LEADERSHIP

& GROWTH

Discussed by:
JAY-R M. BALLON

HOW LEADERSHIP ADDS VALUE

Leadership is a complex topic.
It focuses on the ability of key
people to make change happen and
to improve the performance of an
organization, a system, and, in this
case, a place.

Leadership dividend might occur

in many different ways, example:
this can include how public and private coalitions
are built,
how external investment is attracted and
leveraged,
how major redevelopment projects are defined
and promoted,
how skills and employment systems are
recalibrated towards new economic sectors, and
in
how

institutional

reforms

are

devised

and

MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS
City networks, business leadership groups,
universities, and civic bodies drawn into the
sphere of local economic leadership and
development, and the institutional landscape of
most local economies is expected to become
increasingly dispered in future.
This diversity has the potential to be
advantageous, adding to the resources, ideas and
power of local economies, and fostering

SKILLS KEY ELEMENTS OF THE

LEADERSHIP DIVIDEND
These elements are not prescriptive different places take
different approaches.

VISION, STRATEGY, AND AGENDA SETTING; looking

to the longer future.
Evidence based leadership that sifts options and
alternatives to intervene and engage markets.
Customer orientation that recognize employers,
investors, entrepreneurs and workers as having
distinctive preferences, and requirements that a
local economy needs to meet.

 Systemic and integrating leadership that embraces all

the entities that can impact on local economic
performance.
Promotional skills that understand how to position a
local economy within contested markets and how to
leverage assests and opportunities.
Collaboration and alignment between different tiers of
government and horizontal co-ordination.
The advocacy role of leadership that makes the case
for better ways to organize, reform, or regulate a local
economy and its institutions.

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Local and regional leaders must find means
to engage them in economic strategies
despite having no direct mandate to
represent them or lead them, and, leaders
must seek to reconcile their interest with
one another through visioning and agenda
building, as well as aligning their needs
and interest with those of residents.

SKILLS AND TOOLS OF

LEADERSHIP
Understand local economies and the changing rationale
and skills for intervention in markets.
Communicate a clear and common economic agenda
and to broker and lead coalitions of actors from
different sectors, and to set out a common agenda for
them to work through together.
Sequence and balance interventions at different scales
(e.g. in framework conditions such as tax and regulation, with
demand side interventions such as marketing and promotion,
with supply interventions such as skills and property.)

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES TO WHICH

ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP MUST RESPOND?

RAPID URBANIZATION
DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES
MIGRATION
GLOBALIZATION OF SECTORS
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES
GEO-POLITICAL AND GEO-ECONOMIC SHIFTS
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES

STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES
Economic restructuring in response to changing
global markets.
Preparing a long term strategy for inclusive
growth.
Building a strong identity and reputation.
Raising growth and productivity.

 Expanding the jobs base and fostering

entrepreneurship.
Attracting and fostering a workforce with
appropriate skills and capabilities.
Leveraging knowledge assets for economic
expansion infrastructure.

 Building public transport system.

Building appropriate technological
infrastructure.
Maintaining and upgrading existing
infrastructure.
Managing and working with private investment
in infrastructure and service delivery.

SOCIAL COHENSION AND

PARTICIPATION
Securing social inclusion and social cohension.
Developing open and participatory institutional
frameworks.
Renewing / building public interest in the
democratic process. Effective institutional
frameworks
Building positive relationships with other tiers
of government.

 Working with and within fragmented and

fragile global frameworks.
Raising and safeguarding local finances.
Finance and investment
Reducing indebtedness.
Integrating new financial modes and
geographies,
Increasing tools and incentives for public and
private co-investment.

LEADERSHIP TO ENSURE GROWTH

AND INVESTMENT READINESS
May not involve a formal strategy, but often
require an all-inclusive approach to stimulate
and support retention and growth of local
employment and the attraction of new
employers and investors to the local area.
Can be shared activity, requiring the unified
and coordinated action of a range of key
actors from both the public and private
sectors.

 Often conceives of local economies as onestop-shop vehicles that are responsible for the
overall approach.
May involve a targeted and mixed, approach to
reflect the requirement of a diverse private
sector.
Involves clear channels and platforms for
communication between the private sector
and public authorities.

There are 3 broad ways local economic leader

seeks to address employer and investment
retention, growth and attration

1. Enhancing the local business climate

improving the product.
2. Delivering services to local employers
and entrepreneurs providing targeted
support.
3. Enhancing the perception of the local
business climate promoting the business
experience.

In the new cycle of local development, leaders

recognize that employers and investors can be:
Sources of employment, growth,
diversification, and resilience
sources of investment in productive assets
such as infrastructure, facilities, and real
estate.
providers of choices for growth, helping avoid
negative path dependencies.

 Generators of local revenues and national

taxes, helping to fund services, major
infrastructure, or improvement projects.
Creators of vibrancy generating new students
or tourist markets.
Suppliers of opportunities for citizens, helping
to address social cohension.

WHAT LEADERSHIP WILL LOCAL

ECONOMIES NEED IN THE FUTURE?
Partnership and coordination between leaders
concerned with different areas of the local
economy;
Coalition building between stakeholders from
different sectors and interest group.
Reforms including fiscal reform, devolution of
powers, or the redrawing of political
boundaries so as to better match functional
metropolitan areas.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

REFERENCE:
Local economic leadership by www.oecd.org