Partnership  Dayton's success will depend on the community’s ability to support, link, and leverage its assets in a way that provides advantages to both existing businesses and new industry clusters. Therefore, the City will leverage its unique assets and partner with business, academia, and institutional anchors to implement an asset-based development strategy.

Fundamentals  Four primary underpinnings are the foundation of this approach:

• Provide a qualified Workforce (human assets) that better reflects the needs of area businesses while supporting efforts to grow expertise in targeted industry clusters;
• Create marketable Places and Spaces (physical assets) by utilizing City amenities to create attractive environments that are attractive to employees and to businesses;
• Brand and Market (image assets) an image that supports the City’s Vision statement; and
• Establish a Pro-Business Environment (supportive assets) by structuring government processes and structures to not only allow creativity but to encourage and promote it.

The second tier of the development pyramid, Support & Grow, is the mainstay of economic development, given that most job creation and hence job opportunities for Dayton residents come from supporting and growing existing businesses. The City must continue to support the productivity and profitability of businesses with a pro-business environment.

The third tier of the development pyramid, Incubate & Innovate, will create a supportive infrastructure that encourages and facilitates constant and rapid deployment of new ideas and new businesses. In a world of constant, increasingly rapid, and unpredictable change, the City will facilitate an environment that supports the commercialization of new technologies and a perpetual churning of new businesses.

Contact  For more information about this cutting-edge approach to economic development strategy, please contact us at (937) 333-3634.

Source: CitiPlan 2020, Economic Development Component