The following article appeared in the May 2004 issue of Toledo Business Journal.
Regional collaboration
efforts explored
A conference set up to address opportunities for economic development through regional collaboration was held as we went to press with our last issue. One of the country’s leading practitioners of regional collaboration, Michael Gallis, principal, Michael Gallis & Associates, traveled to Toledo to conduct this session. Close to 350 attendees participated in the conference held at the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Toledo.
During the session, Gallis reviewed a number of other regions around the country with which his organization has worked. Through an examination of projects in other communities and efforts for using regional collaboration to spur economic development in these areas, Gallis generated a great deal of interest among attendees at the event. After completing his remarks and slide show, Gallis took a break and asked for questions from attendees. No one in the audience left, but instead stayed to listen to further discussion about opportunities to spur development through joint efforts involving the public sector, private businesses, and area institutions. A full text transcript of Gallis’ presentation and discussion can be found on our website at www.toledobiz.com.
Following the morning conference, a dinner was held the same evening for a small group of leaders from around the region who attended the event. The dinner was organized and hosted by Toledo Edison and Jim Murray, regional president for FirstEnergy Corporation.
At the dinner, Toledo Mayor Jack Ford shared his views about Unigov and the need to have greater cooperation and sharing of resources among communities in the area. Craig Stough, Mayor of Sylvania, followed Ford’s remarks by stating that Sylvania was interested in participating with others in the region on a cooperative effort to spur development. Ken Fallows, Mayor of Haskins Village in Wood County and current chairman of the Toledo Metropolitan Council of Governments (TMACOG), expressed a strong opinion that it was time for such a collaborative effort in the region and that he would lend his full support and energies for such a project. Robert Maxwell, The Lathrop Company’s former president and CEO, shared his opinions that Gallis’ approach to economic development offered important opportunities for northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Tom Palmer, chairman, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, emphasized the importance of having leaders from around the region willing to meet and work together to advance economic development.
Michael Gallis’ approach to regional collaboration
What had Gallis shared during his presentation to the audience of community leaders that generated such interest?
Gallis began his presentation by discussing the global changes taking place during the past 14 years and especially since 9/11. “Those that react to change can thrive and those that don’t get left behind. And it is difficult, if ever, to catch up,” stated Gallis.
Gallis then discussed the Chinese emperor Genghis Khan and his tactic of the “lightning war.” His troops would go 100 miles in a day where other armies had been pressed to go 20 miles. Genghis Khan would send spies ahead to learn everything they could about the enemy. It was Genghis Khan’s use of intelligence that allowed him to advance further and faster than other armies had been able to do.
Gallis then stated: “He knew where he was going. That was the powerful meaning of Genghis Khan in his lightning war. It was based on intelligence. And I ask ourselves as we think about the future, what do we know about the world in those patterns of change? How do we fit into it? What are our resources? And how do we position ourselves in these patterns of change?”
Gallis then discussed the new economic age that has developed since the fall of the iron curtain. He explained that regions are now the foundation units of economic activity. However, economic regions do not appear in atlases and they do not have political boundaries. Economic regions are comprised of the public sector, private businesses, and institutions including academic, medical, nonprofit, and others. They cross multiple political geographies. Gallis explained that it is extremely difficult to get leaders in each of the three segments to recognize regional issues and to then come together to address these issues.
Gallis then explained that his organization developed a technique called “building a new conceptual framework” as a tool for addressing a regional approach to economic development. He discussed a project that his organization conducted for the community of Rock Hill, North Carolina in the Charlotte area. Gallis explained: “As we examined the plans that they had launched, we began to understand some things. They had not understood the regional marketplace. You know, their position within the regional network. They had no understanding of their sub-market niche or no understanding of their competitive resources. They had not put together a multi-sector coalition of leadership. There was no systematic organization or evaluation of information, and planning was defined around a series of individual projects – each of which was designed to achieve something, none of which were meant to connect together to create a larger synergy.”
Gallis further discussed elements of his new conceptual framework, “We had to develop a new way to get leadership together. How do we cross those boundaries and get people together… We had to get new ways to communicate between leadership and to the public… How do we create a management infrastructure that is capable of long-term achievements… So we called a new conceptual framework, a way to maximize the leadership information, public support, and management capabilities that communities have… It is not about an intelligent person coming up with an idea. It is about a community empowering itself to make change and having a strategy for change.”
Gallis then initiated a discussion of sweeping economic global changes that have occurred through history. He includes a discussion of the economic changes that occurred with the advent of railroads and strategic decisions that faced St. Louis at that time.
Gallis related: “Now this is seen as a fascinating story here in the Midwest. St. Louis on the Mississippi River. So secure. Access to world markets. What do we need a railroad for?
“Chicago. Desperate for transportation. A period of transition. As I said, those who understand it can adapt and make change. Chicago becomes the great city of the Midwest. By the time St. Louis realizes it, Chicago passes it and St. Louis never catches up.
“Now ask yourself in that moment of history, was the discussion that was going on about transportation? It was about ‘Should we invest in railroads? Should we put a bridge across the Mississippi? It is noisy; costs a lot of money; does it really work?’
“Or is it an issue of ‘How do we position ourselves in a changing world network?’ Should the discussion be about transportation or should it be about how do you position yourself in the new global marketplace and new global network?”
Gallis used the discussion of historic sweeping economic changes to illustrate the economic challenges that involve China today and in the future. “Now China has 1.3 billion people. What is north of China? That is Siberia. How many resources in Siberia? One of the biggest resource areas of the world. All kinds of resources: oil, timber, minerals, and what is south of China? That is southeast Asia, how many resources in southeast Asia? See you have 1.3 billion of the hardest working people on earth combined with two of the largest resource areas of the world, and that is the making of the 21st century.
“And that is the competition that we have to face.”
Gallis then used a conference in Maine in which he participated in order to relay another message. “I was on with the ambassador from New Zealand at a program in Maine… And Maine claims that they have the worst economic statistics of any state in the United States. No one is worse off than Maine.
“And the ambassador got up and he said: ‘You know you residents of Maine are not bad off at all. Let me tell you about New Zealand. In 1950, the two countries with the highest standard of living in the world were New Zealand and Switzerland. Higher than the United States or any European country. We were the best off. In 1994, we were bankrupt, and we made some realizations.
“‘We made the realization that we did it to ourselves. We made the realization that no one was going to help us. And unless we got ourselves out of the mess, we were not going to have a future.’ He said: ‘Once we made those realizations, we could make change.’
“He said: ‘Your problem is you did not hit bottom the way we did; you are just complaining about the situation.’ Well it is very interesting what he said. ‘No one is going to help us. We did it to ourselves. And we have to find a way out.’ And I believe that in every community here in the United States that we have the power to do it. It is just whether we are going to do it or not.”
Gallis continued: “Now he said something interesting about how New Zealand came back. Its economy is thriving. He said: ‘Look I am 9,000 miles from North America and I am 14,000 miles from the European Union, and would I want to be sitting in the middle of the North American continent?’ He said: ‘We would give our national right arm to have your location.’ And that’s Maine of all places. And you (in Toledo) are sitting right here in the middle of the continent.”
Gallis then discussed in greater detail the project his organization had conducted in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He used dozens of slides to show how a regional approach to economic development and collaboration by leaders in the public sector, private sector, and major institutions could be used to spur growth.
Gallis used another project his organization had conducted in Rhode Island to demonstrate the issue of regional economic development. “Now for the state of Rhode Island, we did a project. You know the history. Rhode Island was settled by Roger Williams in 1640 and that is 20 years after the pilgrims, and they wanted to get away from the hands of Massachusetts. So for 360 years, they said they were not a part of Massachusetts.”
“I was recently talking to the policy director who brought us in at that time… Pfizer is talking about putting a billion dollar plant manufacturing, it is high-tech pharmaceutical manufacturing, very high paying jobs, huge investment for the state. And I said: ‘Well I wanted to see if there is some credit we could take for this, something we did in our project that maybe helped you.’ He said: ‘Oh yeah, your project changed the whole thing. We told them that we are part of Massachusetts.’”
“I said: ‘That’s it? What difference did that make?’ He said: ‘Well we are 40 miles from Boston and with a high-speed train, we are 30 minutes away. And what you taught us is that we are part of this market… Pfizer wants to be close to Harvard and Mass General and all that medical research, but they did not want to be in Boston. So they were looking for a location in which they could tap into that. He said we used to tell people we are not part of Massachusetts and they said okay and would go away. But now we tell them no, we are 30 minutes away and we are part of the Boston marketplace. And you can be in business here and tap into the resources over there.’”
Gallis continued: “A change in the conceptual framework. What mindset do we have to have? They needed to overcome 360 years of being separate from Massachusetts.”
Gallis then completed his presentation with the following remarks: “So the success of a region really does lay in the way leadership responds to change. And to this period of transition, those changing boundaries.
“So I will leave you with this. The 20th century is over. Are we preparing for the 21st century?”