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MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT
Date: April 21, 2004
For Immediate Release
NEW ORLEANS, LA -- In a bold and sweeping move, regional business leaders have closed the books on their 140 year old regional chamber and its economic development arm MetroVison, to take on a new five-year plan to generate 30,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new payroll. Recognizing that the most relevant issue for the region is an at-best, stalled economy, leaders have created Greater New Orleans, Inc. to be the new, streamlined organization to implement best-practice strategies to achieve these measurable objectives.
NCDS accepted the assignment to guide business leaders through the process beginning with the development of a best-practices program and leadership and staffing structure. Following dozens of interviews with top regional leaders, NCDS prepared and presented a revealing report validating the leaders’ concern for the economy, and recommended an immediate start on the transition from a combined chamber/economic development organizational model, to one more clearly focused on the creation of new primary jobs as a way to improve the lagging economy.
Further, NCDS reported that such a plan would attract five-year funding of approximately $15 million from the private sector, with another $3.7 million available from public sector sources.
Today, leaders of GNO Inc.’s Campaign for 30,000 Jobs! are preparing for a victory celebration which will not only announce a funding campaign total of $16.2 million, but also the introduction of three new economic development projects for the region and the hundreds of new jobs these firms will create.
“This was not a tough a decision as you might think,” said Bill Hines, a senior partner is the region’s largest law firm, and Chairman of GNO Inc. “The old chamber-MetroVision model was okay, but our economy wasn't really improving. Clearly, we needed to approach the issue of our economy in an entirely different way.”
That “different way” has the usual member services aspects of the chamber now being delivered by new parish (county) chambers being created for that purpose, and the new organization, GNO Inc., working every day on improving the economy. The leadership was braced for the loss of membership dues from businesses choosing to “join” one of these new local chambers but just the opposite has occurred. The NCDS campaign staff directed solicitations resulting in approximately 200 pledges to represent the $16,200,000 total – an average of more than $80,000 per pledge. Seven commitments are on the books for amounts in excess of $1,000,000. In the old chamber/ed model, the largest investment was just over $100,000 annually.
The combined boards of the old chamber and MetroVision totaled more than 220. The new GNO Inc. board is set hard at fifty. The new CEO of GNO Inc. has streamlined the operating budget and staffing structure relative to the work to which the organization has been assigned. Where just a year ago staff at all levels spent an average of 55% of his or her time at work raising money in some way or another, funding for the five years of the new organization is now in place, returning the staff to critical tasks in jobs creation, workforce development, and public policy reform, all directed to creating 30,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new payroll for the region’s economy.
New Orleans will be more than just a great place to party as regional leaders and their new Greater New Orleans, Inc. build a better economy and become a better place do business.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Chairman Hines says. “But with the right leaders at the table, squarely behind this single focus, and the money we need, all of us are feeling a lot better about our future than we have in a long time.”
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Photo:
Bill Hines, Chairman
Greater New Orleans, Inc.
Greater New Orleans, Inc. logo.
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