Cabinet Focuses on Creating, Retaining Jobs
Published Apr 08, 2005
The Governor’s Jobs Cabinet
Among the many definitions on the Internet for the word “cabinet,” here’s one you don’t read every day: A curtain-enclosed space in which mediums claim to condense the psychic energy necessary for physical manifestations.
Unusual, but not too far-fetched when you think about the strategy behind Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Jobs Cabinet – a place where “condensed energy” is certainly manifesting jobs.
Made up of the commissioners of several state departments, education leaders and economic development experts, the Jobs Cabinet is a Tennessee original. The beauty of the concept is its simplicity – put all those who can help create jobs at the table and make that goal a priority.
“The idea of the Jobs Cabinet is to bring together all of those agencies of state government that bear on this and get them working together and looking at these problems from a broad perspective,” Bredesen explains. “Developing jobs is more than just the province of Economic and Community Development. There are many, many departments of state government whose activities bear very heavily on that.”
Established in 2003 by executive order, the Jobs Cabinet meets regularly to devise strategies that pave the way for recruiting and retaining business and industry.
“The Jobs Cabinet approach to economic development has created unprecedented opportunities for the state of Tennessee and our local communities,” ECD Commissioner Matthew Kisber says. “Companies have responded that they have never seen our state – or any state – so effectively coordinate in a team approach the resources from state government and the partners at the local level in a coordinated effort to create and retain jobs.”
What’s more, the Jobs Cabinet goes on the road for what Kisber calls “hands-on meetings” with a cross-section of a community’s leaders.
“The governor is very focused on ensuring that the Jobs Cabinet is about providing tools to local communities for them to create their own success, and not looking to Nashville to make their success for them,” he says.
One offshoot of the Jobs Cabinet approach is Tennessee’s FastTrack Program, cited in 2004 by Southern Business & Development magazine as one of the Southeast’s top 10 economic development initiatives. Also established by executive order, FastTrack is designed to cut through the bureaucratic red tape notorious for slowing progress.
“The whole thrust is, in today’s business world, companies have neither time nor money to waste putting up with bureaucracy,” Kisber says. The aptly named FastTrack Program pledges that the state will respond to any job creation or retention opportunity within three days and be ready with custom job training, if needed, within five days of an investment commitment.
Kisber says the coordination of the Jobs Cabinet, coupled with the speed of FastTrack, is a winning combination.
“The proactive, collaborative approach on the front end of a job-creation opportunity, where everyone is working together and working as one, is definitely providing value,” he says.
Kisber recalls one Fortune 500 president who, after hearing a pitch for new jobs in a Tennessee community, closed the presentation book and said, “You know, what’s in the book in terms of incentives are nice. But what’s even nicer is seeing that when I talk to any one of you, I’m talking to all of you. That is unparalleled in any place we’ve done business, as well as our past experience in Tennessee.”
When Kisber took over ECD, he studied the department “much like a college student taking a course,” he recalls. “I found that we were able to do what most states did, but were being reactive instead of proactive. There wasn’t anything that differentiated Tennessee.”
Thus he devised the department’s Play Book, a strategic plan that addressed both internal department operations and external programs. His aim was to make Tennessee’s ECD department a national “best practices” model. The second edition of the Play Book, published in February 2005, is dubbed Accelerate! and delineates the department’s success so far and sets new goals. It is described by Kisber as ECD’s “accountability model.”
“We have had other states now using the Tennessee model to benchmark how they restructure their economic development activities,” he says.
The publication of Accelerate! was soon after Bredesen announced his 2005 Jobs Package, proposing $20 million in one-time funds to support workforce training; development of infrastructure, including broadband access; and training for community economic development leaders. He says the money should help “jump start” these necessary efforts.
“As governor, I won’t be satisfied until every Tennessean who wants a job has one,” Bredesen said when unveiling the jobs package. “A good job isn’t simply a paycheck. A good job allows parents to provide for their families and for those families to enjoy a high quality of life.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Greg Emens
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