A two community modern parable - company relocates

Bill McInerney

In January this year a bomb shell dropped on a southern NH community when a high tech firm moved out of town taking with them 500 jobs. The news wasn't reported for a full two months after the event.

This news was so devastating that no-one in the town losing the firm and jobs mentioned the fact. Noting in the local paper and it was as if nothing had happened.

As bad as that news might seem, the good news was that the firm successfully relocated to a nearby community. That community gained a new tax paying firm and 500 jobs.

Today having a firm relocate to a community with 500 jobs is a very big deal. This story illustrates the fact that municipal economic development isn't for sissies, the weak-of-heart or the ill prepared. And its a major wake up call for all cities and towns.

Like any ball game, one team won while the other lost. The winning team or community, was probably in excellent pro-development condition, well trained and highly prepared to be aggressively competitive. They had the winning attitude long before the move was made.

The other community or team that lost has a lot a catching up and explaining to do. Municipal economic development requires planning, hard work, timing, excellent marketing, preparation, a positive can-do-attitude and the ability "to seize the moment" with positive negotiations and in the ability to close the deal. And that's what counts!

Bill McInerney is the founder and president of McInerney Consultants, Hudson, NH.