Oakland Partnership The Oakland Partnership: Together We Can Do Great Things

 

Summit to launch Oakland Partnership

An exciting initiative to foster sustainable, equitable economic growth in Oakland is moving toward launch.

Over the past six months, efforts have been underway to engage all sectors of our community to develop an economic development strategy. The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (OMCC), the city, the Peralta College District and an advisory group of Chambers, nonprofits, and other stakeholders have been working with McKinsey & Company to examine the key economic opportunities and challenges Oakland faces. On parallel tracks a number of Mayor Ron Dellums’ Task Forces have also focused on issues of economic development and submitted their recommendations to the Mayor.

As the work of the Task Forces and that of McKinsey & Company near completion, an opportunity exists to see how the two complement each other and how, together, they can form the basis for a comprehensive economic development strategy.

What comes next: Mayor’s Economic Summit planned for Thursday, May 3.

On May 3, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Oakland Marriott City Center, Mayor Dellums will convene a broad group of stakeholders including government, business, educational institutions, labor, and other community groups to hear the recommendations of his economic development related Task Forces as well as the results
of the report by McKinsey. This broad group of stakeholders forms the basis for The Oakland Partnership, a collaborative work effort that will be announced at a half-day Economic Summit at the Oakland Marriott on
May 3.

The goal of the Partnership is to create a thriving, innovative, equitable, globally competitive regional economy that creates a basis for jobs growth by tapping into the creativity and talent of all segments of the population and providing benefits to all Oakland residents and businesses.

How will the Oakland Partnership work?

At the May 3 Summit, two parallel work efforts will be announced – the OMCC will convene a series of action-oriented work groups (Cluster Working Groups) for each of the key industries identified by McKinsey; and the Mayor’s office will continue to provide leadership for those Task Forces related to economic development, with a special focus on those related to workforce development, land use, public safety, small business development, and citizens and finance. These work efforts will be complementary and mutually reinforcing.

The Chamber’s Cluster Groups will meet 3-4 times over the course of this year, with the first round of meetings taking place in late May or early June. After a short summer break, the Chamber will host additional meetings in the fall. Each Cluster Group (comprised of a range of companies, small and large, as well as representatives of educational institutions, labor, nonprofits, and government as they relate to the development of the Cluster) will refine the challenges and opportunities faced by their industry as defined in the report and will delineate 5-10 action initiatives that will address those challenges and make the most of those opportunities.

As initiatives get fleshed out and champions and resources are identified, they will be implemented. To some extent, the Mayor’s office is already implementing a number of the Task Force recommendations, particularly on the issue of public safety. As the work of the Partnership continues, it is anticipated that the Mayor will convene Economic Summits annually to benchmark progress made against the goals and vision developed on May 3, 2007.

Working together

The Chamber is delighted that the report by McKinsey and the Mayor’s Task Forces will form an important foundation for the larger platform on which Oakland’s community leaders and stakeholders can meet, be informed, and engage with each other in a new shared vision of what is possible. Now comes the hard work of creating a shared work plan – agreeing on priority initiatives, crafting them in detail, and signing on to specific actions in a defined timeframe.

Other regions have learned the importance of a strong partnership between the government, business, labor, and education. It is time Oakland learned this lesson too. To the degree to which Oakland can quickly establish how that partnership will function and which roles and responsibilities will be assigned to the different stakeholders for follow through and, ultimately, results, the higher the chances that the economic development strategy effort launched on May 3, 2007 will be a success.

Sponsorship opportunities for the Summit are still available. For more information, contact Joe Haraburda at jharaburda@oaklandchamber.com or call (510) 874-4810.

Taking stock of Oakland’s economy

By building on its strengths and growing key industries through strategic collaboration, Oakland’s economy is in position to improve dramatically. The city and all of its stakeholders can and must seize new opportunities and address challenges to growth.

This and other significant recommendations are made by McKinsey & Company in a recently released report entitled “Taking Stock of Oakland’s Economy.” Listed below are key findings from the report that reveal significant potential steps that may be taken to improve the quality of life for all those who live, work, and play in Oakland. Although the report does not address all of the economic issues facing the city, these strategic actions by stakeholders in Oakland could stimulate important opportunities for Oakland.

Over-arching recommendations

McKinsey & Company accounted for Oakland’s historical strengths, current economic profile, potential untapped opportunities, and the fundamentals underpinning its economic health. In the final analysis, four overarching recommendations for the city emerged.

1.                  Build strategically on Oakland’s historic, regional, and emerging strengths:

Ÿ         Strengthen existing sectors such as healthcare, trade and logistics, and retail.

Ÿ        Leverage the assets of the Bay Area and UC Berkeley to develop Oakland’s role in the region’s biotechnology industry.

Ÿ        Leverage the city's central location, talented workforce, cultural values, and proximity to UC Berkeley and other schools to grow new economic activities in green industry; arts, design, and digital media; and specialty food manufacturing.

2.                  Improve the balance of key sectors in the economy, placing priority on high-growth, high-wag  industries such as biotechnology, healthcare, logistics, and others.

3.                  Address the city's economic fundamentals that enable the rest of the economy to flourish by improving:

Ÿ         Public safety

Ÿ         Education and workforce training

Ÿ         Business climate with particular emphasis on supporting small businesses

Ÿ        Frame the city’s land use policy so that it is clear and consistent with the city’s economic development goals and objectives.

4.     Understand the economic opportunities and constraints the city faces and work collaboratively to seize those opportunities and address the constraints. Little progress can be made unless government, business, education, and labor leaders work together to achieve shared goals and objectives.

Opportunities

The good news is that Oakland possesses a number of cultural, historic, and regional strengths upon which it can build to seize a number of very promising opportunities:

·        A creative and entrepreneurial local culture can be fostered to become more productive incubators for many of the industries in ascendancy today. 

·        Serving as a transportation hub offers tremendous leverage to capture more activities involved in synchronizing the movement of goods in today’s global economy through growth in the logistics industry.

·        Partner in the Bay Area regional vibrancy and global competitiveness enables Oakland, with its talented labor pool, available real estate, and central location, stands to attract business. 

Strategic enablers

Oakland clearly has opportunities to leverage its strengths and promote economic growth. However, to secure the foundations for future success in these ventures, the city must begin investing now in four key enablers that are necessary to successful economic development in Oakland:

1.                  Improve public safety and actively manage the perception of crime in the community; safety is particularly important to encouraging new investment, new business development, business expansion, and retail in the downtown corridor. 

2.                  Enhance the quality of education and workforce training. A well-trained workforce ready at hand is important to attracting biotechnology, healthcare, and clean technology. As well, better coordinated workforce training and hiring programs will increase employment, which in the longer term will help ensure that economic development will benefit all segments of Oakland’s population.

3.                  Improve the city’s business climate with a focus on supporting the growth of small- and medium-size businesses. 

Create and execute a strategic land use policy. Biotechnology, healthcare, the Port, retail, and Oakland’s niche sectors require rational land use policies.

What comes next?

Now comes the hard work of creating a shared agenda for change: agreeing on priority initiatives, crafting them in detail, and signing up for specific actions and deadlines. In collaboration with Mayor Dellums, a process is being defined through a new initiative called The Oakland Partnership. Bringing together business, government, labor, educational institutions, and community groups, The Oakland Partnership will convene strategy planning meetings to develop action plans for seizing opportunities to promote economic growth.

The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce will convene working groups clustered around many of the key industries discussed in the economic report by McKinsey & Company. Leaders from each sector can be engaged in the strategy process along with government, education, and labor officials to examine any obstacles to their growth and to identify key actions, investments, or policies that could enhance their growth and competitiveness. At the same time, the Chamber will be working in close collaboration with the Mayor’s office and those community Task Forces related to economic development, especially to the “enabling” topics identified in the report.

By the end of 2007, The Oakland Partnership cluster working groups will have completed the strategy formulation process and begun implementing initiatives which can have impact. Over the next three years, plans will be executed and new efforts developed to support businesses, create new jobs, and train employees.

Some anticipated outcomes of the Oakland Partnership

Our goal is to create a thriving, innovative, equitable, globally competitive regional economy that creates 10,000 new jobs in the next five years by tapping into the creativity and talent of all segments of the population and providing benefits to all Oakland residents and businesses. Opportunities include:

·                    Retain and create jobs in healthcare, logistics, retail, and other sectors;

·                    Grow new businesses in industries like life sciences; Green Industry ; arts, design, and digital media; retail; and specialty food – on the basis of Oakland’s existing strengths.

·                    Increase the participation of all of Oakland’s workforce in the economy by creating state-of-the-art educational and workforce training programs in collaboration with industry to ensure market-relevant skills, placement, and career advancement.

·                    Create a land use framework that maximizes productivity and quality of life in Oakland and allows for the most effective and efficient use of land by industrial, commercial, residential, and open space users.

·                    Create an enduring, strategic, public-private collaborative approach to economic development which enhances civic participation and demonstrates that Oakland is a unified community working collaboratively to achieve a shared vision.