Research, Engineering, and Design: The Talent Cluster in a Talent-Focused World

Where’s the talent? Ask a corporate executive or a site selection consultant the number-one factor driving location decisions and the response will be skilled labor. In Area Development’s 33rd Annual Corporate Survey and 15th Annual Consultants Survey, “availability of skilled labor” ranked number one on both surveys — not surprising while reinforcing talent-focused strategies. If talent is the number-one factor, why do so many economic development strategies focus on clusters of companies versus clusters of talent?

A New Approach
One benefit of starting a new regional economic development organization is the ability to consider new approaches without being tied to previous thinking. At the Detroit Regional Partnership, we developed our strategies based on a deep understanding of our region and its competitiveness through data collection and analysis.

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