Who We Are
SMARTFEL’s Economic Development Strategies (EDS) group consists of individuals who specialize in economic development, but are also cross trained on, and participate in, site selection, portfolio and operations strategies, global location strategy, and project implementation. In addition, the EDS group brings deep expertise in process improvement, Six Sigma, Lean and related disciplines to all client service opportunities. This combination of skill, experience and exposure equips the EDS group with insights into global industry trends, corporate decision-making and the real world result of economic development strategy.
The EDS group recognizes that business location strategy is on the other side of the economic development coin. In response, we have built an economic development consulting team that bridges expertise and skill in corporate decision-making with traditional economic development analysis and strategy. Many of our EDS group members began their career working in private industry, management consultancies and economic development planning agencies. Collectively, our core group of professional staff have completed over 40 economic development strategies for communities across the country and select international Investment Promotions Agencies (IPAs).
Objective
- To redefine the framework of traditional economic development services and fill a growing gap in the market: without a deep insight into private sector decision-making, traditional economic analysis and best practices are no longer sufficient for resolving the challenges faced by economic development organizations as they attempt to grow business.
- To provide consulting services to clients seeking strategies on the promotion of economic activity and growth. This includes developing strategies that support business attraction, retention and creation initiatives.
Our Methodology
The EDS methodology combines deep expertise in economic analytics, strategic planning and economic development policy with skills in site selection, supply chain optimization, operations process improvement, labor arbitrage and corporate strategy – a unique fusion of skill sets and industry knowledge. These skills allow the EDS group to incorporate global private sector knowledge with cutting edge economic analysis across all functional perspectives, such as headquarters, R&D, manufacturing, distribution, shared services and call centers.
The EDS methodology produces economic development strategy built on a foundation of advanced analytics and tempered with “on-the-ground” insight into how companies are making decisions and how decision-making has changed within corporations. The result is a process that goes beyond numbers. The goal of the EDS group is to provide clients with realistic, grounded and implementable strategies that can be used to grow their economy, create jobs and improve quality of life.
A Global Focus
The global marketplace has brought increased pressure and competition, but has also opened new opportunities for regions and states that have the local capacity to help integrate their economy with the global network. Forward-thinking organizations embrace the need to study these opportunities and link them to individual businesses who are aligning for success in the changing economy.
The EDS group approaches all economic development engagements with a global perspective. The corporate portfolio, location and market access strategy work completed by SMARTFEL consultants has given the EDS group insight into the economies and opportunities of dozens of countries around the world. Supplementing that hands-on experience, the EDS group is able to draw upon SMARTFEL’s network of real estate professionals and consultants in over 220 offices in established and emerging markets on six continents.
Experience
SMARTFEL is also a real estate advisory and consulting firm that has worked with companies across all industry segments and asset types in markets around the world. This gives us unparalleled insight into the decision making drivers of global companies and the market opportunities in every major region in the world. We have leveraged that insight into a formal economic development practice to bring our expertise to local communities.