Joe Raso starts Monday as president and CEO of the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC, a job where expectations are a mile high that he can help pump life into a listless local economy.
“actually, they should be high for everybody,” Raso said of those expectations. “They should be high for the mayor, should be high for my board, should be high for the staff, should be high for the county commissioners, the governor and others.
“this is a serious game that we’re involved in here,” he said of improving the local business climate and quality of life. “I believe wholeheartedly that our success is seeing the success of the community — seeing people employed, skilled, having a life-long learning environment around them, really enjoying living and working in the Colorado Springs region.”
Raso comes from Iowa City, Iowa, where he headed the regional Iowa City Area Economic Development Group for nearly 12 years. During that time, he gained a reputation as an innovative leader who mixed his business expertise with professional and people skills to lead an organization that added several thousand jobs during his tenure.
He was hired in March by the board of the Chamber and EDC, the organization formed by a merger of the city’s two leading business groups a month earlier. Chosen from of a field of 100 candidates after a national search, Raso will move from Iowa, where he was born and raised, graduated from the University of Northern Iowa and headed two other economic organizations before Iowa City. Raso follows Dave Csintyan, the former chamber president who had been interim head of the newly merged organization.
As his landscape changes from cornfields to mountains, Raso will face new challenges. He takes the reins of Colorado Springs’ top jobs-generating organization at a time when the local unemployment rate has been stuck for five months at 9 percent. Iowa City — bolstered by the presence of the University of Iowa — had a rate of 4.1 percent in March, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Raso will have to decide how to structure the Chamber and EDC, which the group’s board envisions as a more powerful voice to represent business interests.
He’ll work with a city government that’s undergone its own transformation — switching to a strong mayor system last year. Mayor Steve Bach, a veteran businessman who co-founded the old EDC in the early 1970s, has created his own Economic Vitality Division to help spur the economy,
And Raso will be part of a community that local leaders say is likely to be more politically, fiscally and socially conservative than what he might have been used to in Iowa City.
“There’s a learning curve, whether it’s Colorado Springs or any community, there’s a learning curve to understand it, understand the fabric of it, the culture of it,” said Steve Bartolin, president and CEO of the Broadmoor and a newcomer when he took over the hotel in 1991.
“That all comes in time,” Bartolin said. “You can’t learn that in one day or one week.”
But Raso will learn eventually, colleagues predict.
Scott Fisher, board chairman of the Iowa City Area Development Group, described Raso as energetic and enthusiastic.
“He’s been in economic development for a number of years,” Fisher said. “He knows his stuff very well, but he doesn’t hesitate to seek feedback from others and works well in partnership with other individuals and organizations..”
Raso also embraces change, Fisher said. For example, he said, the board of the Iowa City economic development group identified shortcomings in the organization and asked Raso to address them.
From that sprang two programs: One measured the skill set of potential employees so that they’d be ready to work for businesses, making it easier for employers to fill positions; the other program developed “shovel ready” sites for employers who needed to quickly construct a warehouse or office building — getting properties zoned or otherwise entitled in advance, but without bypassing local regulatory requirements.
“He’s not particularly set in his ways, so I think that will help him adapt quickly to his new environment,” Fisher said.
That environment will include an organization whose employees worked for years for groups with different missions: chamber staffers represented local businesses when it came to lobbying and educational programs, while EDC officials spent their time adding, creating and retaining jobs.
The business groups have done good things over the years, but a new organization needs to leverage the strengths of both, said Pam Shockley-Zalabak, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
“where do you see the strengths, the opportunities?” she said. “How do you pull together staffs that intend to work very well together, but have not been a staff? in other words, how do you make it one organization, versus a merged chamber and EDC?”
Raso will be expected to work with the board to develop a new strategic vision for the merged organization..Part of that vision will include broader measurements of the area’s economic health, said Doug Quimby, a developer and Chamber and EDC board chairman. in the past, the EDC emphasized numbers of jobs added, their wages and whether those jobs were in targeted industries, he said.
But the community needs to know the overall growth rate of the economy, whether it’s keeping pace with the population and how it compares to the rest of the state, among other information, Quimby said. the Chamber and EDC also needs to measure the quality of the workforce and how it stacks up with other markets, he said.
That fits what Raso did in Iowa City; the economic development group there detailed the area’s economic growth and assembled demographic data in a report available to employers. Want to know the area’s public school enrollment, per capita income or even the average commuting time for employees? It’s in the report.
“How do people make good decisions without good data?” Raso asked of employers. “I think it’s our responsibility to provide good data on our market.”
Being new to town could be a plus for Raso, some say; outsiders can look at the community with fresh eyes and make tough decisions — devoid of community influences or sentiment, said the Broadmoor’s Bartolin. when he came to town, Bartolin closed a hotel ski run and the aging World Arena; both were local favorites, but were financial black holes.
“I’m sure those decisions alienated some,” Bartolin said. “but for the long-term sustainability of the Broadmoor, those were the right decisions.”
Having a good relationship with the mayor also will be important, several people say.
Bach, who said he came away impressed after a meeting with Raso, doesn’t see a conflict between his Economic Vitality Division and the Chamber and EDC.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendous partnership,” Bach said. “our job is economic vitality, not economic development, and to me there’s a difference. Economic vitality has to do with business climate. our vision is for Colorado Springs to be the most business and citizen friendly city in this country.”
Raso, meanwhile, has shown he has the personality and political acumen to get along with government leaders, Quimby said.
“It’s one of the reasons we selected him,” he said.
When Raso arrives, he’ll see deep divisions in the City Council, said Robert Loevy, a retired Colorado College political science professor. some council members believe government can take steps to improve the economy, while other council members want government to have a limited role, Loevy said.yet, that split could lead to an alliance between Raso and Bach, Loevy said. as a strong mayor, Bach’s visibility and leadership responsibilities put him in the best position to bring together disparate factions to improve the economy, Loevy said.
Raso also will have to bridge gaps in the community, which make him and Bach natural allies, he said.
If there’s another challenge, it could be to adjust to the Springs, which could be akin to moving here from Boulder, Loevy said.
Colorado Springs has its own set of strongly held values, and it’s important to understand them, Shockley-Zalabak said. if changes in economic development policies need to be made, the Chamber and EDC must respect those values, she said.
That won’t be difficult, Quimby said. Raso, who spent time talking with people in restaurants and coffee shops in addition to his formal interview, has values that “are in sync with our community,” as are his ideas about economic vitality, Quimby said. Raso took the job after concluding the Springs was a good fit, he added.
“He’s not an ideologue, he’s a pragmatist and he’s got principals and values,” Quimby said. “He understands the community very well.”—Contact Rich Laden: 636-0228 Twitter @richladenFacebook Rich Laden
RASO ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Joe Raso spent nearly 12 years as president of the Iowa City Area Economic Development Group, and previously served as head of two other economic organizations in that state. On Monday, he takes over as president and CEO of the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC, the organization that’s the result of a merger between the city’s two leading business groups. some of his thoughts on economic development:• Workforce development — having a skilled labor force that can meet the needs of employers — is paramount. Whether it’s a Colorado Springs company or one from halfway around the world considering a local investment, businesses want a community to provide information about the availability, affordability and capability of its workforce.• Recruitment of new employers and encouragement of entrepreneurial efforts are key components. but addressing the needs and problems of existing businesses also is crucial; about 70 percent of job creation occurs through existing companies.“if I’m a company from California or new York or London looking to come into the market, I’d probably want to understand how they’re treating their own,” he said. “we need to make sure we’re focused on our existing industry base.”• the numbers of jobs added, the capital investment on the part of employers, business relocations and expansions are all important measurements of economic development success. but creating an environment that promotes innovation and entrepreneurial development — assisting young people and young companies — is critical, too.“all too often, what we see in economic development is, people want to focus on the score. but what they need to do is, they need to focus on who’s my team? What are the plays we’re running? What’s the strategy we have? . …when the opportunity arrives, are we ready to take advantage because we have the right tools in place?” • Providing employers with demographic data they need to understand a community is another key. Raso once met with an executive from a Boston financial firm and was touting Iowa City’s quality of life. “I have a saying,” the executive replied. “in God we trust. Everybody else provide data.”• Partnerships with local governments, the state and even the federal government, along with other business, community and civic groups, must be a major part of economic development efforts.• while the new Chamber and EDC is the product of a merger of two business groups, the new organization will have a single mindset.“We’re going to have a business development culture…First and foremost, my hope is within a short period of time, they’re (community members) going to be very pleased that we’re out there working our tails off to grow business and industry in Colorado Springs.”
— RICH LADEN, THE GAZETTE
