And while a traditional economic development plan has served Greater Phoenix well for many years, GPEC’s forward-thinking leader, board of directors and stakeholders agreed it was time to redefine and strengthen Arizona’s long-term economic development strategy in accordance with the 21st century global marketplace.
“Arizona has performed well by selling the fundamentals like good weather, affordable housing, available land, business-friendly communities and an abundance of people to hire and sell products to,” says Barry Broome, GPEC’s president and CEO. “But economic models for communities are more like company models and have to be under constant change. So we redefined our traditional economic approach and created a corresponding contemporary plan we call GPEC Next, which is designed to leverage and move our region forward in the global marketplace. It’s about what we need to do ‘next’ to make Arizona better.”
Without this refined, leading-edge model for business development, Arizona would be left behind, adds Jeff Montag, president of Humana. “Other cities and states have similar strategies to attract the best employers with high-wage jobs, so we either move to the next level or get left behind,” he says. “We need to let companies outside Arizona know that we are a player in advanced business services, aerospace, software and bioscience and promote our centers of excellence.”
Montag believes that for long-term economic development, Arizona needs to demonstrate its ability to build technology-based enterprises, as well as seek quality, high-tech employers who will bring higher-paying jobs to the state. The region also needs to actively engage stakeholders and activate an ambassador team that will meet with people from companies looking to move or open a business in Arizona.
“Tax breaks and good real estate opportunities are some of the traditional things GPEC has focused on when selling our region,” Montag says. “And while these are good, to attract smart companies into Arizona, we need to use a more contemporary approach and engage key people in the state from various industries to meet with prospective employers and provide them with the personal elements that sometimes get ignored. For example, if a CEO of a new hospital comes to town, they should have dinner with key healthcare leaders in the state who can talk up all the pluses of living and working here, in addition to things like where to go to hire key people, tax breaks and good real estate opportunities. It is a high level of engagement that brings quality companies to town and GPEC Next is the catalyst to make that happen.”
Tapping international markets to attract foreign direct investment into the region is a core focus of GPEC Next. While most states have been deeply involved in international programs for over 25 years, Arizona has only recently launched the Arizona Global Network (AGN), its first statewide partnership to attract foreign direct investment. The AGN was developed by a consortium of economic development partners from across the state including GPEC, the Arizona Department of Commerce, Greater Flagstaff Economic Council, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation, Arizona Association for Economic Development and Arizona Rural Development Council.
“We could have Fortune 500 companies come to Arizona and open businesses every week, but that does not make us a worldwide competitor,” says Broome. “We have to move toward international enterprises that will make us function as a region and enable our universities to further advance. We also have to be able to answer questions from these knowledge-based companies about how they can connect to the Asian-European markets out of Arizona, create new products with the university, or connect to knowledge centers or obtain venture capital. We have to let them know what we can do for them! It’s about understanding this new strategy and managing the move toward change.”

www.gpec.org
www.humana.com