One year after a group of civic leaders launched Greater Spokane Incorporatedamid a mix of high expectations and some skepticismorganizers now say the job of combining the regions top two business groups has been difficult and mistakes were made, but theyre happy with the results so far.


The marriage of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Spokane Area Economic Development Council was one that observers at the time said never could have happened five or 10 years earlier, when collaboration between them was thought to be tepid at best. Yet, with the good working relationship shared by then chamber President Rich Hadley and EDC President Jon Eliassen, and the spark provided by a group of executives who served on both boards, organizers said the time was right for a merger.


I think it has gone very well, looking at where we were and where we wanted to be, and the measurable products we wanted, says Inland Northwest Health Services CEO Tom Fritz, who was chairman of the EDC at the time of the merger and is a board member of the new organization.


Hadley, who serves as president and CEO of the new organization, known as GSI for short, says the most difficult challenge of the merger has been meeting expectations.


There were a lot of words spoken at the launch about how different this organization was going to be, Hadley adds. We tried to do too much at one time.


The merger involved bringing together one organization that focused on economic development with another that focused mostly on work-force development and public policy. Each had its own budget, staff, and board leadership. A new organizational hierarchy had to be developed that ensured both groups missions continued and could be expanded by GSI.


Its going well, says Telect Inc. CEO Wayne Williams, who became GSIs board chairman in October.


Its been a hard thing; youre going to have some tension, he says, but adds, In my interviews with the senior staff of both units, its clear that everyone there believes that Spokane is the most important thing, not their job title or job responsibility.


Initially, GSIs new organizational chart called for having five vice presidents, one each for economic development, public policy, work-force development, business resources, and marketing and communications. It quickly filled the work-force development and business resources slots, with Amy Johnson and Joni Woodwell, respectively, but was slower in finding people for the other three roles. Then last summer, GSI announced that Jeff Severs, who had been president and CEO of Liberty Lake-based Isothermal Systems Research Inc., would join the organization as chief operating officer and would be responsible for both economic development and public policy. In December, GSI named former Spokane broadcast journalist Dawn Picken as director of marketing and communications.


One area I think was smart was being slow in filling the staff positions, says Fritz. Getting the right peoplethat was a key issue.


Adds Hadley, Im happy with the way everything turned out, but in retrospect, it would have been good to have a marketing VP right away. Maybe we could have done an image campaign right away.


Good communication, say Hadley and others involved with GSI, is the task you can never execute well enough when merging two organizations.


Weve come a long way, but weve got a long way to go, says Williams. Id say were about a five or six on a scale of one to 10 right now in making and improving relationships in this community.


He adds, Weve been effective at being more regional in approach, rather than downtownish or Liberty Lakeish and so forth.


One set of relationships GSI immediately pushed to cement were those with the investor-members of its two predecessor organizations. Even before GSIs official launch, organizers were out asking chamber and EDC members to commit to memberships in the new entity. Many of those members were investing in both the chamber and EDC, and they were asked to combine the amounts they were paying to each, plus add more.


The results of that campaign were very good, Hadley says, adding that he could think of only three past members that chose not to commit to the newly formed GSI.


Says Williams, Thats the big test for this year. Will people think were doing the right things with their money?


Today, GSI has about 1,500 members, and their financial commitments make up about 54 percent of the revenues in the organizations current $3.9 million budget. Grants and other public money now make up about a third of GSIs revenue, and the remainder comes from events and publications.


Before the merger, the chambers annual budget was roughly $2 million, and the EDCs was about $1.2 million, for a combined about $3.2 million. The additional about $700,000 in GSIs budget is possible due to increased investments by members and more money from state grants.


At the time of the merger, the EDC and chamber had a combined about 28 employees. Today, GSI has 29 employees, with three additional positions currently vacant. It also has six interns on staff.


GSI has made clear from the start that the combined organization is intended to be larger and to provide more programs and initiatives than its two predecessors combined. It hopes within the next two years to boost its budget to $5 million by bringing in additional grants and contracts and more donations from members.


Active in first year


While coping with the logistics of a merger, GSI still had several accomplishments in its first year, Hadley and others say. Among them:


It researched and published a report called Vitals, which benchmarks the Spokane area against 11 peer communities by comparing 20 economic, social, and environmental indicators.


It launched a Career Awareness Campaign intended to promote the availability of high-demand jobs to K-12 teachers and students here.


Its Procurement Technical Assistance Center, which helps companies land government contracts signed up 50 additional businesses for the program.


It launched a program called Home-Based Business Connection, which includes a monthly networking forum for home-based business owners. It also launched a similar support group for CEOs, called CEO Exchange, as well as an Intern Academy and an Emerging Professionals program to help retain talent here.


It developed a new Web site to promote the combined organizations programs. The decidedly trendy site includes an animation that features Williams audibly coaxing users to click on the sites various links, and an invitation to view GSIs new Acceleration Reports on YouTube, which are updates on GSIs activities.


Its Ideation idea-gathering campaign has collected about 520 ideas on how to propel the region. GSI plans in May to introduce the 100 best ideas from that group at an event, and then to cull them down to 10 that could become GSI strategies for the future.


On the pure recruiting fronta primary focus of what had been the EDCthe new organization announced a handful of new companies to the area this past year, including ReferencePro, BlueRay Technologies Inc., Titan Spring, and Lighthouse for the Blind.


As of the end of the 2007, GSI was working 30 ranked recruitment leads, which are leads that the organization has the most confidence in, and a total of 102 overall leads.


I like the orientation we have that we help businesses expand, but yes, we do recruit as well, Hadley says.


Contact Paul Read at (509) 344-1262 or via e-mail at paulr@spokanejournal.com.