Janet Ady Presents at Annual Economic Development Breakfast

In February we hosted our annual Hutch Rising Investor Breakfast and shared updates on important work of workforce development and attraction to business recruitment and expansion, with messages from Matt Roeser with eNGines LPG, an economic development update from Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade with Evergy, and a keynote address from Janet Ady with Ady Advantage. 
 
Ady spent two days in Hutchinson visiting businesses, touring our industrial parks, visiting the Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy, and assessing Hutchinson and Reno County's unique strengths, while making a few recommendations that we can all implement together. 

We all know economic development is a team sport, and the strategies of business expansion and recruitment become more complex in a tight labor market.  This work wouldn’t be possible without funding and partnership from 120 area businesses, the cities of Hutchinson and South Hutchinson, and Reno County, who all partner to make the Greater Hutch economic development efforts possible.
 
As we talked about the unique ways we have upped our own marketing, promotion and workforce development game, we gained new ideas gleaned from the 500+ communities that Ady has worked with across the country. A few of her recommendations included taking the next step on a new shared vision for our future. Over the last year a group of community leaders have been working on that shared vision and Janet’s words affirmed that we are indeed on the right course. 
 
Ady also shared that Reno County is the 11^th most diversified economy out of 3,140 counties, which is a blessing but is also one reason that coalescing around a single common vision is hard. One thing that was evident, is our strength in our largest industry sectors - healthcare, followed by manufacturing and retail trade and our largest industry by location quotient of agriculture. 

As we redefine priorities and begin addressing key challenges head on – broadband, child-care, drugs, and housing, Ady recommended that all our partners come together around the following 6 steps:

1. Articulation of what Hutchinson/Reno County will be known for going forward
2. Agreement on what the focus will be on to achieve this
3. Alignment of the various stakeholders – rowing together
4. Attaining clarity of roles – who is doing what
5. Addressing questions of economic mobility and economic equity
6. Consensus around the definitions of “growth” and “success”

Ady also recommended creating talent initiatives that identify gaps, engaging both the supply side and the demand side.  She complimented our talent equation and our education partners for the many career pathways being taught in our schools, and emphasized that employers need to also begin looking at company culture on the demand side of the equation in a time where 5 demographic groups are all working together - from Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Y, and Gen Z.  One could not visit Hutchinson businesses without also hearing about our unique challenges in housing and Janet shared some insights there as well. If you’d like to learn more about Janet’s recommendations, click here. 
 
As we dig in deeper into the work of solving the talent equation and our community’s challenges, we appreciate that this is teamwork worth doing, and that when we are all one team, rowing together we can achieve more. Whether it is the Hutch Chamber, education and  government partners, regional and state partners, elected officials, the Hutchinson Community Foundation, Hutch Rec, Quest Center, Hutchinson Community College, or our business and non-profit community, we are proud to be a part of a community that is willing to grow together.