Leaders hope ‘blueprint’ can ramp up region’s economic growth

Wichita State University President John Bardo on Thursday told a room full of south-central Kansas leaders that Wichita is no longer the entrepreneurial powerhouse it sometimes claims to be — not even close.

And heads nodded.

They were well aware that Wichita has grown slowly over the last 15 years, relying too heavily on the aircraft industry. That’s why they were there.

Bardo, Intrust Bank CEO Charlie Chandler, prominent Hutchinson attorney Brad Dillon and others unveiled an effort called the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth at a public meeting at the Meridian Center in Newton. The hope is that the Blueprint will spark innovation and growth in the 10-county Wichita area economy.

“In effective regions people know how to talk to each other and move forward,” Bardo said. “Those that silo don’t do well at all.”

The plan will be completed for a public meeting July 10. More about the Blueprint is available at www.bregsck.com.

The Blueprint process seems almost too simple: Gather executives from the Wichita region’s most important industries three times in three months, and have them come up with ways to solve their biggest problems.

A large amount of legwork went into figuring out what the most important industries were and the size of the problems that Wichita faces.

Consultants Jim Gollub and Paul Masson, working with local economic analysts, identified eight key regional industries, called clusters, and did interviews with CEOs around the region. A cluster is a concentration of businesses that make the same kinds of products, use similar processes and draw from the same labor force.

The eight clusters are:

▪ advanced materials,

▪ aerospace,

▪ agriculture inputs and processing,

▪ data services and electronic components,

▪ health care,

▪ machinery and metalworking,

▪ oil and gas production and transportation,

▪ and transportation and logistics.

The Wichita area has a competitive edge or potential competitive edge over other regions in all eight.

Now the real work begins as executives from the eight clusters sit down together. The most common problems will rise to the top and make it into the final report.

Some problems can be solved simply by communication, said Gollub and Masson. One executive might describe a business problem and another executive has a solution.

Other problems tend to take cooperation among themselves or require pulling in another company or government for help. The key, they said, is that the companies themselves identify the solutions and push the change.

The cluster-building process has been used by a wide range of cities including New York and Austin.

“When you put people together who aren’t used to working together and give them a challenge, wonderful things will happen,” said Chandler.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Leaders hope ‘blueprint’ can ramp up region’s economic growth."