By Danielle Besser, public relations manager, Upstate SC Alliance
What: Upstate Global Competitiveness Council’s Grow Your Business through Global Connections
Who Was There: 110 Upstate business leaders
Feature presentation: Marek Gootman, felllow & director of strategic partnerships & global initiatives for the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program
Global connections initiatives help middle-market companies find growth opportunities. Increased exports among established middle-market firms can drive economic growth in the Upstate, but the local economic development community must play a critical role in that process, said Marek Gootman of the Brookings Institution.
Gootman, a fellow and director of strategic partnerships and global initiatives for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public-policy organization’s Metropolitan Policy Program, spoke during the Upstate Global Competitiveness Council’s Grow Your Business through Global Connections event held in June. His speech focused on the big picture of the global trade market, and how it especially impacts middle-market companies.
The economy works on a metropolitan scale within a global market. Media consumers, Gootman said, are often presented with federally aggregated measures of economic activity: Gross Domestic Product, personal income, consumer spending, and unemployment.
However, he said that there is no unified national or state economy. Rather, economies really operate at a metropolitan scale, tied together by shared business networks, workforce, infrastructure, and innovation assets. And they grow by trading their products and services outside the region, in the U.S., and abroad.
“Your state can aggregate data, but what Charleston or Columbia creates and sells is very different from what this Upstate economy is all about,” he said.
The Global Cities Initiative was formed following the Great Recession and is designed to help businesses respond to globalization and other economic shifts.
Through research, problem-solving, and exchange, GCI helps metropolitan areas improve their international economic competitiveness and connections, with the end goal of more sustainable growth and higher-quality jobs. The Upstate was competitively selected to participate, working with Brookings and about 30 other city-regions to create and implement new strategies.
By focusing on distinctive industry clusters and talents, regions can compete globally through exports and foreign investment, and cultivate international relationships with other geographies that have shared affinities, Gootman said.
The global middle class is changing. Gootman said the United States can’t wall itself off from other nations.
“This is really important to the current national debate over trade, because it drives the cross-border flows of goods, services, and capital,” he said. “Nearly 40 percent of global GDP now comes from commerce across borders. Even before the recession, it was dramatically increasing, and that has accelerated. You can try to and shift things around through policy, but you’re not going to simply reverse this trend. We can’t just wall ourselves off. We need to recognize this dynamic and either take advantage of it — or be taken advantage of.”
For the Upstate, Gootman said this idea is especially important. Although the Upstate ranks 61st in terms of metropolitan area size, the region is No. 10 for export intensity — meaning that many local livelihoods are tied to foreign countries buying goods and services from here.
What’s more: for every $1 billion in exports roughly 5,700 jobs are supported, he said.
Old perceptions of a global city are not today’s global cities. In the past, if you asked someone to name a “global city,” likely responses would be New York, London, Tokyo, and Singapore. Mobility and technological advancements have changed the picture, Gootman said.
“We now find any city can — and must — be global in its perspective,” he said.
He compared Greenville-Spartanburg area to such places as Brisbane, Australia; Barcelona, Spain; Medellín, Colombia; and Stockholm, Sweden.
“All [of these] places [are] intensely focused on being global and undertaking similar strategic efforts around increasing international competitiveness and connections,” he said.
As participants in the Global Cities Exchange, both the Upstate and Charleston are positioning their economies in the company of diverse U.S. metros, such as Portland, Ore.; San Antonio; Des Moines, Iowa; and Philadelphia.
Business retention and expansion — especially for the middle market — are at the core of global opportunity. While traditional economic development focuses on attracting companies to an area, the research findings of the Brookings Institution indicate that growth among established middle-market firms is what drives economic growth, Gootman said.
“There still is enormous untapped potential here for firms to export or increase exports,” Gootman said. “Among firms with under $50 million in revenue, 40 percent of export activity results from unsolicited inquiries like people randomly finding them on the internet, versus thinking strategically. These firms need some help because they have the potential of large companies but the capacity of small ones.”
Many companies, he said, are unaware of possibilities, afraid of the unknown, and confused by fragmented support services.
“Rather than seeing trade as a federal or state responsibility, the local economic development community plays the critical role here,” Gootman said. “They are best-positioned to help because they have the local knowledge and direct relationships to build on strengths. Only they can proactively identify firms, coordinate all resources, and keep them motivated toward action.”
To that end, the Upstate SC Alliance Global Competitiveness Council is launching a series of events aimed at connecting middle-market companies with ideas and resources to help them grow. Upcoming topics include protecting intellectual property, doing business with Belgium, and growing the talent pool through proactive educational partnerships.
Other speakers at the event included Upstate SC Alliance President and CEO John Lummus, who presented on trends in economic development, and representatives from American Foam & Fabric, Boyd Cycling, and Rödl & Partner discussing how their businesses have grown from international connections. More than 100 Upstate business leaders attended the event, according to representatives from Upstate SC Alliance.
Find out more: Visit http://www.upstatealliance.com/International-Support/Global-Cities-Initiative.aspx.
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The Brookings Institution is a private non-profit organization. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. Brookings recognizes that the value it provides is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence and impact, and makes all final determinations of the scholarly activities in the Global Cities Initiative, including the research agenda and products. For more information visit www.brookings.edu.
