Economic development is the active transformation of the living environment in an organisation’s entire ecosystem. Stakeholders must be community participants, either from an economic, social, community or other perspective. Accordingly, the entire community must adopt a common development vision and employ a participative, inclusive and collaborative approach. This vision is achieved through collaborative efforts, cooperation or coopetition with neighbouring municipalities or key partners.

There are numerous issues in economic development.

Economic development focuses on creating new businesses, sustaining existing ones, optimising business growth, developing innovative sectors and attracting investments. Economic growth stagnation is a significant challenge. A lack of cohesion in local initiatives can lead to substantial business losses and community decline. This, in turn, poses challenges related to business succession and sustainability, closely linked to the labour shortage prevalent in Quebec and Canada.

Current challenges include an observable decentralisation of structures and a democratisation of economic development, indicating that economic development functions have been integrated at various levels. Workloads are distributed within the community, resulting in an increased number of stakeholders and causing a fragmentation effect. Consequently, the role of economic developer is evolving, along with changes in the competitive landscape.

Several major transformations are currently affecting the economic development landscape, including the rise of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, which have significant impacts on the role of developers.

For instance, the role of a network agent is gaining importance, primarily by connecting various ecosystem players to create links and synergies and by developing value-added partnerships. Developers position themselves at the centre of a project while remaining neutral and not being a direct participant; instead, they structure and advance projects.

Espace Stratégies’ economic development experience, which it has been acquiring since 2007, can help your organisation in various ways.

Economic development involves the entire ecosystem and we have built trusted relationships with numerous institutional stakeholders. Therefore, we can rely on the participation of all actors and partners, including economic development services, cities, regional county municipalities (RCMs), districts, municipalities, planning services, community-related organisations, local development centres (CLDs), commercial development corporations (CDCs) and more.

Espace Stratégies can train economic stakeholders and provide them with tools to optimise their contributions. We can also help organisations to establish partnership strategies and organise coordination activities to mobilise the community around a common vision.

Additionally, we can support your organisation in a strategic reflection to determine foundational directions and priorities to be implemented in the short, medium and long term. Thus, we can identify relevant and effective action strategies for any organisation or institution.