6. Flagship Initiative Development:
Stakeholder Crafted Regional Ventures
Choosing Our Future
It is now time for industry and the region at large to choose its future and begin to work
aggressively to address the challenges and opportunities ahead. We cannot fear change. Change
may take the form of tough decisions or hard investments. But, when many stakeholders share in
common the same broad challenges and those challenges affect their willingness or ability to
grow – whether it is availability of skills, innovation, financing, or raw materials, this is a sure
sign that the region and industry leaders in the sector need to take action.
A flagship initiative may be an action that if taken will accelerate a positive outcome, such as
growth of a new enterprise or attraction of new industry. In the end, a successful industry and its
region distinguishes itself by the ability to use what it has in new ways and harness or leverage
resources so that it can undertake new activities. Flagship initiatives are opportunities to be
creative and harness resources from many places and people. Many of the flagship initiatives
presented are big, broader in focus, complex and time consuming to tackle. However when
industry leaders themselves help define regional initiatives, the message to all levels of
government and regional stakeholders is often taken more seriously then when an issue is raised
by one group in isolation, and have a greater acceptance among other decision makers.
Flagship initiatives will take time to realize, but they will also have very high impacts on
industry, the regional economy and its sustainability. For this reason choosing how to approach
their development must be handled carefully – a step at a time. There are big issues that the
region and industries need to tackle. While individual businesses, communities or rural
municipalities may be concerned about these issues, they may not have a regional body that can
serve as the hub, facilitator or mediator in bringing all stakeholders together. When these types
of flagship initiatives have been identified and there is a window of opportunity or growing risk,
then this is where the ASBNC will propose to build an action committee / leadership team to
advance the flagship initiative to implementation.
There are issues that have many stakeholders already working hard, often through existing
regional or provincial groups, boards, committees, commissions and agencies. Here the ASBNC
and its leaders can play a crucial supporting role. This role is by no means passive. In this case
the ASBNC can ensure that regional stakeholders are adequately represented, that the agenda
include regional perspectives, particularly the economic dimension, represented by cluster /
networks and their needs, as well as economic input institutions. The ASBNC can also offer to help host, convene, build collaborating teams and manage strategic decision – making, serving as
a quality control advocate for the sector and region.
The industry leadership teams determined thirty three candidate flagship strategies they believe
are crucial to the future competitiveness of industry and region. The initiatives developed
through this process will not address all of industries challenges, however, it is a starting point to
creating a collaborative culture that is anticipated to continue partnering to implement change
and address needs necessary for a successful region.
The following is a list of the first round of these initiatives, some of which the ASBNC is already
working on. However, there is no reason why additional flagship initiatives cannot be started,
assuming they arise from the basic constituency of the regional economy and its stakeholders in
the sectors.
Some of the flagship initiatives are duplicated simply because certain challenges and
opportunities are shared between sectors. An asterisk * will be used in the listing of initiatives to
identify these projects that are cross-sector related.
The recommended flagship initiatives, by industry, are as follows:
Manufacturing:
- Make Manufacturing a Priority in the Region
- Benchmark Manufacturing Competitiveness
- Improve Business Services to Manufacturers
- Improve Access to Financial Capital
- Improve Knowledge Infrastructure to Develop Skilled Labour
- Develop a Regional Brand to Improve Image and Build Identity *
- Catalyze Innovation Through Business Networks / Alliances
- Establish a Lean Manufacturing Consortium
- Use Government Procurement to Enable Growth
Energy:
- Address Labour Shortage *
- Develop Pre-Employment Training Programs to Provide Job Skill Development
- Add Energy Sector to the Work Experience Program in High Schools
- Improved Utilization of Underdeveloped Gas Wells as Possible Economic Stimulators
- Improved Access to Materials
- Refurbishing Used Inventory to Industry Standards
Tourism:
- Website Linkages Amongst Communities
- Expand Partnerships Through Packaging
- Development of Regional Maps
- Expand Signage – Roadside Pullouts
- Expand FM Signals – Low Power Transmitters
- Expand Regional Visitor Centres and Rest Stops
- Improve Transportation
- Improve Education Through Awareness Programs
- Pool Resources
- Branding the Region *
Agribusiness:
- Increase Value-Added Agriculture Products
- Diversification Beyond Agriculture
- Partner up to Brand the Region *
- Link Agriculture / Tourism / Kyoto / Education
- Find and Develop Markets in the Global Marketplace
- Address Regional Labour Shortage *
- Work With Governments to Address Issues and Develop A Stronger Agribusiness Sector
- Work with Governments to Create Certainty in Agribusiness
Building Our Capacity
In this section you will learn about the challenges and opportunities faced by Southwest
industries. Our ability to grow as a region and as a business community is inherent on our
knowledge of our surroundings and what is driving our economy.
The ASBNC believes that the Southwest region needs to address the business communities’
fragmentation on issues concerning the development of the entire Southwest region. For
instance, how to help retain and expand our existing businesses, and whether to recruit new
business, and if so what kind? More business to business dialogue on these issues is needed and
more facilitated dialogue across the region as well. The ASBNC knew that it would be more
difficult to move forward successfully without creating some consensus on these issues. And as
a result numerous business and community stakeholders were convened in a spirit of cooperation
and open dialogue to build consensus for growth. The long-term success of our region depends
on collaboration and the sharing of experience and knowledge.
Each flagship initiative is outlined on the following page, detailing an identified industry
challenge, a potential solution and general approach to address the issue, completed with an
action plan for implementation.
