๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฑ – ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐น๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐
The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook (www.lredhandbook.com ) is structured and written as an economic developer would think about their world, their professional discipline and how they work.
Here’s what the economic development job actually covers:
โ Enterprise & entrepreneurship โ helping local businesses start, scale, and innovate
โ Inward investment โ attracting external firms AND embedding them so they stay
โ Skills & employment โ aligning workforce capabilities with what the economy actually needs
โ Innovation ecosystems โ turning R&D into products, services, and jobs
โ Place & infrastructure โ the physical environment that makes locations work for businesses and people
โ Inclusion & poverty reduction โ making sure growth doesn’t just benefit those already winning
โ Climate transition โ reshaping local economies for a net zero future
Seven distinct activity areas. Most requiring different partnerships, different metrics, different expertise.
Yet economic development teams are routinely understaffed, under-resourced, and judged by a single metric: how many companies did you attract this year?
The core insight I keep returning to after 32 years: places don’t prosper by accident. They prosper because someone made an informed decision, built the right partnership, or designed a programme that actually worked.
My new handbook covers every one of these areas โ not theory, but practical guidance for practitioners doing this work daily.
Watch the Youtube video about this in the link.
#EconomicDevelopment #RegionalDevelopment #LocalEconomy #PlaceLeadership #EconDev
