How to Strategy: Sustainable. Inclusive. Growth.
Lessons learned...
The biggest economic opportunity for the decades ahead will build from inclusion and sustainability. Neither is a choice — and both depend on strategies for economic growth.
Cities, states and regions should lead by developing long-term sustainable, inclusive growth strategies.
The good news? There’s a template and a framework.
The Greater Washington Partnership developed an inclusive growth ten-year plan for the Baltimore - DC — Richmond region (the nation’s third largest economy) that targets adding $35 - $50 billion to the region’s GDP per year and has generated $4.7 billion in incremental employer commitments.
That framework is now being rapidly adopted by other places, including Richmond’s leading economic development organization .
And that framework is available to anyone, anywhere.
What’s the template to develop the strategy and the framework?
First, the Partnership completed a few-week diagnostic to quantify the opportunity.
That diagnostic established that closing the wealth gap in the region would generate an incremental $35 billion to $50 billion in GDP — per year. Inclusive growth became an economic opportunity, in addition to a moral imperative.
The post-diagnostic phase developed a long term blueprint and dashboard . The Partnership pulled together over 200 sessions with a very broad range of interest groups who collectively agree on six priority pillars; Education, Workforce, Access to Capital, Affordable Housing, Infrastructure, and Health Equity. Sustainability in the face of climate change is woven throughout; Health Equity, for example, cannot be achieved without confronting the differential impact of climate across income and other classes.
The breadth of this phase of the work was intentional; the strategy has to be holistic and community-engaged to work. The breadth (19 solutions, 57 recommendations, and 12 case studies) gives every organization a place to find a role and make a commitment.
Fortified with the diagnostic, the blueprint and recommendations, the Partnership then targeted an initial set of substantial commitments that businesses in the region could make to show the way for all organizations to move the inclusive growth strategy forward.
Those first $5 billion in commitments were announced last Spring with Vice President Harris and Commerce Secretary Raimondo.
Lessons along the way:
Leadership matters
The Partnership’s lead and staff on this effort are awesome, led by Washington 40 under 40 Francesca Ioffreda.
GWP established at the outset a diverse and Inclusive Growth Strategy Council led by Sheila Johnson (Salamander Hotels and Resorts) and Jason Wright (Washington Commanders). Their profiles, experience, and passionate commitment to the cause have brought along innumerable other organizations. Robby Moser, the CEO of Clark Construction, was lead Partner on the work. He and his organization continue to lead with action, showing all other organizations what’s possible. Leaders inspire other leaders.
Pro-bono consulting partners are critical. The Partnership is benefited by contributions from many great groups including BCG, KPMG, Akin Gump, and EY , but McKinsey and Deloitte were foundational to the diagnostic and blueprint and dashboard, respectively. Their folks love assisting efforts to lift up the places they live, and data-driven strategies cannot develop without those contributions.
Business commitments are vital. No growth without those.
Data-driven
$35 to $50 billion in incremental GDP for a region — focuses and aligns all on the economic opportunity.
Quantitative, track-able, transparent commitments from participants move the work from strategy to change (more on this later)
Place matters
GWP’s covers two states and the District of Columbia. Much easier when it’s one city, or one state! That region has tremendous diversity and higher ed institutions, and knows that capitalizing on those is a tremendous opportunity. What are your comparative advantages?
Community is key
While the diagnostic for a region can be developed quickly , and the blueprint and dashboard frameworks are available — you can’t get to action at scale without a broad community-based effort. GWP interviewed more than 200 public, private, and social sector stakeholders during the blueprint process.
Great work is underway everywhere on all these pillars. Too much of it is subscale and fragmented. Who leads on the (connected) workforce development and educational pathways questions for your region, for example? Catalyzing solutions to scale is a key benefit of a sustainable, inclusive growth strategy.
More soon! Happy December!