There are times when it seems that Memphis can’t get its economic development strategies into the 21st century.
It’s as if we just don’t want to compete in a knowledge economy in a global marketplace. Our economic development strategies are caught in the commodity trap, stemming from our background as an agricultural center and continuing with our pride in being a distribution center.
Everything about our experience tells us that we’re about selling commodities, which is generally defined by a consumer making a decision based on the lowest price. Commodity economic development is premised on the same thing – appealing to companies who make their decisions based on the lowest prices.
This kind of economic development is forever in a race to the bottom to offer the cheapest land, and the cheapest workers.
Selling Cheapness
Because our tradition is in businesses with thin profit margins, our economic development culture is one with an aversion to risk-taking, which in turns undercuts innovation and entrepreneurship. Cities with commodity mentalities think they can grow their economies with low wages, low land costs, low utilities, low taxes. In a commodities world, these are seen as the factors that must be controlled to keep prices down. They are often cited as justification for the tax abatements that we hand out to any company that can complete the forms.
Unfortunately, when we are competing with workers in Southeast Asia, Mexico and Bangladesh, commodities economic development is doomed to failure. Most devastating of all is that cities accustomed to a commodity approach to economic development are at a huge disadvantage in attracting and retaining knowledge economy workers. It is not merely a coincidence that companies like FedEx report constant problems in attracting young, mobile, highly-educated workers to Memphis and convincing executives of International Paper to move from the Northeast to Memphis has met with similar hurdles.
Rather than make the investments in the intellectual infrastructure that we need to complete for knowledge-based companies, Memphis continues to sell the infrastructure of the industrial age, at the same time that its last remnants are vanishing before our very eyes.
New Approaches
What is needed are new approaches to economic growth – approaches like economic gardening which focuses on existing entrepreneurs rather than corporate relocations, on biological models of business and entrepreneurial policy and new economic theories and philosophies.
The words of a specialist in economic gardening seem especially especially pertinent to Memphis: “There was another, darker side of recruiting that bothered us. It seemed to be a certain type of business activity – the branch plant of industries that competed primarily on low price and thus needed low cost factors of production…cheap land, free buildings, tax abatements and especially low wage labor. Our experience indicated that these types of expansions stayed around as long as costs stayed low. If the standard of living started to rise, the company pulled up stakes and headed for locations where the costs were even lower. This was the world when we proposed another approach to economic develompent: building the economy from inside out, relying primarily on entrepreneurs.”
Survey after survey concludes that tax incentives are far down on the list of critical elements that influence companies’ decisions on locations and expansions. Much higher is the presence of a high quality of life – vibrant downtown, outdoor recreational options, rich cultural and intellectual scene and research universities.
For Memphis to succeed in today’s economy (and more importantly, tomorrow’s), we need to base our economic development strategies on quality rather than cheapness. After all, in selling our city for its cheapness only cheapens what we have to offer in the first place.
As a community, Memphis must begin to focus on providing the best possible quality of life. Business, government, and residents must coalesce around a unifying vision that defines who we are and what we can be, our civic identity.
From CEO’s to cab drivers, everyone who lives or works in cities like New York, Paris, New Orleans, or even Durham can tell you in three words what those cities are about. As a community, we need a visionary Plan For Memphis that can help us better define who we are and where we want to go. In an increasingly competitive environment, we’re running out of time to do so, and the risk is too great not to.
~Brown
You are correct, but buffoons of Memphis have been proclaiming that they have DONE just that for decades, which in fact is a damn lie – Memphis has been and continues to fool others by fooling themselves – that’s exactly why Memphis shall be left in the “dust” by several other cities in the southeast, midsouth, and a few in the west
Again, you hit the nail on the head with your comment – it encapsulates in a few words exactly ‘why’ Memphis is perceived outside the region as a laggard.
There IS NO “CIVIC IDENTITY” ! I can tell you that through my living in various regions, and traveling all over, no one I have ever met can readily identify what that “identity” really IS – no one The only garbage I here is
an identity wrapped up in Elvis and damn greasy ass “BoBBi- CUR”.
Believe me my friend, your pinpointing this singular opportunity, will do NOTHING for the cause – not in the next TWENTY YEARS, if then.
You my friend are “fighting an uphill battle” and a losing one – it’s not sad to admit it, it’s sad to keep believing these bozos are going to be competitive as other cities and regions.
It ain’t happening – well, it might by 2035. Any body with any sense should cut their loses and fold.
Well, it’s homo-hatin’ racist dipshit showing up again. Mama must’ve let you have your internet privileges back, twirp.
whenever I go to Memphis, it doesn’t ever seem to change ! attitudes included and I think it’s sad because it has so much potential
having said that I would not swap living here in SRQ for living anywhere close to Memphis even as much as I enjoy it at times – great basketball culture and history, but no way I would consider betting on the city over many other great southern cities !
later ! having a cold one !
we need a visionary Plan For Memphis.
Uh, Yeah. get right on that,,,