Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois began an internal restructuring of the department in January when she stepped into her new role. She spoke about the restructuring to the Press Club last week.
“We knew we had to change how the organization’s culture works and how we were going to function,” she says.
LED’s new internal operating procedure is to align, integrate and maximize, which identifies the necessary partners, works with them on solutions and maximizes potential.
The department has also structured all of its internal departments. The business development, international commerce, and business expansion and retention departments were combined into one business development team, adding lead development.
Bourgeois created an innovation team to drive small businesses, entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and SSBCI.
“If Louisiana is going to be different, if we’re going to leapfrog our competitors, it is going to have to be done based on innovation,” Bourgeois says. “So we have an entire innovation vertical now, and all our small business work fits under that.”
Other aspects of the department’s new structure include:
Partnerships and engagement to foster relationships with the private sector and formalize processes to assist in the work.
Unified marketing and communications functions under a strategic communications umbrella to tell the story of opportunity in Louisiana.
Creating a state economic competitiveness team to focus on research and policy changes that can improve outcomes.
Combining all finance and operations functions, including incentive administration, into one department, overlaying a customer service focus.
Integrating FastStart into LED fully and maximizing the impact and reputation of the nationally recognized program.
