“New hires to give job creation fresh look” |
| New hires to give job creation fresh look Posted: 01 Mar 2011 03:59 PM PST Call it economic development, the art of job creation or just selling sunshine – whatever the job description, Florida's got a new general in the war on unemployment. Gray Swoope, Gov. Rick Scott's hand-picked new president for Enterprise Florida, calls Scott's campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years "very attainable." Swoope, 49, is jumping to Florida from Mississippi, where he was Gov. Haley Barbour's economic development appointee. Here in Central Florida, we have a new colonel. The Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission last week hired Rick Weddle, former president of the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, as its new leader. Weddle, 59, says he will focus on high-quality jobs. The two new hires come at a pivotal time for the state. As unemployment hovers at 12 percent, Enterprise Florida and its local counterparts such as the EDC have struggled for relevance. The agencies certainly didn't cause our state's joblessness woes, but they weren't viewed as go-to leaders who could help dig out of the crisis either. Now, there is potential to shake up the system, break the mold of simply facilitating the handout of corporate incentive dollars and become a voice for issues that would help businesses succeed — like a well-trained workforce. It's too soon to say exactly what path they will take, but each man brings a fresh outlook to the state, and that's a good start. Scott had his eye on Swoope since at least December, when a member of his transition team reached out to the leader of the Mississippi Development Authority. With the same swiftness that Scott fired the former president of Enterprise Florida in January, he persuaded the group's board of prominent business leaders to forgo their own search and accept his choice for the job. Scott also has plans for Swoope to lead a new agency called the Department of Commerce. Swoope said he plans to live in Tallahassee, a departure from previous Enterprise Florida presidents, who have lived in Orlando where the group is based. He is undaunted by Scott's ambitious job creation goal. The word colleagues would most use to describe him, he said, is "relentless" and he plans to put a system in place that would back up Scott's assertion that he is the state's chief economic development officer. "My job will be to put a structure behind him," Swoope said. "The key to sales is follow-up." Swoope said one area he may focus on is creating a formal program that enlists local groups like the EDC to reach out to existing businesses and find out why they aren't expanding or whether they're considering a move. One thing he says he won't do is parachute into towns and rewrite their economic development playbooks. "I'm not going to get in the middle of that," he said. That will likely be welcome news to Weddle, who says economic development is about more than being the lowest bidder when it comes to taxes and other costs for businesses. "If you're just competing on cost, then someone else may be cheaper down the road and you may lose those jobs," he told me. "You want to create an environment where you can compete on quality. What that means is we have to bring our labor force along with that." And he throws water on the old adage that small businesses create the most jobs. "That's not really true," he said. "It's new businesses that create jobs. There are a lot of small businesses that employ the same number of people that they did 25 years ago." bkassab@tribune.com or 407-420-5448.Read her blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/thebottomline. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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