10/26/2009
LED Receives National Recognition For Its Business Expansion And Retention Program
BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana Economic Development's Business
Expansion and Retention Group, or BERG, won a 2009 Synchronist
Award for Leading By Design. BERG received this honor in an annual
award competition among economic development organizations
throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"We have consistently made business retention and expansion our
top economic development priority, and we're delighted to receive
national recognition for our efforts. This award joins a growing
list of accolades for our innovative efforts to improve the
business climate as well as retain and expand jobs for our people,"
said Gov. Bobby Jindal. "Recent business expansion wins like
Coca-Cola Bottling in Baton Rouge, Cameron Valves in Ville Platte,
Gardner Denver in Monroe, Schlumberger in Shreveport, Shaw Modular
Solutions in Lake Charles, 3001 International in Slidell and Gulf
Island Marine Fabricators in Houma show that our business expansion
and retention efforts are working."
Established in 2008, BERG conducts on-site visits with the
leadership of Louisiana's top economic-driver firms and companies
poised for growth to identify challenges and growth opportunities,
as well as to provide assertive state support where appropriate to
address them. The Synchronist Business Information System®
software is a software tool utilized by hundreds of economic
development organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada to support
business retention and expansion efforts. LED was one of three
state-level organizations receiving an award, while the Baton Rouge
Area Chamber was one of seven local or regional organizations that
received recognition.
"Since we took office last year, we have made business retention
and expansion our top priority," said LED Secretary Stephen Moret.
"We created the first full-time staff team focused exclusively on
supporting existing Louisiana companies; we committed most of our
discretionary incentives to help existing Louisiana companies
expand; and we've utilized modern software tools like Synchronist
and GIS to optimize our effectiveness in supporting existing
Louisiana companies."
BERG won the award for its innovative and progressive efforts in
strengthening relationships with Louisiana's existing companies.
Through ongoing relationships with local and regional economic
development partners, LED has encouraged and supported the use of a
statewide business visitation program and a centralized,
state-managed database to ensure comprehensive, accurate and
assertive follow-up support for Louisiana businesses. Working with
local and regional economic development partners, over 800 business
consultations will occur each year.
"Louisiana's new approach to business expansion and retention is
extremely innovative," said Blane, Canada Ltd. Founding Partner
Eric Canada. "Their multifocused, statewide approach starts with
Gov. Jindal and flows down to the communities and companies
throughout the state. In less than a year, LED has created a
successful expansion and retention program that is incorporating
technology, experience and creativity into its efforts to help
Louisiana's existing businesses."
In addition to conducting company visits and addressing
company-identified issues, BERG is developing additional methods to
assist Louisiana companies. Assisting businesses during the
economic slowdown, BERG helped develop state legislation during the
2009 session that will encourage existing Louisiana companies to
modernize their facilities to improve their efficiency and
competitiveness. BERG also is launching a statewide GIS initiative
to better serve Louisiana companies. This includes providing
assistance in co-location opportunities, developing a robust
understanding of industry trends, and building a GIS mapping
database, which will allow for product input/output analysis.
