Mayor Jackson’s Business Roundtable Report
Monday, February 24th, 2014
Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson made a commitment to become more responsive to the needs of local businesses in her February 2012 inaugural address. In observance of her promise, Mayor Jackson assembled a Business Roundtable comprised of local business leaders by July of that year. After persuading Greg Parker, President and CEO of The Parker Companies to chair the Roundtable, a novel collaboration between Savannah’s City government and its business community began to take shape.
The Roundtable was launched with a lofty but crystal clear vision: to make Savannah “the best city in which to do business.” Following in the footsteps of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s goal of making Georgia the best state in which to do business, Mayor Jackson’s clarion call for Savannah was taken to task by the group of 30 and infused with an executive mindset and approach.
“It’s fairly historic to have this kind of public/private collaboration,” says Parker. “That our mayor had the vision to reach out to the business community to answer the question, ‘what can we do to make things better?’ shows that the city is not only listening to us, but is prompting the reform themselves.”
Raising the bar
The group began by looking to stellar models set by other cities that were ranked at the top of nationally recognized lists. Publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Bloomberg News, and USA Today were consulted, among others. Savannah's current placement was noted and analyzed (Forbes, for instance, ranked Savannah as the 124th best U.S. city in which to do business this year). Criteria for determining city rank were carefully compiled and evaluated from source to source, and best practices among the top contenders were considered.
Local business stakeholders then identified major concerns and obstacles specific to Savannah, and the group began to research possible solutions based on these best practices, formulating feasible strategies around them. They identified opportunities for improvement in four key areas; Communications, Customer Service, Processes and Economic Development.
Finally, achievable, measurable goals were identified within these categories and compiled for the report, which the group presented to Mayor Jackson and members of the city council in June of 2013. The Roundtable’s members agreed that an overarching priority was to cement this continued connection between the business community and the city, by assembling the Roundtable on an annual basis to review progress and revisit business concerns and recommendations. Another priority was establishing a sub-committee of the Roundtable to serve as a sounding board for filtering strategies and offering feedback to City staff as they implement improvements.
Recommendations
One recommendation that continually resurfaced, due to its applicability to all four key areas of concern, was for the City to create a scorecard and public dashboard with key performance indicators to track economic metrics and implementation of all of the Roundtable’s recommendations.
Please note that the recommendations outlined in this article represent only a portion of all the recommendations made by the Business Roundtable and currently under consideration by the City of Savannah.
Strengthening communication
City communications were a hot topic, whether communication of services to external customers or internal communication among city staff. The enrichment of city communications would greatly facilitate progress within the remaining three areas of focus left to tackle.
Concerns regarding external communications largely centered around the perception that the city does not clearly communicate its vision, functions, and requirements to the business community. Second, there was a concern that the City was not marketing its own services and successes to the external community, which imposes a barrier to business recruitment and economic investment.
The Roundtable went on to identify poor internal communication and weak inter-agency coordination as obstacles to having a business-friendly city. Concerns arose that there was poor communication among City of Savannah staff and an inability for the business community to speak directly with a decision maker. Another primary concern was that local government and other government agencies have different requirements, processes, and functions. These entities do not always communicate clearly with each other or the public.
One recommendation put forth was to name a business development liaison (frequently referred to within the group as a “sherpa” or “city navigator”) who could connect all the various departments and streamline communications. The City should then actively promote that liaison’s role and contact information to the public. You could call 311, for instance, and ask to be connected to this liaison, and she could help you through the process with which you needed assistance. This recommendation is already being developed and implemented by the City.
Another strongly suggested recommendation was for the City to develop a multi-faceted marketing plan to promote business services and incentives. This plan would celebrate and herald all wins, great and small, ultimately stimulating an attitude of progress.
Customer service: the citizen as customer
In lockstep with communications, customer service was an all-pervasive priority. The city’s current culture, according to the Roundtable, requires a complete shift concerning how staff interacts with citizens and each other. Hiring for personality and emotional competency among city services staff, customer service training, and the importance of creating an environment of customer valuation all factored into the discussion and recommendations.
After Greg Parker presented the Roundtable’s findings and recommendations at a city council working session in December of 2013, Alderman-at-large Carolyn Bell commented specifically on Parker’s assertion that “it’s easier to take a happy person and make him competent than to take a competent person and make him happy.”
Bell said, “I love this idea. This is exactly the opposite of what we tend to do in most cases. Normally we look first at skill set when hiring. The person could have all the skills and the worst customer service, but we don’t think about it until it’s too late and we find that they’re driving all of our customers away. This is about making sure our representatives know that the citizens are our customers. Not that people come to us because we’re the only game in town, because they can go right outside our city lines and do business elsewhere.”
Mobile accessible exit surveys, mystery shoppers, and a prominent placement on that highly touted public dashboard could also mean the difference between city employees who inspire confidence and continued relations, and employees whose attitudes sour a client’s experience.
Streamlining Processes
Convoluted processes were identified as a major concern of businesses. Poorly communicated processes gum up the works in business startup, licensing and permitting, contract bidding and business development activities in Savannah. An antiquated and inefficient flow of systems and processes tends to impede the movement of information from one step to the next.
Major processes identified as most critical include the business licensing process, site plan review and permitting processes, as well as zoning review and variance approval processes. Further attention should also be paid to the certification process for minority or women owned business enterprises, as well as high level regulatory or legislative processes including local, state and federal governments. Savannah’s inventory tax in particular was pinpointed as burdensome, outmoded, and culpable of pushing businesses out of Savannah, particularly manufacturing.
Here the recommendations mirrored those of the communications strategies in character, with streamlining and unification of loose ends being served by one dedicated navigator who could “eliminate the maze.” This could be achieved through the creation of a Business Advocate/Ombudsmen position with the weight of the City Manager’s office to walk business customers through the labyrinth of requirements.
The production of a “Doing Business Guide” was also proposed. It would contain simple narrative that identifies resources and provides a checklist or flowchart mapping out business processes. The Roundtable also put forth the idea of creating a facility that could serve as a one-stop shop, with City licensing and development approval processes all beneath one roof. One additional recommendation, which the City has already begun to implement, is to move all processes online, such as bill paying, applications, service requests, etc.
Stimulating economic development
The Roundtable kicked this off by asking how we can define economic development as a community and what role everyone can play in its success. The major concerns identified resulted from a lack of clear delineation of duties and responsibilities among area agencies. They touched upon issues including comprehensive economic development planning, workforce development, entrepreneurship, minority and women owned business development, international trade, and industry specific issues in fields such as manufacturing, technology and service.
Many of these economic development concerns identified by the Business Roundtable also surfaced in research and reports from the National League of Cities, and other cities across the country. These concerns – such as a lack of cohesive vision, workforce skills being mismatched with industry needs and procedural barriers to small business growth – are not unique to Savannah.
The Roundtable proposed that the City develop a comprehensive economic development plan that articulates a clear vision for economic development in the city. This plan must also ensure that inclusiveness and diversity are goals of the City’s economic development efforts.
Stakeholders agreed that the City needs to bring all related economic development entities (EDD, SEC, SDRA) together to clarify functions, coordinate roles, and minimize overlap. Then all must hold themselves equally accountable to the metrics set by the score card and subject their progress measurement to the public dashboard. Business incubators, skill training for women and minority-owned businesses, loan programs for high-tech businesses, and developing mentorships and networks for new entrepreneurs were all brought to the table for the City's consideration.
Next steps: continuum of accountability
Now that this baseline for how Savannah should look and behave as a best-of-the-best business city has been established, and metrics have been installed to support that vision, the next steps involve a team effort of careful monitoring from both the private and public sectors. This measurement will occur regularly throughout each year, and further recommendations will be made accordingly.
As mentioned, the City has already begun to implement some of the strategies and solutions recommended by the Business Roundtable, which Mayor Jackson has invited to convene again mid-year in 2014. These include:
- New City website was fully launched in 2013
- City team developing more “user-friendly” pages for business customers
- Business & Development Services Liaisons ("sherpas") instituted to respond to questions and help guide businesses
- City launched eTRAC, an electronic Tracking, Review and Approval Center for online permit tracking, to keep businesses informed of where their requests/projects are in the review and approval process
- City Revenue Office is currently working with Georgia Secretary of State’s Office to get “electronic verification” of approved professional licenses (could save two weeks in business tax certificate process)
- New “Business Services Directory” identifies offices for over 60 services
- Minority and Women Owned Business (MWBE) Program Improvement Team created in 2013
- Savannah Entrepreneurial Center redesign completed: Center now offers expanded training, networking and one-on-one assistance to entrepreneurs
While it’s guaranteed that there’s considerable work ahead in attaining the rank of "best U.S. city in which to do business,” it appears that Mayor Jackson's foresight in creating the Business Roundtable has begun to pave the way.
