over-embellishment and over-elaboration. On one plane there is the worth of
being able to log into a pattern data library (box 4.3). More pragmatic is the cre-
ation of computer loaded spreadsheets keyed into prospective development sites,
supplied from and tying back to all sectors. Levy (1990) puts much emphasis on
the updating, new entry and editing of information, playing down the time-
consuming and difficult-to-interpret graphics and fine-data tabulations, suggest-
ing a 40-item maximum set of listings – but in most instances a lesser 20-item
listing will prove adequate.
It behoves the would-be project-propagating agency to come to an under-
standing about the kind of economic development and resource conservancy pro-
jects local communities ‘want’ and ‘need’, and what planning information advises
about the vindication of those ‘wants’ and those ‘needs’. Is there a prevailing air
of enlightened self-interest? Is there a ‘co-active’ spirit? Is there a ‘reactive’ will-
ingness? Do sites exist or can they be produced? Is there a commitment to meet
the demand for the utilities needs of new and expanding enterprises? Are the risk
assessment and permitting processes facilitative? These are all important factors
because in the GATT and WTO context it is the openly explicit and permissively
helpful regional agency which is attractive to new business.
Levy also lends emphasis to what he depicts as the ‘sales operations’ and ‘out-
reach activities’ which both humanizes and politicizes the development process.
It is his view that ‘someone who is a great economist but a poor salesman is
not likely to make a good (within-agency) economic developer’... (linking with
a consequent observation that) ‘the community is a product the development
agency sells’. This is all part of a ‘hard business networked’ environment, to which
spreadsheets, data libraries and procedural understandings are essential.
It is only possible to achieve success through the propagation of development
projects if that operational procedure is bound into an effective agency. This aligns
with the way outreach operators are induced to articulate value-adding channels
for firms to expand or set up new branches, for bringing potential joint-venture
partners together, for convincing a developer that sites will be found and utilities
will be hooked up. The ‘human face’ of a development organization, a welcom-
ing ‘nothing is a problem’ working culture, and its facilitation with language and
protocol complexities, are the heart of successful agencies. Beware, in all this, of
‘promising’ what an agency may not be able to deliver, particularly with regard
to sites that do not exist or cannot be produced quickly, cash grants which cannot
be delivered, and utility hook-ups which are improbable. An ounce of person-
to-person facilitation is worth a pound of paper projections, which returns to
an acknowledgement of the significant accessory role of political figures, agency
personnel, and public relations.
Risk assessment and risk management
Risk assessment and its corollary risk management are ‘creatures of government’
(Gilpin 1995) concerned to mediate the mainly adverse outcomes (externalities)
Growth Pattern Management 139