Make Policy Echo Your Narrative

Richard Florida's article on increasing equity in economic development has two interesting nuggets in it. First he proposes that Economic Development Offices (EDOs) should veer away from the race-to-the-bottom of competing for corporate HQs by offering bigger incentive packages and instead focus their energy on promoting more inclusive growth. The idea behind this pivot isn't merely to spread the wealth but to boost overall regional economic expansion by increasing economic mobility and job training. The idea has real echoes of the work 100 Resilient Cities is doing: boosting cities' resiliency by strengthening networks and creating a broad foundation of durable infrastructure and technically capable workers.

From a Zero Partners perspective, this points to an exciting new possible approach of a double-pronged brand strategy: positioning a given region or city as unique on its merits, and then also highlighting the use of policies that reflect those same values. The story resonates all the more powerfully.