Over the last month, we’ve explained and simplified the contents of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.’s 2014-2017 strategic plan, detailing our mission, vision, priorities, and the development, finance and marketing initiatives we will pursue over the next three years.

The final component of that plan are the administration/stakeholders initiatives, which will allow LVEDC to foster continued relationships, maintain open lines of communication with Lehigh Valley stakeholders, and attract and retain the best economic development for the region.

These initiatives will help ensure LVEDC streamlines communications to consolidate regional efforts, increases awareness of economic development needs in the region, acts as a centralized source of economic development data, and develops cross-organizational tools to share information with stakeholders and better deliver value to customers.

The five administration/stakeholders initiatives identified by our strategic plan include:

1. Strengthen stakeholder involvement through councils and programs. We will improve the vital, two-way communication between LVEDC and its councils through such methods as continued focused events, additional branding and the development of new councils as appropriate. Our councils include commercial real estate professionals, local governments, economic development partners and others.
2. Be a connector for regional groups and resources, and an advocate for economic development needs and improvements. LVEDC will work to build cooperation between municipalities, communicate the needs of the region to state and federal policy makers, and ensure the Lehigh Valley’s assets continue rating well against competitors.
3. Increase private sector investment to support economic development. We will work to increase our $2 million operating budget, and the share that comes from private sources, to ensure sufficient resources to run a competitive economic development program.
4. Upgrade information and central data systems to support all LVEDC initiatives. LVEDC will effectively deliver useful information by developing and implementing central data systems that support communication across the organization and with key stakeholders.
5. Optimize and develop LVEDC talent, staffing structure and resource use. We will develop and employ a more sophisticated approach to the management of our human resources to best help the Lehigh Valley maintain its competitive edge in the economic development marketplace.

Check out the previous entries in the series for more information about the LVEDC 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, or read the plan in its entirety here.