Strategic Plan 2015 - 2017

BEDC Strategy House

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What business are we in? Lead, Influence and Facilitate Burlington’s

transformation to a vibrant and economically thriving city

Vision To become the champion for Burlington’s brand and deliver effective economic

development expertise at the speed of business

Objectives: 1. Economic Vision 2022 embraced by all stakeholders 2. New Investment dollar growth 3. Increase assessment base

Develop Burlington’s Economic Vision 2022: • Develop an

economic development strategic plan and plug into city strategic plan

• Build Burlington’s unique economic value proposition

• Champion rollout and communication for business community adoption

Enhance Economic development expertise: • Establish BEDC

as the source for economic development expertise

• Assess, prioritize and enhance Burlington’s economic development opportunities

• Create strong relationships/ partnerships with key stakeholders (e.g. realtors/ planning, region, chamber)

Attract, Retain & Grow: • Create and

communicate a strong business attraction case (Future business)

• Identify and maximize Burlington’s growth opportunities (Existing business)

• Unlock the land potential of Burlington

Operate at the speed of business: • Establish a

predictable, streamlined decision making and approval process

• Develop, implement and adopt a service oriented business model

Enablers: 1. Structure and business model that enables objective expertise 2. Business support processes and tools 3. Performance management process

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To Our Members,

Sincerely,

Gary Graham Chair

As times and needs change, so do organizations. BEDC is re-inventing itself to meet the needs of Burlington over the next decade. Our business environment is becoming more competitive everyday. We must recognize that those who invest capital in businesses in our community have choices about where to put those dollars-and those choices do not just include other communities in our province or our country. Those choices include locations in other countries even countries on other continents. We have to meet this challenge head on.

This Plan transforms BEDC into a pro-active organization focused on growth, investment, development and talent. We believe that partnership and collaboration will be critical to success for all of us in the coming decade.

As BEDC looked into the future we asked ourselves how we could add real value to business and the City. We felt that we had to be able to answer the business leader question – How can BEDC help me grow my business? Under this Strategic Plan, BEDC will be providing support to local businesses and land developers to support the growth of their businesses and of jobs in our community.

The City also has real needs. As we protect the greenbelt, we also create a scarcity of land for development. A traditional greenfield model is being replaced by a city-wide redevlopment model. As land values increase the pressure increases to intensify our employment lands and our building types. As traditional manufacturing changes, there is less need to isolate many industries. Business wants to be closer to amenities and transportation nodes.

The City needs to see an increase in non-residential development and ideally we would all like to see more local jobs and less communte time. BEDC will be pro-actively working with the develoment community, city staff and other agencies to accelerate development and to attract companies and retain those that are located here.

We thank both the BEDC staff and the members of the BEDC Board for their commitment to BEDC and Burlington, and the contributions made to this Plan and we would like to thank our partners in the community for their input.

BEDC Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 2015 - 2017

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2015 2016 2017

Pillar 1: Economic Vision

Develop and obtain plan for approval of economic strategic plan

July 2015 (TBD) -

Implement new economic development value proposition

Completed end of 2015

Develop targeted communications rollout

Completed end of 2015

Complete first annual Strategic Plan review

KPIs Determined KPIs Measured

Pillar 2: Enhance EcDev expertise

Publish 2 major economic reports Annual report (Feb) Employment report and competitiveness (sept)

Open economic data access repository

End of December 2015 Postgame (Q1) Postgame (Q1)

Publish key economic policy/white paper/reports

Develop capacity to complete (march 2015) Publish min 3 (end of year)

Identify and develop three key project opportunities per year

3 3 3

Partnership engagement and communication plan initiated

End of May 2015

Pillar 3: Atrract, Retain & Grow

Number of new jobs Establish baseline metrics X% Growth X% Growth

Increase in square footage x x x

Increase in tax assessment base x x x

Growth in new investment dollars x x x

Pillar 4: Speed of Business

Determine the sequence and timeline of development process

Process Mapped Process improvements implemented

Process improvements implemented

Establish target approval timelines Establish baseline X% Improvement X% Improvement

New services/tools created 3 1 1

Objectives 2015 - 2017

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• Economic vision 2022 embraced by all stakeholders • New investment dollars growth • Increase assessment base

Vision

To become the champion for Burlington’s value proposition and deliver effective economic development expertise at the speed of business.

Pillars

Pillar 1: Develop Burlington’s Economic Vision 2022

1.1 Develop an economic development strategic plan and plug into city strategic plan 1.1.1 Identify key stakeholders and partners for economic development 1.1.2 Coordinate with the city to develop project plan including key objectives and timing that aligns with the city strategic planning process, city operational plan and transit master plan 1.1.3 Lead execution of project plan in collaboration with city planners for inclusion of economic development plan into city strategic plan

1.2 Build Burlington’s new unique economic value proposition 1.2.1 Build value proposition project plan 1.2.2 Lead external stakeholder input on key attributes of value proposition 1.2.3 Development and approval of the value proposition & identification of executional elements

1.3 Champion rollout and communication for business community adoption 1.3.1 Develop targeted communication 1.3.2 Implement communications plan with key messaging for community adoption

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Pillar 2: Enhance Economic Development Expertise

2.1 Establish BEDC as the source for economic development expertise 2.1.1 Establish capability to analyze and report on economic and financial policy 2.1.2 Establish a framework and repository of foundational documents 2.1.3 Define key stakeholder groups’ reporting needs, establish current baseline and implement system for tracking 2.1.4 Develop publication work plans for publishing economic reporting

2.2 Assess, prioritize and enhance Burlington’s economic development opportunities 2.2.1 Research best practices and determine scope of identified opportunities 2.2.2 Establish a pilot/project work plan for completion of identified opportunities 2.2.3 Postgame completed projects and build learning’s into new opportunity list

2.3 Define and create strong relationships with key stakeholders and members 2.3.1 Define key needs and engagement opportunities for stakeholders 2.3.2 Create and implement targeted communication and engagement plans for stakeholder groups

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Pillar 3: Attract, Retain & Grow

3.1 Create and communicate a strong business attraction case - Future businesses 3.1.1 Determine key target groups, refine key selling features based on value proposition and implement for 10 key targets per quarter 3.1.2 Map and develop partnership opportunities for start-up support (e.g. Haltech, Halton Region, Innovation Hub etc.) 3.1.3 Develop and implement engagement process and targeted marketing plan including tactics per group (QEW corridor, marketing channels, ads, partners, PickBurlingtion – website)

3.2 Identify and maximize Burlington’s growth opportunities (Existing businesses) 3.2.1 Map Burlington companies and prioritize key segments/companies (e.g. fastest growing, mid sized 50-99 etc.) 3.2.2 Research and implement service offerings and engagement plan for targeted segments

3.3 Unlock the land potential of Burlington 3.3.1 Update and maintain baseline of available land 3.3.2 Develop tools to assist developing land including marketing of city land (e.g. Investment Ready: pre-processed sites with signage, website mapping, key site packages)

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Pillar 4: Operate at the Speed of Business

4.1 Establish a predictable streamlined decision-making and approval process 4.1.1 Engage key stakeholders in mapping predictable development approval process and determine current gaps and pain points 4.1.2 Build a predictable development process and monitor results (external ownership)

4.2 Develop, implement and adopt a service oriented business model 4.2.1 Map key services and identify current gaps and opportunities for new service model 4.2.2 Select services/tools, develop operational plans and implement via internal processes or external partnerships (e.g. Engagement Process, Stakeholder Program, Market Attraction Targeting)

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Enablers

5.1 Structure and business model that enables objective expertise 5.1.1 Define desired business model and outline current gaps 5.1.2 Define core operating principles to support strategic plan 5.1.3 Map skill requirements and resource plan (e.g. Project management, customer relationship management, analytics (ROI, traditional economic math), partnership/collaboration management, database management, property development, economic policy/official plan input) 5.1.4 Develop and implement work plans to close gap 5.1.5 Transitional (30-60-90) document

5.2 Business support processes and tools 5.2.1 Maintain Salesforce with functioning dashboard and staff trained 5.2.2 Updated bylaws and governance practices to support new operating model 5.2.3 Single website platform that meets economic development needs (consolidate onto PickBurlington, site selector, business calendar, service offerings with filters, expanded about section 5.2.4 Evaluate and implement open data strategy 5.2.5 Evaluation of technologies for mobile workforce 5.2.6 HR practices and people development

5.3 Performance management process 5.3.1 Identify drivers for achieving KPI’s 5.3.2 Build and execute a scorecard dashboard 5.3.3 Financial and project budgeting