PolicyOne recently completed a location intelligence study for the city of Lewiston, Maine involving an in-depth analysis of fire station location. The city has four fire stations. While the location of the existing stations serves the historic central core of the city, there is some concern that development beyond the core city may require new stations in the future. The study employed the use of GIS software to analyze geographic and demographic data, the city's road network, and E-911 call center data for fire responses.

Our analysis revealed that current deployment of fire department resources mostly met existing needs. However, the maps created in GIS to compare response times within the existing street network showed that continued development in the fringe areas of the city will eventually require at least one new fire station. The advantage of having this study is that the city now knows where future problems may surface and may begin developing a strategic plan to address the issue. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) provide guidelines for fire department response time and fire station coverage. This study used those guidelines in the analysis.

In 2008, the ISO commissioned a survey of the nation's fire chiefs. The findings revealed a growing problem in the nation's local fire departments with staffing, fire station location, and firefighting water supplies. Unchecked residential and commercial development in many rural and suburban areas of the United States has forced local fired departments to increase service without a corresponding increase in resources. More often than not, local fire chiefs are scrambling for new options to enhance service delivery. PolicyOne is well qualified to assist communities with fire service deployment studies and strategic planning.

 (1) ISO/ORC opinion survey accessed online, 6 June 2009: <http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2008/12/02/95955.htm>

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A previous article here introduced the idea of information-rich maps created for studying and understanding business operations. The concept and application of location-based information is widely known as location intelligence. In 2007, BusinessWeek and Pitney Bowes MapInfo surveyed 1,700 C-level executives of large organizations. The report titled Location Intelligence: The New Geography of Business explores the benefits of location intelligence, offers real world results, and shares key findings from the BusinessWeek Research Services survey on the technology gap that business leaders must overcome to compete more effectively. In brief, the survey found that more than 80 percent of all data maintained by organizations around the world has a location component. Associated technology and specialized analysis helps executives and enterprise-level users make critical business decisions using economics, demographics, physical geography, and other data pertaining to location. Location intelligence helps to identify patterns, risks, and opportunities often difficult to see in a traditional, basic spreadsheet analysis. Location intelligence is particularly suited for financial, insurance, communications, and retail operations.

 (2) BusinessWeek Research Services survey accessed online, 6 June 2009: <http://media.govtech.net/RC_PITNEYBOWES/BusinessWeek.pdf>

There is a great deal of buzz in the economic development community about the potential for alternative energy initiatives to have significant, positive impacts on states and local economies.  This buzz has been escalated by several recent factors.  First, concern over the environment has spread from being an issue primarily pursued by environmental interest groups and activists to being pursued widespread among business and citizens.  Second, the recent increase cost of traditional fuels, most notably oil and gas, has negatively impacted the fiscal bottom-line for consumers and business alike.  This has called in to question many investments and business models based on a continuation of low cost or even “cost stable” traditional energy.  Third, the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act at the federal level promises significant funding and support to governments and businesses for alternative energy programs, R&D, and commercialization.

All of this renewed and increased attention has both business and governments scrambling to find ways to convert the attention into economic opportunity.  However, to make the most of the economic development opportunities the state and local economic development community and policymakers need to avoid jumping into the latest trend or chasing the latest grant or subsidy, without a focused strategy based on both short and long term opportunities.  The following are important issues to consider for increasing chances for economic development success.

Strategies and initiatives should be tied to existing strengths and assets.  This includes existing strengths in R&D, infrastructure, and workforce.  Doing so will increase the chances that initiatives can be implemented in the near-term and sustained over time because the underlying foundation to be built upon is already in existence.  It also increases economic use of past and current investments in these underlying assets and avoids the cost of building without a foundation 

Strategies and initiatives should also be tied to opportunities and assets in a state or region’s non-energy economic sectors including in advances in technologies and commercialization in those other sectors.  This creates not only direct economic impacts but also indirect impacts and “spinoffs” to other sectors.  For examples, if done properly, biomass energy development can help create markets and efficiencies in the forestry and agricultural related sectors and wind energy can increase the market for composite manufacturing.

Economic developers and policymakers must also understand that there is likely no one perfect alternative energy solution and they should avoid putting all their eggs in one basket.  Some solutions which may seem ideal are still very far to market in need of technological solutions or improved economic models.  In the meantime there are solutions which may not be the long-term environmental ideal but lessen our dependence on out of state, out of country fuels, technologies, and products.  Adhering to this advice means policymakers should support but not become overly aggressive in trying to pick winners as entrepreneurs and market will ultimately decide what is feasible.

Finally, solutions should not be based on long-term subsidies.  Subsidies can help jump start and support a nascent technology or business model but are not the long-term answer as over the long-term they skew consumer and business behavior towards inefficiencies.

In summary, there are plenty of economic development opportunities that renewed interest and investment in alternative energies present.  To make the most of these opportunities, the economic development community along with state and local policy makers should avoid jumping into the latest trend or chasing the latest grant without a strategic focus based on existing economic assets.

Maybe you've heard the phrases "core values", "core philosophies" or "governing values" at a meeting at your organization before, or maybe you've seen these same phrases on a company website listed along with their mission and their vision statement.  These phrases are often used but not everyone understands what they mean or why they are important.  Core values are those values that form the foundation of the organization or business; the values that are central to how we do what we do and why we do it and that are not easily changed or given up. 

So why is this important?  For an organization or business to be successful, they need to develop clear values and direction so that everyone involved in the organization or business can understand and contribute - core values allow people to come together and adopt a common approach.  Core values can be as simple as a few words or they can be more complex.  An ideal number of core values is between 3 and 6 - too few and you don't have a clear enough idea of the organization; too many and you risk diluting your purpose by going in too many directions or taking too much on.  Some organizations choose to post their values on their websites and documents whereas others choose to just have them displayed in a key place.  What is important is that they are known and central to the function of the organization or business.

The Maine Gay Men's Chorus, a local non-profit performing arts organization, recently started the strategic planning process.  After several years of not having a permanent Artistic Director, the Chorus hired one and started looking more at the future of the organization.  As part of this process, the Chorus needed to determine the values that were going to support them and guide them in fulfilling their mission and their vision and help as they moved through the rest of the process.  During a Chorus retreat, a session was led asking members what they thought were the key values and ideas that summed up the Chorus and that the directions that they believed it should be moving.  All members present were encouraged to participate to whatever level they felt comfortable in order to get a full range of ideas and values.  Many members not only offered their own views but also expanded on and added to the discussion on the views of others.  All of the values that were stated were recorded on large pieces of paper which were then later taken and typed up and disseminated back to the group to make sure that everything was accurately recorded.  After that the list was organized into several groups which were refined over time as any common threads were grouped together.  It was determined that several themes appeared naturally and what was important began to shine through loud and clear.  The results of all of this was presented to the Board of Directors of the Chorus who agreed that these values represented the Chorus and where they wanted to go in the future.

 As a result from this, the Maine Gay Men's Chorus has established the following core values:

• Harmony - We strive for harmony in our music and in our relationships between all members and with the larger community.
• Diversity - We are made up of unique individuals with unique talents peforming a wide range of songs at a variety of venues.  Our differences are our strength.
• Education - We educate ourselves as well as others through our presence, our performances and our people. 
• Community - We are a community of singers and supporters, striving to educate and entertain ourselves and the larger community around us.
• Music - We promote social acceptance and diversity through our music in an educational and entertaining atmosphere. 
  

Now with the core values established, the Chorus is able to more clearly move forward in determining their long term activities and goals.  They also now have a stronger foundation for attracting new members as well as new audiences and for getting current members more invested in the future of the organization.  While previously the Chorus had only been able to think on a short-term basis because of no permanent leadership, they now can create a successful future for the organization.  This effort in establishing core values succeeded because of seven essential steps.  The exact steps may vary depending on the organization, but the process is the same:

1. Listen to them - Core values should not be determined by a few people sitting in the proverbial ivory tower. 
2. Look at what they say - You will see common threads in their responses start to appear.
   
3. Check the results - Make sure that you have accurately captured their ideas and they feel that they were heard.
   
4. Organize the values - Build on the common threads you've seen and start developing the key values.
   
5. Talk to them - This shouldn't be a one-time shot for them to have input.  Make sure to keep them in the loop and to make sure you stay on track. 
6. Present your values - Determining the values won't matter if no one knows what they are.  Inform the organization and get them excited.
7. Use them or lose them - Don't rest now that you've determined the values.  Infuse them into your activities and build a stronger organization

Particularly in this economy, the need to reduce costs is more important than ever.  There are several questions that help address the decisions about where to make changes:

• If you are experiencing reductions in your workforce, aren't you still trying to maintain the level of service to your customers and clients? 
• If your processes aren't optimized, have you seen rework and delays that frustrate not only the customers but also your employees?
• Are your processes producing excessive and costly waste?

You can impact each of these areas of your organization by taking a process perspective.  Consider the definition of a process that focuses on completing a series of steps, one after the other, to create an end result, such as a product or service.  Taken from this view, a process can include, for example, conducting a meeting, manufacturing a product, offering a service to a customer or patient care in a healthcare setting, producing a report, or many other examples.  Examples of waste, rework, and delays are easy to think of: How many times have you been part of a meeting with no end result, one that had numerous people talking at once, no focused purpose, and left you and others feeling frustrated and unsatisfied or confused about what course of action to take at the conclusion of the meeting?  The measures of hours and cost of such meetings has been documented at astonishing levels.
Process improvement follows some general and specific steps:

• Choose a process to focus on. 
• Articulate the steps of the process in their logical order.
• Look at the steps and assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the process.  In other words, examine to what extent the steps of the process are impacted by rework and other delays.  Taken as a portion of the process cost, these efficiency and effectiveness measures can help you determine the significance of the impact on the process.
• Use the assessments of process efficiency and effectiveness to point you in the direction of where to develop and implement solutions to the problems.  For example, suppose you find that an ineffective meeting is impacting the time, energy, and productivity of 10 people and ultimately wasting 10 - 20 hours that could be far better spent.  This is not an uncommon example. 

What are you waiting for?  Why not take some steps to improve your processes?