Northern Middle Tennessee Strategic Plan

Recruitment

Recruiting businesses to relocate is a cornerstone of the region's economic development strategy. High-profile relocations, such as Nissan North America in 2006, not only add jobs but also send a message to the business community that middle Tennessee is an attractive place to do business. Because companies tend to form "clusters" with peers in their industry, the region holds a competitive advantage in the healthcare, automotive, and music sectors. The region is also well suited to compete for headquarters/business services projects, and its location and quality infrastructure make the area appealing to manufacturing and logistics/supply chain management companies as well.

ECD regional staff will offer assistance to city and county economic development organizations that are interested in enhancing business development processes based on national best practices. While comprehensive business development plans are in place for each of the 13 counties in the region, variation in resources among the organizations charged with executing these plans could result in some counties having more effective economic development processes than others. In an effort to insure that all partners are aware of best practices in business recruitment, ECD's regional staff will conduct meetings to share best practices in the development of marketing materials, responding to RFI/RFPs and engaging in other aspects of business recruitment. It is anticipated that these meetings will appeal most to economic development professionals located in rural areas of the region.

Regional staffs will conduct scheduled meetings with local economic development officials in each of the region's 13 counties to review the project pipeline. Business recruitment is most effective when the various interested stakeholders become involved in the process at an early stage and a primary goal of these meetings is to spur communication about the pipeline of prospects being courted by local officials. While it is likely that ECD regional staff will communicate with their local counterparts periodically throughout the year as various issues arise, these formal meetings will ensure that discussions about the deal pipeline occur on a regular basis.

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Table of Contents

Northwest Middle Tennessee Regional Strategic Plan

• complete pdf
• summary
• regional overview

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*The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development's mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the number-one location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. The department seeks to attract new corporate investment in Tennessee and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth.