It's a reality check for business and community leaders in Albany and Dougherty County.
They're taking a hard look at the areas strengths and weaknesses as they devise a 5-year-plan with the Economic Development Commission to try to attract more jobs to Albany.
In the 1970's, Miller Brewing was thirsty for water. They found it in our aquifers and set up shop in Albany. That brought jobs. Good jobs. The same can be said of P&G and the Marine Base…
Enter the recession. Cooper Tire shut down. And no big manufacturer has taken its place. These folks want to see a change.
"We're not trying to hide away from our weaknesses. There's a lot of things we can approve on," said Albany Dougherty EDC President Ted Clem. "This kind of helps us organize those thoughts and for the framework of a strategic plan," he said.
A strategic 5-year-plan that will come together in a brainstorming effort.
It brought political and business leaders Wednesday from Albany and Dougherty County to Chehaw.
They put themselves in the shoes of a CEO asking the question - Why would you want to locate a company here and why you wouldn't?
"We have a lot to sell here in Albany from our transportation, to the abundance of natural resources, to the proximity to the agriculture community. They are all things we can consider assets," said Clem.
But the cons, or concerns, addressed by the group focused on issues like education and social division.
"We need to figure out a way to come together as one community with common goals and move forward. That's not an easy process," said Clem.
But it's one that's being acknowledged.
With companies like Caterpillar and KIA moving to Georgia, to get a company like that here, each positive and each negative is marked with a dot. Those dots represent the strategy.
"We can see the negatives, and they are real. But we forget about the positives. Sometimes we don't count our own blessings. And we have a lot more good things to talk about to an industry and a company," said Dougherty County Commission Chairman Jeff Sinyard.
Just this week, Fed-Ex purchased a 61,000 square foot building in Albany for a ground distribution center. That alone will create more than 2 dozen jobs.
The hope is that strategy sessions like this will bring more industry like that to a region in desperate need of economic development.
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