We’ve all heard the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none.” Depending on the context, it can be a compliment or a critique. In the world of economic development, this phrase often carries a positive connotation, highlighting the profession’s essential role in fostering prosperity for local communities. However, the multifaceted nature of this work sometimes leads to the unfair perception of being a “master of none.” Let’s clear up this misconception: being a generalist in economic development is not just beneficial — it’s crucial. It stands as one of the most impactful missions within any community thanks to its visionary scope and influence on a community’s foundational success metrics.
At its heart, economic development aims to spur growth by retaining, expanding, and attracting diverse businesses, thereby creating widespread economic prosperity and quality jobs. Economic developers must understand the complex drivers behind business location decisions. Whether dealing with a Startup or a Fortune 500 company, the site selection process requires a broad perspective that spans multiple fields and involves various professional stakeholders. This means economic developers must integrate diverse needs within their communities, understanding how different municipal departments and community assets can work together to facilitate business success. Essentially, economic developers are required to be the subject matter experts on being generalists, and their ability to be these connectors is what drives broad-based economic prosperity.
Consider the relationship between economic developers and municipal governments. Whether they operate within a public-private partnership or a government agency, successful economic development organizations must collaborate closely with departments like Building, Community Planning, and Public Works. Each department has its specialized functions — inspecting buildings, reviewing site plans, maintaining infrastructure — but economic developers act as the bridge among them. They ensure that Public Works provides the necessary infrastructure for commercial growth, Community Planning offers a clear path to land entitlement, and the Building department streamlines permitting processes. To be sure, all of these departments should be cross-functional and see the bigger picture beyond their departments, but ultimately their primary scope of work involves the work within their domains. Economic developers, by the necessity of its scope, operate interdepartmentally.
This interdepartmental collaboration is crucial. Economic developers don’t need to know building codes as intimately as inspectors, nor do they need to design utility schematics. Instead, they need a broad understanding of how these elements fit together to support the overarching goal of economic prosperity and commercial growth. By facilitating cooperation and ensuring all parts of the municipal machinery work in harmony, economic developers serve as the linchpins of a thriving local economy. Their ability to be the jack of all trades is what makes them an expert.
A valuable trait of a good leader is vision — the ability to see the big picture and connect various silos into a cohesive unit. A good CEO, for instance, may not be an expert at producing the company’s product but understands how different departments fit together to achieve the company’s goals. This is the essence of visionary leadership. Having a clear vision for a community or organization necessarily requires pulling oneself out of the day-to-day activities of a specific role or expertise. It’s the ability to thread various components together and leverage strengths to achieve an overarching goal. The work of economic developers requires them to break down barriers and leverage various components to achieve economic growth. Thus, economic developers are natural community leaders, equipped to see the big picture and drive towards it.
The overarching goal of policymakers and public agencies should be to enhance the quality of life for their residents. This should transcend particular departments or fields of expertise…except for one. Metrics for quality of life include those directly tied to economic well-being such as the unemployment rate, labor force participation, median wage, poverty rate, and other financial indicators clearly linked to economic development efforts. Yet quality of life is also measured by such things as health and safety, arts and entertainment, and quality infrastructure. Despite being seemingly unrelated, these metrics all hinge on a strong economic foundation.
A 2023 Oxford Economics study, for instance, found that major business attraction projects led to an 8% drop in violent crime in the communities where they were located. Financial stability, as shown by a National Institute of Health study, is a key driver of positive health and well-being, independent of other socioeconomic factors. Cultural assets, like art museums, tend to open in higher-income neighborhoods, and infrastructure investments are directly tied to revenues from commercial and industrial property taxes. In short, economic development is at the heart of a community’s foundational success and requires an overarching strategy that is equally foundational to a community’s purpose.
Political leaders, city and county administrations, the public, and — most importantly — economic developers themselves, should constantly be reminded of the importance of economic development as a jack of all trades. The expertise of being a generalist who sees the big picture is invaluable. So next time you hear “jack of all trades, master of none,” remember that in economic development, it’s precisely this broad expertise that makes them masters of one: economic development.
