Cindy Allen
Just about everyone in business has been a part of a strategic planning process at one time or another.
Strategic planning is a good way to identify strengths and weaknesses of a business, to identify growth potential and to lay out an action plan to achieve growth goals. It’s a good process to move a community in the same kind of growth direction that businesses want to go.
In mid-February, a group of about 30 Enid and Garfield County residents interested in growing economic development opportunities in our area got together for a day of “Working Together for Enid’s Advantage.”
The strategic planning process as facilitated by Sean Griffith, a professional consultant. He led the group through several exercises, including identifying why we were all there, where we are in reality as far as economic development goals, where we want go as far as economic development goals and then create an action plan on how to get there.
It sounds simple enough; however, when you get a group together like that and start talking about what’s good about Enid and Garfield County and what could be better, some definite ideas and plans start to take shape.
For example, the group pretty much had a consensus that Enid has not reached her full potential. Everyone in the room saw opportunities for taking things a step further. They see Enid as the proverbial egg just ready to crack wide open. They also started to think farther out than just Enid – that it’s time Enid become a regional leader and be a more aggressive region of power in Oklahoma.
There has been some good news recently that Enid can leverage to move in this direction. First, we survived BRAC, and we’re growing our missions at Vance Air Force Base. Advance Food Co. soon will have another big expansion, and with that will come more jobs and more housing needs. The community has been selected as the location for a new ethanol plant. And, the community has good national buzz lately due to a “Good Morning America” segment promoting Enid as an “up and coming” community.
All these things add up to a momentum swing that community leaders need to take advantage of to grow local businesses and to work harder on raising the income levels of our employment base.
One of the key ideas to come out of this strategy session, in my mind, was the need for Enid to be seen as an entrepreneur’s dream place. We’ve had a bad rap in the past in that respect, and it’s time the community breaks out of that mold.
How do you create an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurs?
You let go of controls in some ways. You become more flexible. Governments often find ways to shut down growth by over enforcing codes and policies that discourage entrepreneurship. If Enid does get an incubator back in the community, our governments — school, city and county — have to be supportive and flexible in helping those businesses “hatch” out of that incubator and grow.
Where do we find entrepreneurs? In many instances, the kind of people with entrepreneurial vision have already been in our community at one time — as part of Vance Air Force Base. The question was asked, “How many of those former pilots and instructors have started businesses somewhere else in the nation or world? How can we encourage them to give Enid a try?”
Another opportunity lies in the rejuvenation of our past economic development successes. Would it be possible for Enid to become the new Energy Capital of the World?
Business and entrepreneurship aren’t the only goals. We want our community to be a cultural star as well. There was discussion about creating opportunities for our local artists to shine. We have a good base of talent already performing here in theater and musical venues. How can we create and encourage growth of these venues as well?
There are many directions the community can go in, and several task forces have already been assigned to start achieving meeting the goals related to research, business growth, quality of life, funding resources and branding and marketing.
All these things are important, but in my experience, a key to getting anything off the ground is getting your own community to believe in it. In this respect, the branding campaign has to convince local residents that Enid and Garfield County do have a chance to grow and prosper. It’s that old saying that you can’t sell a product you don’t believe in.
So, in a way, Enid has to be marketed to first. We have to convince our own community of what is possible before we can convince anyone else.
We are off to a good start, but there is a lot of work to be done. I look forward to seeing the fruits of this effort come about, and I also look forward to being a part of it.
Allen is managing editor of the Enid News & Eagle. She can be reached at 548-8163 or by e-mail at editor@enidnews.com.
