Blueprint Birmingham and Beyond
More than five years after the Birmingham Business Alliance launched Blueprint Birmingham, the BBA is working towards a new strategic plan, called Blueprint 20/20. For more on this and other stories, WBHM’s Rachel Osier Lindley spoke to Nick Patterson, editor of the weekly newspaper WELD. Patterson joins WBHM most Thursdays during All Things Considered.
Brian Hilson, president and chief executive officer of the Birmingham Business Alliance, tells WELD:
We’ve developed a new strategic plan. We’ve talked generally about the plan in public meetings, but we have not released the whole plan and don’t plan to. We don’t want our competitors to know exactly what we are doing. However, we are glad to talk generally about what we are doing, but we won’t be doing that until the appropriate time.
I will tell you the new plan will be called Blueprint 20/20. It’s another five-year strategy. We’ve had significant success with Blueprint Birmingham, so naturally we are following a lot of that. With the new plan we’ve adopted a cluster approach to economic development instead of targeting industry sectors for recruitment purposes.
We’ve identified eight business clusters that are our strongest. The cluster approach was created by Harvard professor Michael Porter. Essentially it says if you build your strengths, such as workforce, around a business cluster, which is a group of related industries, chances of growing those are greater than if we target those individually.
President announces TrumpRx website for drugs, and pricing deal with Pfizer
The Trump administration says it is making deals with drug companies to lower prices U.S. consumers pay for medicines. But key details are missing on how the initiative would work.
Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown
Federal employees across the government reported seeing similar messages. Experts say the messages may violate ethics laws meant to keep partisan politics out of day-to-day governing.
A lawsuit tries to block the Trump administration’s efforts to merge personal data
A class action lawsuit argues that the administration's efforts to combine databases of personal information on Americans violates privacy laws and the Constitution.
Here’s what a shutdown means for Smithsonian museums, memorials and the zoo
History tells us visitors will likely find shuttered doors at major cultural institutions. But they will also find plenty of alternatives.
‘I can’t stop DJing,’ Mark Ronson says — never mind the back pain
Ronson's memoir, Night People, is a love letter to late-night 1990s New York City. Ronson would go on to produce music for Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and other pop superstars.
Pasta meals from Trader Joe’s and Walmart may be linked to a deadly listeria outbreak
The USDA says the precooked pasta products, sold at Trader Joe's and Walmart, could be connected to a nationwide listeria outbreak that has killed four people and sickened at least 20 others.