A starting place

By Staff
April 26, 2004
It really doesn't matter at this point on whose watch the state of Mississippi lost a record 117 manufacturers in 2002. What the statistic means is that 11,063 Mississippians lost their jobs that year; another 102 Mississippi companies closed last year and 41 have closed since January.
There's enough blame to go around.
While conditions ranging from global competition to a lack of skilled workers to inept leadership may have been at play, all of the companies that closed share one common characteristic: They were all existing businesses.
The inescapable conclusion is that Mississippi's economic development focus for far too long has been on landing the big fish the Nissan's, for example in our little pond. The fact is that, as good as the Nissan plant near Canton is, it won't bring in enough jobs to replace the 11,063 lost in 2002.
State and local efforts are now beginning to focus anew on how to help existing businesses succeed. At the local level, the East Mississippi Business Development Corp. has a campaign going to identify needs of existing businesses.
The Mississippi Development Authority last week announced a program to help solve problems before a company is forced to close its doors. It comes in the form of new Web-based software actually a 42-question survey where every CEO, plant manager and business owner in Mississippi can elaborate on problems and concerns they confront.
In short, it gives frontline managers and business owners a pipeline through which they can vent concerns on any subject NAFTA to burdensome local zoning codes. The next step, of course, will be up the state and local governments to propose corrective actions in time to save a company.
Since 80 percent of new jobs created in Mississippi comes from existing businesses, these sorts of moves to help companies already doing business make good sense as a start.