Director of Strategy and Insights for the Greater Memphis Chamber, Chad Matheson, shared with us their new data-driven approach to benchmarking and economic performance.
The Greater Memphis Chamber is the lead economic development organization representing the Greater Memphis region. Within the Economic Development Division, we house the key functions of business development/project management, talent development and coordination, and marketing.
We provide analytical insights, strategic foresight, and stakeholder engagement to inform and drive the region’s pursuit of quality job creation for all. We bring business, government, and community together to address issues that impact market competitiveness to build, connect, and promote collaborative efforts that maximize long-term momentum towards shared goals.
In June 2021, we launched the Center for Economic Competitiveness. The Center is exclusively devoted to thinking and acting strategically to move Memphis forward. The Center recently participated in the Brookings Institutions Inclusive Economic Indicators Lab. From this lab, we constructed People Powered Prosperity, a detailed regional benchmark of economic performance across economic foundations, economic enablers, and economic outcomes.
We will be using this regional benchmark, paired with local market insights, for the development of a shared 2030 vision. This vision will seek to improve key elements of the economic system related to job creation, job preparation and future readiness, economic empowerment, and economic fragility.
Within the framework, key elements where Emsi Burning Glass data played a valuable role include Economic Presence and Industry Diversity, Workforce and Occupational Quality, and Talent. Armed with the knowledge of our relative position against a competitive set of metropolitan peers, we now have further insight into the scale of required change that can advance our position.
Additionally, we can prioritize time, energy, and resources towards high-impact initiatives that have a higher propensity of generating equitable economic growth and achieve stronger shared prosperity outcomes long-term. We segment our labor analytics in 4 key areas: competitive positioning and regional benchmarking, current labor market and demographic/diversity trends and conditions, supply analysis and labor availability, and demand/skills analysis.
