Case Studies
City of Clarksville (AR) Community Economic Development Committee
“For our community, the Boyette Strategic Advisors’ solution was a perfect fit. Del and his staff worked with us to provide a customized blueprint that was flexible enough to optimize the unique resources in our area, while providing the necessary structure to focus our efforts strategically moving forward. The depth of knowledge and willingness to truly understand our needs clearly separate BSA’s products by the exceptional value they add, and have continually proven to be integral to the success of our plan’s implementation.”
BSA was engaged to develop a five-year Strategic Economic Development Blueprint to enhance current efforts to attract jobs and promote the City of Clarksville/Johnson County as a business location. Completion of the Blueprint involved conducting an assessment of the area and its assets by reviewing information related to current economic development efforts; gathering information on successes in supporting existing business and attracting new business; reviewing recent marketing and communications activities conducted related to the economic development efforts; conducting stakeholder interviews and group discussions with community leaders, state economic development leaders, and others; conducting an online survey; and conducting research on six benchmark cities/counties in order to assess competitive strengths of the area against those communities. This resulted in identification of six targeted business sectors and development of related strategic recommendations.
In addition to a strategic blueprint, BSA conducted a workforce analysis designed to document the quality and quantity of the region’s workforce. The objectives were to:
- Identify Clarksville/Johnson County’s current labor shed and recommend the counties to include as part of the region’s demographic and workforce overview.
- Identify and quantify labor availability throughout the labor shed, including both unemployed and underemployed workers.
- Understand the skill sets of the existing workforce, particularly as they relate to potential industry categories that are targeted by the region.
- Develop data to share with business prospects in the identified key industry sectors.
- Correlate skill levels and possible skill gaps of the workforce with areas of excellence among workforce training providers in the region.
- Explore issues related to unemployment and underemployment with employees through a telephone survey.
- Determine existing employers’ perceptions of the workforce through interviews and an online survey.