Home > NEWS > Email from the President > Help You Grow

How can we help you grow?
August 18, 2009

We received a tremendous amount of feedback from my e-mail three weeks ago related to the Partnership’s business development activities. We appreciate those of you who took the time to comment on that e-mail, and have enjoyed working with those of you who directly contacted the identified staff for a specific purpose.

There was a notable flurry of requests for our business intelligence services – apparently we just need to let people know it’s out there! “Business intelligence” is the current jargon for the wealth of business, economic and demographic information that the Partnership offers. Our business intelligence team works hard to maintain up-to-date and pertinent information that can be translated into targeted business lists, demographic, labor/workforce, regional economic and market analysis and a host of other types of information employers can use to both grow their business and improve their bottom line. If you need to tap into these valuable tools, please contact Mary Burnett for more information.

I also cited in that e-mail the Partnership’s work regarding target industry clusters. In more jargon, an industry cluster is “targeted” when it is growing worldwide and certain business and related factors in a market area combine to enable that area to be able to capture a good share of that growth if it has its act together. Thus, we focus economic development efforts on those industry clusters. Moreover, their investment and job growth creates multiplier job opportunities in other fields – from business-to-business services such as legal work or IT to personal services for the people they employ, such as doctors, day care workers and pizza delivery.

For Buffalo Niagara, the Partnership and our economic development partners are focused on six target industry clusters: agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, logistics, professional and financial services and renewable energy suppliers. In the coming weeks, we will be unveiling a Partnership “action agenda” for each of these sectors. Developed collaboratively with members within the sectors and with sector industry groups, these agendas may include advocacy items, programming, collaborations, workforce development and a number of business development opportunities. By channeling much of the work we already do into these categories, it gives us a sharper focus on where the Partnership should be taking the lead, and where we should be working collaboratively with established industry groups.

The most important component of the Partnership’s business development activities is, of course… you. In order to keep our programming and services meeting your needs, we need to talk directly with you. Thankfully, Partnership members are rarely short on offering feedback, and that feedback always becomes a part of our staff discussions on how to best serve you. In addition, through our Employer Outreach Program, Partnership staff is out in the employer community, meeting face-to-face with members to find out (1) how you’re doing and (2) how we’re doing. If our staff calls you for a sit-down, I encourage you to take the meeting – it will help us to unearth opportunities to assist you in growing your business. If you’d like a meeting, and haven’t come to the top of our list yet, let me know and we’ll make sure the appropriate Partnership staffer gives you a call.

Don’t forget, as well, that every Partnership event has a networking component to it. Even if you’re joining us for a best practices seminar, a political debate or a target industry update, our goal is to put you in the room with the right people for the business-to-business connections you need to make. Check out our events calendar to find where your audience will be.

Andrew J. Rudnick
President & CEO