Bridge the Gap With the Talent Integration Ecosystem

By Dr. Charlie Grantham and Norma Owen

The problem is the emergent economy places an emphasis on innovation, collaboration and integrative systemic thinking and behaviors. Labor now creates its own demand.[2] Entirely new forms of value creating human organizations and systems of value exchange are sprouting up, ready…

CenturyLink Remakes Northeast Louisiana

By Scott Martinez, CEcD, NLEP President

In economic development, a community’s identity is often defined by its major corporate citizens.  For instance, Bentonville, Arkansas, is synonymous with Walmart, and Round Rock, Texas, is forever linked with Dell.  With the growth of CenturyLink into a Fortune 150 company, northeast Louisiana…

April-May 2014 Editor's Notebook

Corporations Embrace the Advantages of Wind Energy

In the past couple of years, tech firms have looked to renewable energy to offset their energy costs for energy-intensive operations such as data centers. Companies including Google and Microsoft are entering long-term power purchase agreements with utilities and/or buying…

Feb-March 2014 Editor's Notebook

Aerospace: A Tale of two Industries
In the face of uncertainties in the aerospace sector, particularly with defense and space-related initiatives, economic developers are getting creative in order to support their cluster companies as they adjust to federal budget cuts. An example includes decreasing business taxes.
On the other…

How One Utility Solved its Biggest Customer's Headache

When the power goes out, communities and businesses feel the impact. In Orangeburg, SC, the world’s largest ibuprofen plant was experiencing two to three significant outages a year, so they sought out a fix.
Download this case study written by Utility Dive and commissioned by Siemens to see the…