Tucson regional economic opportunities and development

TREO

SWOT analysis is a framework for analyzing the internal and external environment. It focuses on internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. The SWOT helps TREO to match the potential economic opportunities available with the strengths that already exist in the Tucson region. The SWOT framework can also be used to ensure that the threats in the environment do not exploit existing weaknesses of the Tucson area. The SWOT contained in TREO's executive summary contained the following:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats higher education resources perception of K12 education system technology and innovation-based development inability to sustain plans cultural diversity and resources crime rates integration with U. Of a water availability natural environment downtown core population growth recreational assets/quality of life infrastructure leadership development strategic location real estate capacity new entrepreneurial ventures defense related facilities workforce attraction & retention

Flowing from the SWOT analysis is the development of strategy. The next step in the development of strategy is to put together a regional economic development plan. The purpose of this type of plan is to synthesize the information in the SWOT analysis into a cohesive strategy to develop the region's economy. TREO's Economic Blueprint contains several goals that TREO feels are critical to the execution of its regional economic development plan. In order to achieve the ultimate goal of a competitive economy, TREO has developed what it calls "The Power of Five," being the following five strategic objectives for regional economic development:

high skilled/high-wage jobs educational excellence urban renaissance livable communities collaborative governance & stewardship

This strategy has several key action plans. One is to develop industry clusters. According to Michael Porter, industry clusters are considered to be a key to regional economic competitiveness (Waits, 2000). According to TREO, "a cluster is a group of firms that are located near one another and draw productive advantage from their mutual proximity and connections." What this means is that firms in the same industry work with one another to supply goods and services and form strategic alliances. It benefits regional economic development because all the firms attract the same types of employees, who can then move from one company to another or start their own companies in the same industry. The best known example is Silicon Valley. Clusters develop the regional economy by attracting many firms and workers. The clusters are self-sustaining in that the region is not dependent on any given firm or industry and workers who lose their jobs will not leave town but rather get a job at a nearby firm in the same industry. An industry cluster organization is an organization that is set up to support the development of an industry cluster, and then to be a voice for the cluster when dealing with government officials regarding the cluster's needs. Ten clusters have been identified by TREO:

aerospace and defense analytical instruments/optics medical devices bio-industry environmental technology institutional/private R&D information technology business services financial services transportation and logistics

Another tactic devised by TREO is to improve education. TREO wants to attract industry clusters with high-paying jobs. To do this, they need workers who can meet the needs of those firms. Thus, TREO is making a number of efforts to address this issue in the Tucson area. These efforts include developing an "education first" culture, securing financial resources for education, collaborating for a more rigorous curriculum and forming business/education partnerships to ensure that our education system is meeting the needs of business.