Springfield, Missouri

Competitive Assessment

While many Midwestern communities struggled, Springfield, Missouri enjoyed significant growth and increasing prosperity in the last decade with workforce and per capita income growth rates outpacing the state and nation. In 2008, the Springfield Business Development Corporation (SBDC) and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce initiated its second five-year capital campaign focused on providing programming in 1) regional economic development, 2) workforce development, 3) national business development and marketing, 4)downtown development and redevelopment, and 5) media and investor relations.

With over $2.85 million raised to support economic development programs and having made progress on many of its strategic priorities, SBDC engaged Market Street to provide an updated assessment of the Springfield region’s competitive position. To achieve this, Market Street completed a two-part research process.

Competitive Assessment
This research deliverable examined the Springfield region’s competitive position and progress along three broad areas: people, prosperity, and place. Throughout the report, the Springfield metro area was benchmarked against three similar regions, the state, and the nation.

Stakeholder Input
This process gathered the perspectives of diverse groups of community members; Market Street conducted interviews, focus groups, and an online survey to provide key stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on what they feel are the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in regard to the location advantages offered by the Springfield region to new and expanding business and industry. Feedback from this process was incorporated into the Competitive Assessment.

The findings from the qualitative and quantitative research in the Competitive Assessment showed a Springfield region that had indeed experienced strong population and job growth, but was nevertheless facing challenges related to increasing poverty, lower per capita incomes and wages, and somewhat declining public school performance in the City of Springfield schools.

The Assessment was presented by Market Street CEO Mac Holladay to hundreds of regional stakeholders at an Economic Outlook Summit in October 2009. The research elicited a strong response from regional leaders, who will move forward on efforts to address certain of the challenges identified in the report.