IMPACT 20/20 is a group of senior executives and elected officials who came together in the fall of 2008 to explore the possibility of developing a collective action plan for the economy of Northwest Minnesota. Participants included seven of the region’s top business people, three heads of higher education, two tribal chairs, two officers of utility cooperatives, two presidents of healthcare institutions, two directors of economic development commissions, two directors of workforce development organizations, one school superintendent, one director of a K-12 service cooperative, one president of a foundation, and one state commissioner.
This group of leaders has identified a purpose statement, core values, and three initiatives that require collective action to successfully lay the foundation for future economic prosperity in Northwest Minnesota.
IMPACT 20/20 is an influential group of Northwest Minnesota leaders
representing diverse interests and working together for the region’s economic success.
~Collaboration
~Excellence in Education
~Highly Talented Workforce
~Spirit of Entrepreneurship
~Innovation in Business Products and Processes
~Economic Opportunity for All Residents
~Protection of the Region’s Unique Assets
Broadband: Support installation of high-speed internet access throughout the region.
Education: Increase high school and college graduation rates.
Workforce: Enhance the leadership skills of the region’s first-line and mid-level managers.
Each of the three initiatives was adopted in response to the findings of a Regional Competitiveness Assessment that contained the results of extensive face-to-face interviews conducted with all 24 IMPACT 20/20 members by an independent consultant, as well as corroborating statistical data. The education initiative was designed to address member concern that our schools and colleges are not adequately preparing a shrinking labor force for the new knowledge-based economy. The workforce initiative was intended to satisfy the growing need of employers for mid-level managers with supervisory skills adequate to the 21st Century workplace. The infrastructure initiative was conceived as a technological answer to the issue of a shrinking labor force. (In other words, workforce needs was the unifying theme.)
Taskforces were subsequently formed around each initiative. Consisting of IMPACT 20/20 members and their support staff, as well as a number of outside advisors, the taskforces gathered as much baseline information as possible last summer and then used the data to formulate specific goals, benchmarks and actions for recommendation to IMPACT 20/20 in the fall. The resulting work plans each received a ringing endorsement from the Core Team. The taskforces then proceeded to refine their action strategies, further define leadership roles within each group, lay down timelines, and identify available resources both inside and outside IMPACT 20/20.
Implementation of the proposed initiatives began in early 2010, when IMPACT 20/20 and the taskforce groups took the next and final step along a “Continuum of Partnership Development” – from cooperating to truly collaborating in the execution of ambitious joint ventures whose impact will be region-wide.
As IMPACT 20/20 members have witnessed their year-long deliberations turn from thoughts to deeds, the prospect of achieving concrete results has generated a whole new level of enthusiasm and commitment. Among the businesses and organizations that have stepped up to the plate to invest time and resources in the initiatives are Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative, Alerus Financial, Border State Bank, Sjoberg Cable, the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council, the University of Minnesota Crookston, Bemidji State University, Northland Community and Technical College, Northwest Service Cooperative, Pine-to-Prairie Cooperative, Red Lake Public Schools, the Northwest Private Industry Council, Rural Minnesota CEP, the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the Northwest and Headwaters Regional Development Commissions, and the Northwest Minnesota Foundation.