By Megan A. Lucas, CEcD, CCE, IOM
Your company’s address tells only part of the story.
The better question is: What economy does your business actually depend on?
Think about your employees. Where do they live? Where did they receive their training? Where will you find your next employee?
Now consider your suppliers, customers, professional service providers, transportation networks, utilities and educational partners. How many of those connections stop at the boundary of the city, town or county where your business is located?
Probably very few.
That network of relationships is your company’s economic footprint, and it tells us far more about the economy in which your business operates than a street address ever could.
Follow those connections across a map and something important emerges: economic activity doesn’t simply exist within individual jurisdictions. It connects people, businesses, institutions, infrastructure and markets. Those connections create regional economies.
Your address tells you where you are. Your economic footprint tells you where you compete.
Why Regions Matter
America’s economic competitiveness is increasingly won at the regional level. National policies and investments can create opportunities, but regions translate those opportunities into businesses, jobs, infrastructure, workforce development and economic mobility.
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Brookings reinforces an important point: regional growth is shaped by productivity, workforce skills, industry mix, entrepreneurship and the ability of businesses and institutions to connect around shared opportunities. The national economy is built from regional economies.
Businesses don’t operate in isolation. A manufacturer purchases from suppliers, hires contractors, uses professional services, develops talent through education and training partners, and depends on transportation and utility infrastructure. Its employees live and spend money throughout surrounding communities. Its growth creates opportunities for other businesses.
When those economic footprints overlap, industries cluster, supply chains connect and regional economies emerge.
Look at a Manufacturer
Consider a manufacturer in Campbell County. Its address tells us where its facility is located. Its economic footprint tells us much more.
Its employees may live in Amherst, Lynchburg, Campbell or other surrounding communities. Its suppliers and professional service providers may be located throughout the region. Its workforce pipeline may include Central Virginia Community College, regional high schools and training programs. Its products may move from a local facility to customers across the country and around the world.
Now imagine that company expands.
The investment may occur at one facility, but the economic activity generated by that investment extends well beyond its property line. The company may hire engineers, technicians and production workers. Suppliers may receive new orders. Contractors may be hired. Demand for logistics, professional services and workforce training may increase.
New employees will spend their wages throughout the region.
The investment happens at one facility. The economic impact happens across a region.
That is economic footprint. And that is why the regional economy matters.
The LYH Region
Here, those connections define the LYH Region: the City of Lynchburg and Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties.
This isn’t simply a collection of neighboring communities. It is a connected economic ecosystem in which businesses, workers, educational institutions, infrastructure and markets interact every day.
Our manufacturing companies are connected through suppliers, customers and a shared workforce. Our energy and nuclear industries depend on specialized talent and technical expertise. Our colleges and universities contribute to the talent pipeline, while transportation and utility infrastructure connects businesses to one another and to national and global markets.
The strength isn’t found in any one asset. It is found in the connections among the assets.
Your Business Is LYH Region
For business leaders, understanding your economic footprint isn’t an academic exercise. It’s a competitive advantage.
If your workforce is regional, your talent strategy should be regional.
If your suppliers are regional, your supply chain strategy should be regional. If the resources that can help your company grow are regional, you should use them that way.
A company considering a 50-person expansion shouldn’t ask only, “Where will I find 50 more employees?” It should ask, “What does my regional labor shed look like? Which education and training partners are connected to my industry? What regional infrastructure and business relationships can support my growth?”
That shift, from thinking locally to thinking regionally, can change how a business approaches growth.
Find Your Edge
At the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, our work is grounded in this regional perspective. We bring businesses, communities, education and workforce partners, infrastructure providers and other economic assets together because those connections create competitive advantage.
We don’t have to be the biggest region to be competitive. We have to understand what we do well, recognize the assets we have, connect them effectively and continue building on them.
The edge isn’t simply where we are. The edge is what we have built here and how well we connect it.
Know your economic footprint. Know the people, industries, institutions, infrastructure and markets that surround your business.
Know Your Region. Find Your Edge.
At the Edge of the Blue Ridge, your business is Lynchburg Region.
