick list of the most often
used resources. It also can function as a business card (a very useful one) for existing companies. 2.6 Director of Hiring & Employer Services After the program was underway for about five months and the results were coming in, Page | 14 referrals were flowing, and information being shared among partners, the Clark County Department of Job & Family Services made a bold move. They had funded a Clark County Hiring Coordinator position through a local non‐profit. The position was paid for by JFS, was responsible for coordinating the 23 entities providing recruitment resources to businesses and promoting the services of the one‐stop center (WorkPlus). The leverage HITS provided JFS made them and other partners (the Hiring Coordinator herself, the Chamber, and the JAM organization) realize that the program needed resources and more support (the Chamber VP of ED was driving the project and leading it on his own). In addition, the Hiring Coordinator was spending a lot of time helping do the work of the program. They moved the contract for the position to the Chamber and created a new position at JFS to handle the workforce services end. The Director of Hiring & Employer Services position was created at the Chamber summer of 2008, and she came on board in August of 2008, helping to drive the initiative to a successful conclusion. The specific numeric goals of each year's program are written into the contract between JFS and the Chamber for the position. The Director's performance is directly measured against these goals. 2.7 Adaptability The program is very new and has not yet been adapted by other communities. It is extremely adaptable in whole or in part, in terms of cost and ease of understanding how to do it. 2.7.1 salesforce.com (can be applied, is being applied) The use of salesforce.com technology in economic development (part of the innovation) has been applied at the state and regional level. We did the primary initial work in setting up the Ohio Business Development Coalition's (the OBDC is the private, non‐ profit sales and marketing arm for the Ohio Department of Development)database for tracking marketing leads. We also assisted the Dayton Development Coalition set up its database for the same purpose. 2.7.2 HITS Methodology (can be applied) The HITS methodology could very easily be applied and adapted to any situation and community. Of course, the specific resources would differ (community to community, state to state, country to country), but the four categories would remain the same, whether the company is retail, non‐profit, high‐tech/R&D, service, manufacturing, or distribution. The HITS methodology could be used not only with salesforce.com but could also be tracked with a simple a tool as Excel or even other programs on the market if desired. In addition, the methodology does not require a full‐time person to manage. That is, of course, very helpful.
2.7.3 Branding and Name (can be applied) HITS is not a proprietary name, so communities could adopt their own HITS programs. Unlike other names, HITS embodies the survey itself in the name, so it makes sense to use it. The idea of a resource business card, even if not professionally designed, could Page | 15 be done in‐house using Microsoft Publisher and/or Avery business cards/MS Word/Avery templates. 2.7.4 Success Metrics (can be applied) Communities can track the value of the assistance provided, tracking time spent in technical assistance, estimating the value of recruitment per employee, interest savings through public financing, etc. Communities, of course, could also track the other things we do. This could be done regardless of the methodology or technology used. 2.7.5 E‐Newsletter (can be applied, is being applied) Many communities are using ConstantContact or similar programs as part of their marketing programs. Having one that highlights projects and resources available to businesses is a good idea and very inexpensive. Furthermore, the permission‐based marketing strategy could also be applied. After experiencing the power of the tool, Clark State is now doing their own newsletter for training; Center City is as well.
3. RESULTS Has this innovation produced results yet? If so, please describe how Ohio or an Ohio community has benefited from this innovation. The innovation has produced results. The following are our success measurements. They were Page | 16 measured on several levels for the year 2008 (January 1‐December 31), and will be done annually. 3.1 Reach This is a measure of how many businesses/business operations did we reach out to/survey on a one‐on‐one basis. The goal for the first year of the program was 1,000. We surveyed 1,039. 3.2 Response How many businesses gave us an idea of their expansion/growth plans? In our interactions, we were able to get 705 to give us a picture of what their plans were for the next year. Our goal was 60% for the first year (600). 3.3 Jobs & Investment We do measure traditional economic development statistics for the program including jobs (2,223 jobs retained or maintained; 769 new jobs created) and new investment ($75.1 million). We did not have specific goals for 2008 on how many we wanted to see happen, but we track it. It is important to note that there were 497 different projects to come up with this number (some companies had multiple projects, many smaller projects‐‐e.g., hiring one person, etc.) 3.4 Number of Companies Assisted We track the number of businesses we were able to directly assist through the program. 304 companies were helped through HITS in 2008. We had targeted to assist 200 for 2008. We exceeded that goal. 3.5 Value of Assistance A huge success for the program was also something we tracked, but for which we did not have a specific objective. This was the dollar value of the assistance provided, whether it was the value of a tax credit, a grant, recruitment services, or technical assistance, we tracked the value. $1.4 million in value has been documented for company growth projects. 3.6 Partners & Volunteers There are now 38 volunteers (plus three chamber staff, one fully dedicated) and 11 organizations actively participating in HITS, which is partnership on a scale the community has never seen before with retention and expansion. The core team has the following members (we call it the HITS Squad): David Zak, Vice President of Economic Development, Greater Springfield Chamber Amy Donahoe, Director of Hiring & Employment Services, Greater Springfield Chamber Aleiha DiRenzo, Executive Assistant, Greater Springfield Chamber
Geoff Steele, Assistant Director, Clark County Job & Family Services (JFS) Lehan Peters, Deputy Director, WorkPlus One‐Stop Center, Clark County JFS Jim Franks, Director of Corporate & Community Services, Clark State Community College Duane Hodge, Program Manager, Business & Industry Training, Clark State Community College John Geiger, Clark State Community College Page | 17 Gary Kuhn, Contract Training Facilitator, Clark State Community College Steve Anzur, Executive Director, Small Business Development Center (SBDC / Springfield) Mark Keating, Small Business Counselor, SBDC Vince Chase, Interim Executive Director, Center City Association Maria Goeser, Business Service Representative, Ohio Department of Development Bill Salyers, Chair, Economic & Job Development Committee, Springfield/Clark County J.A.M. Tom Franzen, Economic Development Administrator, City of Springfield Pat Richards, Deputy Economic Development Administrator, City of Springfield Shane Farnsworth, Planning Director, Clark County Sarah Wildman, Village Manager, Village of South Charleston Bob Bender, City Manager, City of New Carlisle 3.7 Sit‐Down Meetings A traditional R&E measure, we use it to track how many companies with complicated projects or companies with whom we have lengthier conversations. In 2008, the Chamber tracked (this will be expanded to more partners in 2009) the number of lunches/on‐site visits we have as well as the unique number of companies in both traditional industry (manufacturing, distribution, wholesale) and in general. In 2008, 68 companies had 185 face‐to‐face interactions with Chamber staff; 39 unique traditional companies had 129 face‐to‐face interactions with Chamber staff. Our goal for 2009 is to increase the number of unique traditional companies to 50 and the number of all companies to 100, meaning the team is meeting with at least one traditional and one other company at least every week. 3.8 Newsletter Subscribers This may seem an interesting thing to measure, but our e‐newsletter strategy is done with a Seth Godin permission marketing strategy. We add one subscriber at a time, with their permission. The entire Chamber list is not just automatically used (700+). This is done so that the people receiving it do NOT perceive it as spam and see value in it. We have 262 subscribers at present. The goal for 2009 is 1,000 (hooking in businesses that have participated in HITS) as well as other stakeholders, the community leaders, the media, and others. 3.9 Media Presence We measure what our media presence has been throughout the year. We tracked five articles in three periodicals (Dayton Business Journal, Dayton Daily News, Springfield News‐Sun). We did not have specific goals at the outset, but definitely consider this a success.(5 3.10 Impact on Business Climate The program has only been in existence publicly for a year, but it has definitely made a positive impact on the business climate.
3.9.1 Value First, businesses who decided they would be investing $75M, creating over 700 jobs and retaining over 2200, were saved over $1.4 million through the HITS program. Those savings helped create a climate that made those businesses want to hire, want to invest, Page | 18 want to train, want to expand on to their space. Real value for real businesses is the best way to improve the climate. 3.9.2 Public Perception Clark County and the greater Springfield area have had some tough times recently through the heavy losses of manufacturing jobs over the last decade. Recent economic tumult has not helped the issue any but intensified it. People's confidence and the confidence of business owners, managers and executives, are lower than they have been for decades. One is due to the overall bad news about the economy in the media. The second is due to the individual struggles they have at work and in their own businesses. HITS in the paper and HITS in conversation AND the results that it tracks help tell the story‐‐in a believable, documented way‐‐that there are positive things and growth happening in the business community. There were almost 500 projects by local businesses last year alone. It certainly goes against the grain of what most people perceive. And, in the economy as with the community psyche, perception can be reality. The last part about public perception relative to the business community is the demonstrated partnership and overcoming of parochialism and fiefdoms that businesses see demonstrated in front of their very eyes through HITS that make them more comfortable with being here. People do care. People are trying to help me. Community organizations do care, are concerned, and are working together to solve MY problems and help me. It makes businesses feel better about doing business in our community.
4. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION Please attach any supporting documentation (newsclips, fact sheets, weblinks, etc.) regarding this innovation. Page | 19 Friday, February 29, 2008
Springfield Chamber aims big with new initiative Chamber looks to talk to 1,000 businesses Dayton Business Journal - by Jacob Dirr DBJ Staff Reporter
David Zak, vice president for economic development at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, is spearheading an initiative to ask 1,000 area companies if they are hiring, investing, training or seeking space.
David Zak is spearheading an ambitious project to talk to 1,000 businesses this year to help companies get a bead on government programs that aid business. The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce vice president announced the initiative this month that aims at asking Clark County area companies if they are hiring, investing, training or seeking space. Zak calls the programs "HITS," for the four questions, and said his impetus is to act as a clearing house to assist Clark County companies. If a business answers "yes" to any of the questions, it can be connected to chamber employees assigned to a particular field who provide assistance or act as a liaison to other economic drivers or government offices, he said. About 100 to 200 government programs exist in the area for businesses that business leaders don't have time to find out about, Zak said. "In essence, we are free business consultants," he said. He said the project was born out of a need to reach more companies after he gauged that the chamber wasn't reaching far enough.
There are about 3,600 businesses in Clark County, about 700 of which are chamber members, he said. Traditionally, retention and expansion efforts included a time-consuming interview as part of a survey, according to the chamber. As a by-product, not all the companies were being reached that could be, Zak said. "HITS" questions get right to the point in determining whether the economic development partners can be of assistance, Zak said. Clark County Commissioner John Detrick welcomed the program and said that 80 percent of economic growth comes from pre-existing companies, as compared to incoming businesses. "I'm encouraged by it because we tend to recruit new business, but you need to cultivate the ones that are already here," Detrick said. The veteran commissioner also said it could help the struggling businesses that might just need to make it over a hump. "You never really know, sometimes businesses just close their doors and you wonder what would have happened if you talked to them more," he said. Zak said the initiative is already being rolled out. Much like listeners call into the NPR show "Car Talk" to find solutions to a range of car needs, Zak said the HITS program is similar in that it doesn't fix the problem directly, but can provide advice to do so. He admitted that the chamber's advice won't be entwined with the humor familiar to the radio show. Zak said that his business program will provide regular updates to members, at quarterly intervals, to lend credibility to the program and prove to business leaders its value. "This is a program for business people, and the bottom line is: Yes, it is important to know they are appreciated, but it is also important to make an impact to their bottom line," Zak said. The program does not have a specific budget attached, nor will it require the chamber to add staff, but instead will help guide the chamber as it interacts with companies. Zak said he expects to be firing on all cylinders within a month, at which point the program will have to engage 80 companies per month or about five per day. He said he expects the first program results to be released about three months later.
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Zak, who joined the chamber in April, 2007, said that the program will seek to aid companies regardless of size. Approximately 60 percent of Clark County businesses have one to four employees, another 20 percent have five to nine, according to chamber statistics. Nonprofits, school systems and hospitals are all on the HIT list too.
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Chamber team has HITS for businesses in county Program helps with hiring, training, investment, expansion BYLINE: Elaine Morris Roberts Staff Writer DATE: July 6, 2008
PUBLICATION: Springfield News-Sun (OH)
SECTION: BUSINESS 1
If any Clark County business owner is planning to hire new employees, invest in the business, train new or existing staff members or increase existing space, David Zak and his team want to know. Zak, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, implemented the HITS program - hiring, investment, training or space - in January 2008 with the goal of contacting 1,000 Clark County businesses by the end of the year. The program was created to function as a customer service delivery system for area businesses to help them meet needs and control costs in the four HITS categories. By using the no-cost consulting services provide by the HITS team, businesses can get information regarding tax breaks, grants, financing, site selection and workforce training. Zak runs a team that includes representatives from the city of Springfield, WorkPlus, the Small Business Development Center, Clark State Community College and Clark County Department of Job and Family Services. As of July 1, the program had connected with 355 area businesses and helped more than 70. "We are where we want to be right now," Zak said. The program has identified 49 company projects this year with more than $8.3 million in new investment, more than 300 new jobs and more than 2000 retained jobs. Why it works
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Before he was a part of the Chamber, Zak experienced a survey program that required businesses to answer 140 questions before consulting could begin. "So many of those questions did not directly address need of businesses," he said. This program works, he said, because the consulting process has been streamlined. It begins Page | 23 with only four questions that business owners can answer in minutes. The HITS team asks if the business needs assistance with hiring, investment, training or space. Once it is determined a business needs help with one or more areas within HITS, the information is shared with the team and then only the necessary members contact the business owner. The HITS team uses Salesforce.com, a Web-based customer relationship management software-as-a-service program. Everyone on the team has access to common information and can add to the files as they work with HITS clients. "As I'm speaking with an employer, I'm asking the HITS questions. If they have a hiring need, I take action. Other needs are forwarded to other HITS partners," said team member Amy Donahoe. The result has been few overlapping contacts and conversations, which saves everyone time and money, bringing only the necessary services to business owners. "Business people are inundated with so many people doing the same thing. Our database allows us to be efficient and effective," said team member Duane Hodge. Big wins While the HITS program works for Clark County businesses regardless of their size, the most recent gains have come for some of the area's larger employers. Konecranes recently received a 50 percent job creation tax credit valued at $158,620 during a six-year term to expand operations. The $3 million project, a proposed 24,360-square-foot addition to its existing 15,200-square-foot facility, is expected to create 34 jobs and retain 178 positions within the first three years.
The Sutphen Corporation recently received a 45 percent tax credit valued at $72,495 during a five-year term to expand operations at two facilities. The $900,000 project is expected to create 30 jobs and retain 76 positions within its first three years. Page | 24 Teikuro's $3.4 million expansion was made possible with a $200,000 incentive package that included a $50,000 state job creation tax credit, a $25,000 Rapid Outreach grant and a $136,000 sales tax savings.
Springfield also gave them a 60 percent, 10-year enterprise zone tax exemption worth $77,000. HITS consultants helped the three companies save significant money through the tax exemptions, training grants and recruitment services at the state and local level. "We've saved those three companies alone over $1 million over the next 10 years," Zak said. The program is also credited for fostering relationships between businesses. Tracy Tackett, Chamber ambassador and marketing manager for Texas Roadhouse, said she has contacted businesses to see if they need HITS assistance and established relationships that directly benefit her restaurant and other businesses. "This is a great networking tool," she said, "it took me to GFS, a business we regularly support and helped build a new relationship within the local business community." The program is already more successful than similar programs in larger markets. Dayton's BusinessFirst program has surveyed approximately 300 businesses a year since its inception in 1999. In three years and at a cost of $585,000, an award-winning program contacted 175 businesses and helped 48 in Chattanooga, Tenn. "Our goal is to have an award-winning program ... and one that provides significant value to our businesses," Zak said. Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or
[email protected]. (c) 2008 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - Springfield News-Sun
Hiring coordinator's role expands By Elaine Morris Roberts Staff Writer Saturday, August 02, 2008
SPRINGFIELD - Clark County's hiring coordinator will soon have a new home and see her role in the economic development of the county expand. Amy Donahoe will join the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce as the director of Hiring and Employer Services effective Monday, Aug. 4. Donahoe has worked at the Opportunities Industrialization Center for seven years as a manager. Since 2005, she has served as Clark County Hiring Coordinator under a three-year contract with OIC working out of the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services' WorkPlus Center. "Amy has been an integral part of the OIC staff and family for many years and her skills and leadership will be missed. We will still work closely with Amy in her role at the Chamber through OIC's SureHire program," said Michael Calabrese, executive director of OIC. Donahoe said she will perform some similar functions in her new position, but has been asked to adopt a leadership role with the Hiring, Investing, Training and Space program, the Chamber's newest economic development venture. She will help achieve the vision that has been set out for local businesses through the HITS program, said David Zak, the Chamber's vice president for economic development. "I will be able to increase my knowledge base regarding economic development and work more closely with the Chamber Ambassadors program, which will in effect extend the Chamber staff as we work to develop the HITS program," said Donahoe, a former Chamber ambassador and 2007 Ambassador of the Year. Donahoe will work mostly from the Chamber offices at 20 S. Limestone St., but will retain an office at WorkPlus.
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DJFS will now contract with the Chamber for the new position. The contract was moved because the position evolved beyond working directly with employers and employees through WorkPlus, according to Bill Salyers, Justice, Action Mercy's economic and job development committee chairperson. Page | 26
Working as part of the Chamber, Salyers added, "will allow Amy and (David) Zak to work more closely and maximize their abilities." Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or
[email protected]. (c) 2008 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - Springfield News-Sun
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Example of the Newsletter:
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comments - hits reaches 1,000 Dear David, I am pleased to report that the ambitious goal of 41 volunteers and 11 organizations that make up the effort in Springfield and Clark County to assist local businesses grow was exceeded for 2008. The program, entitled HITS, reached out to 1,038 businesses and received responses from over 700 on whether they were planning on Hiring, Investing money into the business, Training employees, or finding or building new or different Space. We then helped provide over $1.4 million in assistance. We look forward to an even better 2009, reaching out to over 1100 companies this year. David Zak, VP of Economic Development 937.325.7621,
[email protected]
issue 7, jan 2009 2008 in review quick quotes young's clark state disaster loans
resources
available buildings
2008 in review: $81M and 1200+ new jobs We're pleased to report that even in the midst of the tough economic storm in 2008, there was some significant economic growth in Clark County and the greater Springfield area. 483 existing company projects accounted for most of the investment ($75 million) and
available sites Nextedge Park Airpark Ohio Chamber ED City of Springfield ED
new jobs (773), with highlight projects for 2008 including Konecranes, Sutphen, and Teikuro among others. Almost 5,000 jobs were maintained or retained by existing companies as well. 11 new companies also came to the area in 2008, investing $6 million and creating 503 new jobs, and included such companies as SelectTech, Transeo, Red Roof Inn, and Macro International. >> Media coverage of projects: Konecranes/KCI, Sutphen, Teikuro, SelectTech, Transeo, RRI, Macro.
State of Ohio ED
investors City of Springfield
Page | 29 Clark County Fifth-Third Bank Huntington Nat. Bank
quick quotes to double in size The company formerly known as Health Plan Network has announced it will continue to grow in Springfield as it moves its sales, administrative, and training support center to a new location on Limestone St., with the intention to double from 15 employees to 30 in the next six months. The company also has operations in Cincinnati and assists companies and individuals with their insurance needs. The companies customers are located in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. >> Read Springfield News-Sun article
top tourist dairy adds cheese manufacturing With over 1.1 million visitors each year and consistently ranking first or second as the Dayton region's most popular tourist attraction, Young's Jersey Dairy is venturing into cheese manufacturing. Started in 1869 as a 60-acre farm, Young's has grown into a 130-acre complex including a working dairy farm, two restaurants, minature golf, picnic facilities, a catering business, and constant activities for the kids and family. The cheese manufacturing project is expected to add new jobs and equipment, require a building addition, and serve retail, tourist, and restaurant needs. The project is slated for 2009. >> Young's Jersey Dairy official website
clark state has nation's top community college
KeyBank Ohio Edison National City Bank Security Nat. Bank
Turner Foundation WENCO
executive Of all of the leaders of the over 600 community colleges in the US, Clark State President Dr. Karen Rafinski was selected by the Association of Community College Trustees to receive the National Outstanding CEO Award for 2008. Started in 1965 as Ohio's first chartered technical college, Clark State under Rafinski's leadership has experienced the largest and most rapid expansion of its history, including non-credit and credit enrollment of 7,600 students, two new state-of-the-art facilities, and a $12 million fundraising campaign. Clark State also ranks number one among Ohio's 23 community colleges in assets per student. >> Read Clark State story >> Read Springfield News-Sun article
sba makes disaster loans avail to small biz On January 13, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that it was rolling out an "injury disaster" loan program for non-profit and for-profit businesses affected by the July 1, 2008 flood that occurred throughout Ohio (including Clark, Champaign, Madison, and Green counties). Eligible small businesses and non-profits may qualify for loans of up to $2 million at 4 percent with terms up to 30 years. Loan amounts and terms are set by the SBA and are based on each applicant's financial condition. Businesses can apply online, call the SBA's toll-free number at 1-800-659-2955, or email the SBA at
[email protected]. >> SBA's website for this program
David Zak VP, Economic Development Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce 937.325.7621 x113, 800.803.1553 (c) 937.631.5315, (e)
[email protected]
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February 2, 2009 Business Retention and Expansion International (BREI) PO Box 3212 Bismarck, ND 58502-3212 To the award evaluation committee, It is my great pleasure to write this letter of support for the HITS (Hiring, Investment, Training, Space) program of the Greater Springfield Alliance in Springfield, Ohio. This innovative economic development program is truly worthy of an exemplary award because of three areas of unique strength: partnership, innovative use of technology, and concrete, measurable results. The HITS program is unique because it has brought together so many Clark County partners who have an interest in furthering the economic development of our region. I work for Clark State Community College and we are the primary provider of training services, i.e. the “T” in HITS. In addition David Zak, Vice President of Economic Development at the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, through his energy and leadership, has brought together a diverse team of partners who previously worked alone. This includes the City of Springfield, County Commissioners, the Chamber of Commerce, local Job and Family Services, Ohio Department of Development, and many other community organizations. David has been the key to unifying all of our efforts to bring about economic revitalization through the HITS program. This powerful group of professionals is able to have an extended reach to every business in Clark County within three years. As a training provider, my staff of three business consultants now have approximately forty partner members who assist us in determining training needs county-wide. Our reach could never be this extensive working alone. The HITS program is also innovative because it has implemented a state-of-the-art customer relationship management (CRM) tool from Salesforce.com. This tool has been heavily customized to provide each partner the means to document each interaction with the business client. More importantly it serves as the glue which brings the partners together. For example, when one of the forty- plus partners discovers a training opportunity, a task is assigned to Clark State, thus creating a virtual team that presents a seamless interface to the customer. Despite being from multiple separate organizations, this use of technology allows us to operate as one. The HITS work is strongly focused on results for the business community. Through software we track the number of businesses contacted but also the added value brought by the HITS team members to each contact. Resources from across the state are leveraged through each partner on behalf of local companies to ensure they thrive. In the area of training we have access to numerous state grants to assist companies with their training needs. A better trained workforce helps retain businesses and equips them to expand. Because of this partnership we are able to serve far more clients than ever before. For each client we document the value added by our training services. Likewise, when services are rendered in each of the four areas of HITS, the resultant leveraged benefit to the business is documented so that our success measures clearly show the results achieved. We are successful because we add objective value for our clients and we have the documentation to prove it. In my 20 plus years in the business community and now in economic/workforce development I have never seen such an innovative partnership of so many entities all united to assist Clark County Ohio in its business retention and expansion efforts. Through David Zak’s leadership the partners are now committed to an exciting vision of retaining and expanding business through partnership and innovative technology. For these reasons I wholeheartedly endorse the HITS program for the BREI exemplary award. Sincerely,
James S. Franks Director, Corporate and Community Services Clark State Community College
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William M. Salyers, Ed.D. 1628 Shadeland Drive Springfield, Ohio 45503-2845 937-399-2279 January 27, 2009 Page | 32
TO: Business Retention and Expansion International (BREI) RE: Letter of Support for HITS Retention & Expansion Program Since January 2004 I have chaired the Economic and Job Development Committee of the Springfield/Clark County J.A.M. (Justice Action Mercy), known as JAM. Sixteen congregations join in JAM to work for social and economic justice in Clark County. My committee has developed a strong working relationship with the Clark County Department of Jobs and Family Services, the Clark County Board of Commissioners, and the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Our collaboration with key organizations in Clark County has dramatically improved coordination of services not only for people seeking employment, but also for local employers. The HITS Retention & Expansion Program of the Chamber of Commerce continues and extends the initiative for quality, value added services to local employers. HITS is deceptively simple in its four-fold focus on Hiring, Investment, Training, and Space. HITS is astonishingly ambitious in its scope, seeking to make and maintain contact with local employers to provide resources responsive to their needs for any component of HITS. Economic Development goes hand in hand with work force development. The HITS program has built into its resource kit access to and collaboration with the WorkPlus One Stop Center in Clark County. The WorkPlus Center has created an Employer Services Committee in its strategic plan, and participates in the HITS Program as a partner, and as a resource increasingly responsive to employer needs as consumers of WorkPlus services. As manager of sheltered workshops for people with disabilities, including Goodwill Industries of Des Moines, Iowa, I learned long ago that the greatest potential for new business is to build capacity with existing customers. The HITS Program focuses on that crucial aspect of economic development through business expansion and retention. In its first year of operation, the HITS team has exceeded its goal of contacting 1000 business leaders, and has taken aim at building on its success for 2009. It is an honor to support the HITS Retention & Expansion Program application for the BREI award. The HITS team has demonstrated its imagination, effectiveness, and will be a worthy and exemplary recipient of the award.
William M. Salyers, Ed.D. Chair, Economic and Job Development Committee Springfield/Clark County J.A.M. (Justice Action Mercy)
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