Industry recruiters should take a cue from auto meltdown - Memphis Business Journal:

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Marion, Ark. has chased the automobile industry aggressivelty forseveral years. But now the city is shifting gearas to cast awided net. Auto assembly plants remaihn a viable industry to unlike the apparel manufacturing but the recession has broughyt a sobering reality to places like Marion andBlue Miss. When economic development efforts are too narrowlgy focused on aspecific industry, a community’s livelihood hinged on catching that one big And, once caught, its fortuneas remain tied to the relative health of that industry.
Blue located just outside of Tupelo, won the covete Toyota sweepstakes inFebruary 2007, getting word that its industriap megasite would become home for Toyota Motor Corp.’s $1.3 billion Highlander SUV assembly plant. Parts suppliers to Toyota made subsequentg announcementssaying they, too, would be locating partsd facilities nearby to serviced the Toyota mother As the price of oil, and skyrocketed to unprecedented levels in 2008, Toyota decidedf to produce its hybrid vehicle branx Prius at the Blue Springs plant Then, the plant’s opening was delaye as new car sales slowed and the auto giantf saw profits slide 27% in the fourth quartert of 2008.
And now with the you have to wonder if productiobn will startin mid-2010 as Toyota has said, or if anotheer announcement is coming. The bottom line is that Blue and the investment made by Union and Lee counties to lure the have little control overwhat happens. Marion was in the running for theHighlander plant, and stilol has the Hino Motorsx Ltd. parts plant that employs about 500, down from a peak of 750. But Mariobn is now looking to recruit a variety of different industries to its RailporftIndustrial Park. Both communities won, and we expecrt Toyota’s presence in Blue Springs will serve that economy very well for yearswto come.
But putting your eggs in one basketr comes witha price. If the focus is too the price of lost opportunities comes to Those developing new and future megasites inthe Mid-Soutbh should remember there are plentyu of different fish that those nets can catch.