BEST of Iowa
The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) supports local economic development organizations in implementing or increasing the effectiveness of their business retention and expansion efforts. This is a critical component to an overall economic development plan as the U.S. Small Business Administration reports that small businesses represent 99.7% of all employers and provide approximately 75% of the net new jobs added to the economy. Other studies have shown that 60-80% of future job growth results from the expansion of existing industries. While expansions within existing industries are not covered as frequently in the media, these expansions are critical to the overall economic climate in the state. IEDA believes business retention and expansion programs are best performed as a locally driven effort and to maximize local development efforts towards existing industry.
Overall, IEDA supports existing industry efforts at the community and regional level with a variety of tools:
- Investment in BEST of Iowa Business Expansion & Strategic Trends
- Strategic implementation of existing industry out-of-state corporate calls
- Development of training and on-line tools
- Investment in marketing tool, Location One Information System (LOIS)
BEST of Iowa Business Expansion & Strategic Trends
The BEST of Iowa Business Expansion & Strategic Trends was formed by Alliant Energy IPL, Black Hills Corp., Iowa Area Development Group and MidAmerican Energy in collaboration with the Iowa Economic Development Authority as a partnership to provide a state-wide existing business tool, the Synchronist Business Information System®.
Synchronist is a structured business information system designed for collection, management, analysis, and reporting of the business data impacting communities and the overall state economy. The goals of this partnership among IEDA and Iowa's utilities in this statewide initiative include:
- Facilitating an integrated approach to economic development by providing the tools, resources and training for community leaders and economic development professionals
- Further developing and maintaining a successful, continuous business retention and expansion program
- Improving community economic decision-making capacity
- Developing a pro-business message
- Utilizing trend data to formulate marketing initiatives
Iowa is unique, both in its statewide effort and its utilization of national benchmarks.
View the overview [PDF: 250k], Synchronist Business Information System License Fees [PDF: 30k] and brochure [PDF: 135k].
Iowa Competitive Capacity ScoreCard
BEST of Iowa has produced four annual studies, the Iowa Competitive Capacity ScoreCard. This is a significant accomplishment, unmatched by other states, and represents true public/private collaboration on Business Retention and Expansion in Iowa. It is a tribute to the dedication of economic development professionals who provide the raw material through hundreds of personal interviews with Iowa employers. Competitive capacity is a measure of Iowa’s ability to compete for private sector investment to support the State's economic health. Competitive capacity uses a defined set of criteria to document the condition of the community's product as well as the business base essential for attracting investment. The report provides a detailed analysis of Iowa's situation and identifies opportunities and risks to be addressed. Another tool provided by the BEST of Iowa’s regional BR|E initiative is the Synchronist BoxScore® which allows local Synchronist users to quickly and easily create a personalized graph comparing local findings to state-wide, regional, and national Synchronist benchmarks.
- Fourth annual report's Executive Summary [PDF: 331k] and Iowa's Competitive Capacity ScoreCard [PDF: 963k] presentation released at BEST workshop series August 2011.
- Third annual report's Executive Summary [PDF: 242k] and Iowa's Competitive Capacity ScoreCard [PDF: 948k] presentation released at BEST workshop series August 2010.
- Second annual report's Executive Summary [PDF: 146k] and Iowa's Competitive Capacity Scorecard [PDF: 7.5MB] presentation released at the BEST workshops July 2009.
- First annual report's Executive Summary [PDF: 88k] and presentation "Business Expansion and Strategic Trends (BEST) — How Iowa Stacks up" [PDF: 356k] released at the June 2008 PDI Spring Conference.
BEST of Iowa Coalition
As recommended in the 2009 Iowa Competitive Capacity ScoreCard, a task force was formed to further investigate opportunities identified in the report findings. The BEST management team is working collaboratively with these partners to coordinate usage of data and broaden resources available to the economic development community.
Task force partners include representatives from the Association of Business and Industry, Iowa Association of Community College Trustees, Iowa Business Council, Iowa Economic Development Authority, Iowa Innovation Council, Iowa Workforce Development, Professional Developers of Iowa, Iowa Dept. of Education and Iowa’s state universities.
The coalition is working on ideas to use this data to address challenges and opportunities identified. New programs, changes in legislation, state incentives and/or other positive improvements in Iowa’s business climate are potential results of this collaboration.
BEST of Iowa Management Team
Contact a member of the BEST of Iowa management committee for discussion and participation:
Alliant Energy-IPL
Scott Snider
641.437.5225
scottsnider@alliantenergy.com
Black Hills Corp.
Mike Fastenau
515.343.3012
mike.fastenau@blackhillscorp.com
Iowa Area Development Group
Bruce Hansen
515.223.4817
BHansen@iadg.com
Iowa Economic Development Authority
Chris Cataldo
515.725.3157
chris.cataldo@iowa.gov
MidAmerican Energy Company
Deb Calvert
515.281.2595
dlcalvert@midamerican.com
BEST of Iowa Training
BEST of Iowa has offered an annual series of statewide training workshops since 2006. The August 2011 BEST of Iowa annual workshop, Broadening BR&E into Existing Business Strategies, focused on growing BR&E programs into strategies. Workshop content included discussion of the Fourth Annual Iowa Competitive Capacity ScoreCard Report, Synchronist advanced analysis tools and client relationship opportunities, BEST practice case studies offering current examples of Iowa communities utilizing the data to analyze opportunities and risks, and the Location One Information System (LOIS).
Best practice case studies and resources by local economic development groups and partner LOIS presented at these workshops included:
Blane, Canada Ltd. offers free online training sessions on Synchronist PRIME & CRTS, x-Tool Analysis, Reporting, CRM, Interview (Survey Strategy and Interviewing Techniques) and Opportunity Manager (OpMgr). Details for these sessions are available in the Synchronist Announcements after log in [https://login.e-synchronist.com/].
BEST of Iowa BR|E Webinars
In these tough economic times, retaining existing businesses has become more important than ever. Do you know how to initiate a retention program? Which businesses and industries do you visit? What do you do with the information? BEST of Iowa and Blane, Canada Ltd. partnered to help those interested in learning about business retention and expansion or wanting a refresher course through the four-part Launching a Successful BR|E Program webinar series held in April 2010.
- Elements of Successful BR|E
- Red Flags and Service Delivery
- Securing & Completing Executive Interview
- Turning Information into Action
The series was recorded and is available at www.blanecanada.com/Iowa/Video/Video.html. (log in: IA-bre whitehat4) Each session runs about one hour. A wealth of resources is included in the handouts.
On-line Existing Business Initiative (EBI) Toolkit Downloads
The following materials and templates are provided as additional tools to assist your economic development organization jumpstart your existing industry initiative:
Additional templates:
BEST of Iowa Participation Agreement [MS Word: 115k]
Sample Confidentiality Statement – EDC Board Member [MS Word: 28k]
Sample Confidentiality Agreement – MEC Bidirectional [MS Word: 34k]
Sample Confidentiality Agreement – Volunteer [MS Word: 26k]
Corporate Executive Calls [MS Word: 28k]
BEST Survey Follow-Up [MS Word: 31k]
Sample HR Survey Follow-Up [PDF: 835k]
Business Retention & Expansion International (BREI)
BREI [www.brei.org] is a non-profit association of economic development professionals focusing on the retention and expansion of existing businesses. Programs are designed to help support existing business develop and expand in today's global economy.
Other training resources may be found in the EBI Toolkit [PDF: 368k] or by contacting IEDA at ebi@iowa.gov.
Contact the Iowa Economic Development Authority with questions or for additional information:
Phone: 515.725.3157
E-mail: ebi@iowa.gov