7/09/2010 |
(en una verdadera perspectiva global)
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On December 14, 2006 the New North, Inc. held their third annual summit. For those unfamiliar with New North, this is a collaborative effort among business and community leaders to promote cooperation and economic development in the 18-county region of Northeast Wisconsin. It was at the Summit last year that the brand name and logo for New North were unveiled and the announcement was made that an Executive Director had been hired. Jerry Murphy came on board in January of 2006 to lead the effort to build the business base in the New North region. This year’s Summit focused on the accomplishments and the plans for the future.
The Summit was held at the Manitowoc Capitol Civic Center. Guest speakers included Governor Jim Doyle, Senator Herb Kohl and Congressman Elect Steve Kagen. The entire event centered on the business growth and economic development of the New North region. In this past year strategic initiatives were identified and people were recruited to work on teams to address these initiatives. The progress made by the teams was reported on by Board members and team leaders. The six key initiatives are:
· Leverage the Regional Brand
· Encourage Educational Advancement
· Embrace and Promote Diverse Talents
· Implement Targeted Growth Opportunities
· Support Entrepreneurial Climate and Small Business
· Attract and Develop Key Talent
Some of these initiatives have longer time frames than others. In some instances these are continuations of efforts that were started in some parts of the region, but will now be extended to all of New North. Board members, team members, volunteers and investors now number over 130.
“Where the Money Is… “ was a presentation made by William Fruth a leader in the field of geographic economic analysis. In his overview, Fruth provided a picture of the current economic status of the new North and presented guidelines for economic growth. Fruth highlighted how local economies work and how these economies grow. The flow of money is the way economies work and that for economies to grow there needs to be a flow of money into a region. Primary or contributory industries import money while consumptive or dependent industries consume this money. Growth in an economy depends upon the amount of money flowing into a region while the growth in quality depends upon the wage level of the primary industries.
Fruth provided some characteristics of a primary industry. These included selling their goods and services outside of the region, thereby bringing money into the area. A corollary is that since the markets for these employers are outside the region, they do not have to be in a particular location to sell their products. Their choice of location will depend upon factors such as operating costs, availability of raw materials, a skilled workforce ….. overall profitability. If location factors cause an employer to become unprofitable, they will move.
Fruth’s company does geographic economic analyses. To measure the economic strength of an area, there are 28 factors that are considered. For comparison purposes, Fruth has grouped economic areas into Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and Micropolitan Statistical Areas (MICRO). 361 regions have been identified as MSA’s and 577 areas identified as MICRO’s. Of the ten strongest MSA’s, only one (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, # 5 ) is in the upper Midwest. Fortunately, none of the ten weakest MSA’s are in Wisconsin. Approximately 82% of the United States population resides in an MSA.
Similarly, none of the strongest MICRO’s are in the upper Midwest, but Williston, North Dakota ranks 571st and is one of the ten weakest. There are five MSA regions in New North. They are: Green Bay (# 48), Appleton (# 99), Oshkosh-Neenah (# 107), Sheboygan (# 111), and Fond du Lac (# 216). MICRO’s in the New North are: Manitowoc (# 56), Marinette (# 127), and Iron Mountain (# 255).
For determining some of the factors according to industry classification, both the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and the North American Industrial Classification Systems (NAICS) were used. Using both classification systems, the area percent employment for the New North region showed that Manufacturing was the largest employment classification accounting for 19.2% (NAICS) or 23.7% (SIC) of the workforce. This is in contrast to the US national workforce percentages for Manufacturing of 8.7% (NAICS) and 11.5% (SIC).
The Manufacturing classification also tops the earnings category for the New North region. Earnings are defined as all wages and salaries paid to individuals working for others. For New North the percentages for Manufacturing were 29.5% (NAICS) and 33.8% (SIC) compared to 12.9% (NAICS) and 16.5% (SIC) nationally. It is interesting to note that only one other classification accounted for a double digit percentage of earnings and that was Services with 19.1% (SIC).
Earnings were further broken down by sector in the Manufacturing classification. In the New North the NAICS percentages were:
Paper Manufacturing 18.5%
Machinery Manufacturing 14.6%
Fabricated Metal Products 12.2%
Food Manufacturing 10.2%
Plastics and Rubber Products 5.8%
Printing and Related Support Activities 5.0%
Wood Product Manufacturing 2.7%
Furniture and Related Products 2.3%
All other categories contributed 2% or less to New North earnings.
The SIC breakdown was:
Paper and Allied Products 21.6%
Industrial Machinery 16.8%
Food and Kindred Products 10.0%
Printing and Publishing 7.2%
Rubber and Plastics 4.8%
Fabricated Metal Products 4.7%
Motor Vehicles and Equipment 3.0%
Lumber and Wood Products 2.7%
Fruth also looked at employment of people in New North versus the strongest and weakest MSA’s Starting from a base of 1000 in 1975, employment growth to 2004 in the Strongest MSA’s rose to 2600. In New North it grew to 1800 and in the weakest MSA’s only to 1300. He also looked at inflation adjusted earnings for the strongest and weakest MSA’s relative to New North. Starting with a base of 1000 in 1975, earnings grew to about 3000 for the strongest MSA’s, to 1200 for the weakest MSA’s and to 2100 in New North.
Employment, earnings, wages and other categories were further broken down by county and compared to the strongest and weakest MSA’s. The presentation provided only selected counties to illustrate differences, but all the data is available in the full report that is available at the New North web site: http://www.thenewnorth.com/ . Be advised that the part of the report containing the information by county is 220 pages.
Overall the Summit proved to be very encouraging. Considerable progress has been made and the identity and visibility of the New North are certainly increasing within the region and the state.
According to Fruth there are three areas of emphasis that can promote economic development. One area targets existing local industry, a second targets recruitment of industry from outside the region and the third would be directed at start-ups. He indicated that many communities start programs directed at growing local businesses but abandon them because the results are hard to measure and there is little glamour to the effort. Recruitment programs tend to have problems as well. They tend to be expensive, time consuming and can provide a high level of frustration.
The New North is setting an example of how diverse groups interested in regional economic development can work together. Our hats are off to Jerry Murphy and the New North, and we wish them the best for the New Year!
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