White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said adding business to a community is more about finding the right partner at a particular time. .
Robinson attended the first session of TVA’s Graduate Institute last week, which teaches the insights and trends of economic development. Robinson said his biggest takeaway was attracting the right business plays a huge role in economic success.
“Not every business or industry is right for every community,” Robinson said. “And helping look at the key areas to make sure it’s a right fit. Not only are you trying to sell your community to the business, but you are also making sure that the business fits well in your community.”
Robinson said the right businesses and industries are the ones that can be a great partner, improve the community, and bring better-paying jobs. Robinson said businesses do not make an impact if they cannot check those boxes.
“Especially if you bring in ones with lower wages and type stuff, it doesn’t really help your community because we already have businesses and jobs that are not filled right now,” Robinson said. “And so you bring in a type of business and industry where the pay is even lower than what is already out there, then there is no way that you can provide the workforce to fill that need for that company, so then they kind of get a, maybe a bad taste in their mouth, and then the community is not real happy with them either.”
Robinson said he also learned that having the right people and leaders to work with the local businesses is crucial as business retention is just as important as business recruitment.
Robinson said he learned that the needs of businesses and industries are changing.
“When I first started in my role, the kind of big seller was, ‘What can you give me? Can you give me free land? Can you give me a free building?'” Robinson said. “And then, as we kind of transitioned to the COVID times kind of the look was, ‘can you provide me a workforce?’ Now we are kind of transitioning over to ‘can you provide the power?'”
Robinson said power infrastructure is becoming more of a top priority for industries as manufacturing is transitioning to using more technology.
Robinson said he hopes to use what he learns and not only help White County but also help the Upper Cumberland. Robinson said this week was the first of several sessions he will be attending.
