Are you Selling what Global Clients are Buying?
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Taimerica - a contraction of Taiwan and America - started as a global trading company.  We continue to maintain an active consulting practice in global logistics, trade and reverse investment.  If you're like most developers, you've witnessed a jump in global projects over the last five years.  The statistics paint the trends.  Ocean container movements into the U.S. grew nine percent in just the last 12 months.  Intermodal freight flows (truck freight shipped via railroad) have grown at an even brisker rate.  Understanding your strengths for global projects has become a critical need in most communities.

Taimerica just launched a new product - The Global Scan - to help developers market effectively in the mushrooming global marketplace.  Our friends at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, always at the cutting edge of E.D. innovations, were our first customer.  Our models evaluate your competitive position in global logistics and advise you of your advantages for attracting all kinds of distribution facilities and manufacturers with global operations.

It's hard to attract global customers - the fastest growing segment of today's E.D. market - when you don't know what to sell.  Taimerica can help you find your competitive niche.  Drop us an email and we'll call to discuss a Global Scan for your community.

Still Ignoring Technology?

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The evidence keeps mounting about what it takes to succeed in 21st century economic development.  Mark Schweitzer and Paul Bauer, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, just performed a landmark study of the Ohio economy that confirmed what Taimerica found in 2004 - patents per capita, more than a) the degree of offshoring, b) community tax rates, c) levels of educational or infrastructure spending -- explain the economic fortunes of Ohio's communities over the last 75 years (you can read a copy of our published report at www.taimerica.com/news&reports.html).  A Wall Street firm recently demonstrated that patents are among the best tools for forecasting future earnings of public companies.  Their patent method identified companies whose stock returns doubled the S&P and tripled the NASDAQ averages in 2006 (see the Jan. 8, 2007 BusinessWeek, p.79).  You can use this same data to identify which of your existing industries are most likely to thrive in the next decade or which companies worldwide to target because they are inventing the same things as the companies in your town.

Taimerica developed a patent database that lets communities - down to the county level - look at their inventive capacity and answer these kinds of questions.  Our data identifies the important inventors in your town, those that are growing in inventive capacity and we then profile your community's inventive capacity in each of 800 technologies tracked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  We also can help you target companies with the same types of R&D activity in the rest of the world, your best prospects for growing your technology sector.

The table below shows why this kind of long range assessment is important.  Many of the communities at the pinnacle of technology in 1975 are no longer on the list while newcomers, like San Jose, Boulder and Boise, have vaulted to the top.  What comparative advantage favored Boise and Boulder while diminishing the fortunes of Midland and Rochester?  This kind of question is central to a good technology strategy.

Changing Fortunes in Technology

Source: Taimerica database of U.S. patents

Our technology assessment serves as the foundation for initiatives built on comparative advantage, rather than on a cloning of Silicon Valley or Austin.  Technology centers like Huntsville, Alabama have used our assessment to help them identify technology opportunities.  You too can build a competitive technology program using the proprietary tools and techniques we've developed in 30 years of technology research.

Kolzow to Associate with Taimerica

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Dr. David Kolzow recently resigned from his position as Executive Director of the Tennessee Leadership Center in Nashville, Tennessee.  Kolzow and his firm, Team Kolzow, Inc. located in Franklin, TN in the Nashville region, will work jointly with Taimerica on a variety of consulting assignments.  Dr. Kolzow has over 30 years of experience in site selection and economic development consulting, having worked in almost every state in the nation and overseas.
                           
During his two years with the Tennessee Leadership Center (TLC), Dr. Kolzow fine-tuned the statewide Three-Star Program of strategic planning, training staff and local officials in effective strategic planning techniques.  In addition, TLC under his tenure assisted local economic development organizations in their organizational strategic plans, worked with rural communities in their economic diversification efforts, and provided assistance in tourism development planning.  Dr. Kolzow designed and conducted a number of workshops for TLC including a two-hour economic development module used by the Elected Officials Academy and the County Technical Assistance Service of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.  TLC also brought the first IEDC-certified Basic Economic Development Course to Tennessee in 2007, with a first-year enrollment of over 60 practitioners from Tennessee and other states.

"Dave's re-association with Taimerica greatly enhances our abilities in strategic planning and training.  We intend to broaden our range of services to capitalize on his distinctive skills", noted Ed Bee, Taimerica's President, upon announcing the alliance.  "We also intend to become the highest quality source of customized training for economic development professionals and volunteers".

What are your Priority Targets?  We Need your Input
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We at Taimerica Management Company are planning to launch a series of newsletters on specific industry targets, and we would like to know which industries you'd be interested in.  At the state level, top targets include niche manufacturing, aerospace, biotech and biomedical, tourism, logistics and distribution, wood products and advanced materials (including forest-related composites), and business services.  Please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=hDKVpYrYypxkysROnD7wgg_3d_3d and answer a few short questions.  Thanks!

We're Moving Soon!
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In the interest of providing better client services, we're relocating our office effective Sept. 3.  Please make note of our new contact information below.