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Tension between your business goals, and your social and environmental ones, is central to community economic development. It comes with the territory. How else are people committed to just, sustainable communities to get a grip on the power of concepts like competition, marketing, and efficiency? How else are entrepreneurs to realize that a worthwhile bottom line cannot be expressed simply in terms of dollars? The following items from The CED Digital Bookshop concern the crucial roles that business plays in strategies of CED. A click on any title will forward you to the Bookshop to place your order. (Most items cost under $10. Many are free.) Nothing here that fits the bill? There's plenty more. Drop us a line to let us know just what you're after. What might a Wal-Mart might do for your local economy? What might it do to it? Here's how to find out, and how to make sure it does more of the first, and less of the second. 2. Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation This community-owned company is managing to strike a balance between profitability, community interests, and provincial forestry standards in the interior of British Columbia. Shrewd leadership, an entrepreneurial spirit, solid research and advice, and a determined citizenry have been the key. 3. Cutting Loose: Swift Current Uses BR&E To Turn The Corner Swift Current, Saskatchewan has become a showcase for Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E), the strategy that calls upon the local private sector to spearhead community renewal. In answer, over the past three years, the town's business owners have set in motion a community-wide strategy in collaboration with the public and social service sectors. Newfoundland and Labrador's Youth Ventures Program gets teens and pre-teens engaged in entrepreneurship in places where the "company town" mentality has long prevailed. 5. Business Development as a CED Strategy If a community is to be a key organizer of an efficient network of production and distribution, then business development must be included in its development strategy. But it is not enought to own and manage businesses; they must be tools of empowerment. For over 20 years, Stonyfield Farm has been shaping and responding to consumers' demand for organic foods. The business, like the market, has grown exponentially and without injury to its owner's commitment to producing healthy food. Will new corporate owners match that record? Wal-Mart, the Big Box phenomenon of the last 15 years, is cast as either the hero or the nemesis of small town economic development. What might a Wal-Mart might do for and to your local economy? How do you find out? Are there any national and international implications to your local decision? 8. Alternatives For Public Sector Reform Local contractors may well outperform bureaucrats when it comes to service delivery - assuming communities have social capital adequate to the job. What kind of business offers efficiency and accountability, while building civic engagement and capacity? The co-op. Here's how residents of a corporate milltown have come to raise their expectations of local development (and themselves) and challenge the smokestack-chasing habit. 10. Play Ball! For a community to thrive, 10 tasks are essential; one of them is profitable, responsible business. But like the positions on a ball team, each of the 10 needs to be carried out with skill, oomph, and in close co-ordination with the rest. Teamwork is what it's all about. 11. What is the Business of Business? Bill Ninacs reviews six books that explore how the spirit and inventiveness of the entrepreneur can be harnessed to serve collective values and interests, the results can be dramatic. Check out these other Hotlists! |
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