Pfizer Editorial
Note: This 'Other Voices' column was run 2/11/07 in the Ann Arbor News. We
urge our community to support the both the locally-owned businesses and the
nonprofits which are struggling in the wake of Pfizer's departure.
In the wake of Pfizer's Ann Arbor closing, I've been contemplating what type of community Washtenaw County should strive to be known as in the future. Do we want to be known as a community that neglects existing small and medium-size businesses because we are pursuing big corporations and encouraging risky start-ups? I don't believe we do.
We ended up in this conundrum because a noticeable part of our economy depended on one, publicly-traded company. As we move forward, we should make it a priority to NOT have this happen again, by strengthening our diverse, locally owned businesses that have an interest in staying in our community. As John Hieftje said, "This was a decision made in an East Coast office somewhere.'' This should be one of our lessons learned: No matter how good the jobs, or interested and committed the local leaders of big business divisions are, they don’t have control over whether a company stays in the area or not. We can't rely on outside business with no investment in our community's success to stay in our community and to make decisions that help both their business AND the community.
The good news is that there are many local businesses that do have control over their decisions, and have no intention of going anywhere if they can get the support and business they need to thrive. In times of crisis, many of our local business people do everything they can to be supportive of our community, and to hire as many people as they can.
Our area's leaders have proposed many great ideas, but none of them appear to focus on growing and supporting companies that already exist in our area. We are willing to extend the olive branch and significant funding to an out-of-state company and to start-ups, but not to existing companies who would like to be able to expand and hire Pfizer employees. These established businesses are not always able to get the loans they need to expand, or simply need technical assistance to grow. Most often, they are limited by our lack of support to them, while we focus on convincing big companies to locate here or entrepreneurs to form start-up companies.
I do believe a part of our strategy should be to help entrepreneurs who want to start businesses. However, many people aren’t interested in starting a business, or working at a start-up business. To be an economically strong community, we have to be known as a county and state where it is a good place to own and expand a business, not just to locate or start a business.
Neglecting the bedrock of our community - existing smaller, locally owned businesses - will not earn us this reputation. I have heard from a number of existing businesspeople who say to me, "What about my business? I've hired 6 new people a year for the last 10 years and would like to be able to hire even more – why am I not eligible for a tax abatement?" If you multiple these types of businesses times one hundred, you’ll find a stable, reliable method of economic growth without a risk of loosing 2,000-3,000 jobs all at once. Our county and state should be devoting resources to helping the businesses that would like to be able to absorb some of the talented people working at Pfizer. Our community should make a commitment to our existing businesses that we will do everything we can do to help them thrive.
Lisa Dugdale is an Ann Arbor resident and Executive Director of Think Local First, a nonprofit network which supports localizing our economy.
Published as an 'Other Voices' column in the Ann Arbor News on February 11th, 2007.
In the wake of Pfizer's Ann Arbor closing, I've been contemplating what type of community Washtenaw County should strive to be known as in the future. Do we want to be known as a community that neglects existing small and medium-size businesses because we are pursuing big corporations and encouraging risky start-ups? I don't believe we do.
We ended up in this conundrum because a noticeable part of our economy depended on one, publicly-traded company. As we move forward, we should make it a priority to NOT have this happen again, by strengthening our diverse, locally owned businesses that have an interest in staying in our community. As John Hieftje said, "This was a decision made in an East Coast office somewhere.'' This should be one of our lessons learned: No matter how good the jobs, or interested and committed the local leaders of big business divisions are, they don’t have control over whether a company stays in the area or not. We can't rely on outside business with no investment in our community's success to stay in our community and to make decisions that help both their business AND the community.
The good news is that there are many local businesses that do have control over their decisions, and have no intention of going anywhere if they can get the support and business they need to thrive. In times of crisis, many of our local business people do everything they can to be supportive of our community, and to hire as many people as they can.
Our area's leaders have proposed many great ideas, but none of them appear to focus on growing and supporting companies that already exist in our area. We are willing to extend the olive branch and significant funding to an out-of-state company and to start-ups, but not to existing companies who would like to be able to expand and hire Pfizer employees. These established businesses are not always able to get the loans they need to expand, or simply need technical assistance to grow. Most often, they are limited by our lack of support to them, while we focus on convincing big companies to locate here or entrepreneurs to form start-up companies.
I do believe a part of our strategy should be to help entrepreneurs who want to start businesses. However, many people aren’t interested in starting a business, or working at a start-up business. To be an economically strong community, we have to be known as a county and state where it is a good place to own and expand a business, not just to locate or start a business.
Neglecting the bedrock of our community - existing smaller, locally owned businesses - will not earn us this reputation. I have heard from a number of existing businesspeople who say to me, "What about my business? I've hired 6 new people a year for the last 10 years and would like to be able to hire even more – why am I not eligible for a tax abatement?" If you multiple these types of businesses times one hundred, you’ll find a stable, reliable method of economic growth without a risk of loosing 2,000-3,000 jobs all at once. Our county and state should be devoting resources to helping the businesses that would like to be able to absorb some of the talented people working at Pfizer. Our community should make a commitment to our existing businesses that we will do everything we can do to help them thrive.
Lisa Dugdale is an Ann Arbor resident and Executive Director of Think Local First, a nonprofit network which supports localizing our economy.
Published as an 'Other Voices' column in the Ann Arbor News on February 11th, 2007.
Last modified 2007-03-15 11:11 AM
