Gilligan: Collaboration drives success for all of Southeast Missouri

Cape Girardeau County has grown by almost 8% over the last decade, and approximately 19% between 2000 to 2020, according to 2020 census data. Unfortunately, the growth of Cape Girardeau County doesn’t paint the full picture of how important the greater Southeast Missouri region is to the local economy.

Statistically, the region of Southeast Missouri is shrinking. Based on 2020 census data, it has shrunk by 3 to 5% depending on your definition of “our region.”

Whether your business is located in Cape Girardeau or Poplar Bluff, Perryville or New Madrid, the opportunity for success is strengthened by the ability to connect with the broader region for support.

For retail and service businesses, this may mean an expanded customer base to engage, which can make the difference between surviving and thriving. For larger employers, this may mean a stronger regional labor market to fill jobs.

These are just a few surface level reminders of how the region interacts on a daily basis for business and commerce. The greater challenge will be how we shift our focus from communities that view each other as competition, to communities of collaboration ready to take on the big challenges facing rural communities and Southeast Missouri.

To change the trajectory and improve our opportunity to succeed, we need to focus on three key steps to start on the right path.

Change our perspective from competition to collaboration

In April 2021, Carlisle Construction Materials announced a plan to invest $62 million and create 100 new jobs with a new production and manufacturing facility in Sikeston. Large industrial recruitment projects such as this are a huge win for the community that will host the facility, as well as the broader region and state of Missouri.

What should be a reason to celebrate across the greater Southeast Missouri region was met by some as a disappointment, because the plant was locating in one community over another. This thinking focuses on the tradition of competition and completely misses the opportunity presented to the entire region.

That labor force that will fill the 100 jobs created by the Carlisle facility in Sikeston will most likely come from the entire Southeast Missouri region, bringing new resources to several different communities.

Several families have already relocated to Southeast Missouri to work at the new facility, making their homes in Dexter, Sikeston, Cape Girardeau and other area cities. Health care, banking, retail and service businesses throughout the region will reap the benefits of the investment Carlisle is making and will continue to make for years to come.

Carlisle is now investing more than $100 million in their expansion project. They are using several local vendors from New Madrid to Cape Girardeau for help with building the plant and installing equipment. Transportation logistics is another area they invest in locally, with anywhere from 40 to 60 shipments per day. Continued partnerships with local and regional transportation companies will be critical to Carlisle’s long-term success.

Whether it is a new manufacturing facility in Sikeston, an expansion project in Dexter or Poplar Bluff, new development projects in downtown Perryville or expanded medical facilities in Cape Girardeau, every time a business chooses to make an investment in ANY Southeast Missouri community, our perspective must be one of celebration and support.

For the long-term success of our region, we have to become champions for each other and support growth for everyone.

Expand our partnerships

In April 2022, the team at Codefi in Cape Girardeau and the leaders of efactory in Springfield announced one of the largest business and workforce development networks in state history with the launch of the Southern Missouri Innovation Network, or Innovate SOMO.

This partnership of two of the state's leading innovation hubs to focus on digital workforce education and training, tech startup development and investment, and small business revitalization across 47 counties of southern Missouri is a leading example of how forming new alliances with strategic partners can benefit the broader region.

Since its launch just under a year ago, the Innovate SOMO initiative has attracted investment through competitive grant programs from several federal and state agencies totaling more than $5.5 million that will be directly invested in our future workforce and the companies that employ them. When fully implemented, these efforts are estimated to create more than 500 new jobs and 60 new businesses, which will generate an annual increase in earnings, business sales and tax revenue of more than $37 million.

Innovate SOMO is a blueprint of how regional communities and organizations can identify opportunities for success by leveraging the expertise, knowledge and resources that each partner brings to the table. Peer organizations with a common mission and focus have a foundation to build from, in an effort to develop strategies that are mutually beneficial to the organizations and the collective region.

These partnerships will be critical as we focus on tackling some of the most “wicked problems” (a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize) such as workforce, public safety, education and poverty.

Chambers of Commerce seem like ideal partners to forge regional partnerships when it comes to economic growth and development. These strong organizations, with hundreds of members in most of our larger communities throughout the region, have a common experience and interest to build from.

While each organization is unique in its makeup, mission and activity, chambers share the common theme of being a commerce/business focused organization, working to support the members and communities they serve. With a common focus on tackling issues around workforce and regional growth, chambers across Southeast Missouri can find greater success through partnership and collaboration.

Identify opportunities

Each community in our region has its own strengths and weaknesses. As individual communities, we often spend time focused on overcoming our weaknesses, instead of leveraging our areas of strength to improve overall quality of the region.

When we look at the broader region of Southeast Missouri, many of our communities have complementary strengths that can be a counterweight to another community's weaknesses. Partnerships can form around solutions to areas of weakness as a region drawing on greater resources and ideas.

We should ensure that each time we compete for a new or expanding business, a program or grant opportunity, or resources from our state and federal partners, that we focus on the overall benefit to the region. We can find greater success by working together and putting our best proposal forward, one that is the most competitive we can be as a region.

What is our regional story in 2030?

In just seven short years, we will participate in a decennial census. The story of our region will be framed, once again, for the next decade. Now is the opportunity for us to decide if the story will be one of stagnation and decline, or instead a collaborative region on the rise. This is our chance to showcase why Southeast Missouri is a region of growth and opportunity that everyone can love — just like we do.

Now is the time for collaboration.

Rob Gilligan is president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. He was named president of the chamber in March 2022. He has more than 20 years of experience in business and government relations, and previously served as the no. 2 executive for the Emporia, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce and director of the Ignite Emporia.