THE CEO INTERVIEW www.ceotodaymagazine.com 24 partnerships with local institutions, clean energy resources, and sustainability for future growth.” Anchored by innovative industries and a diverse economy, advanced manufacturing in the Triangle is growing six times faster than the national average, with 196 companies employing 13,000 people. As manufacturing shifts away from mass production techniques toward highly specialised, adaptive, and customisable production, our region is home to many of the technologies making this shift possible: IoT, data analytics, software development, autonomous systems and robotics. The Raleigh Metro is home to one of the world’s leading cleantech clusters. With a focus on sustainable and renewable technology, 1.9K Clean Technology companies call the region home and employ 27K. These companies are actively creating new technologies that support more sustainable growth and a cleaner, greener environment. Here, the primary focus is smart grid technologies, smart metering, and expanding renewable energy technologies. Through strategic partnerships spanning public, private, and academia, these companies are hard at work to reduce negative environmental impact. The Raleigh Metro has long been associated with innovation thanks to giants like Apple, IBM, Biogen, and Cisco in Research Triangle Park and more recently Red Hat, Citrix and Pendo in downtown Raleigh, but within the last few years, the region has emerged as a hotbed of entrepreneurship springing out of the local startup community. The region has born 2,500 startups, raising $2.773 billion in venture capital in 2020 alone. In fact, the Triangle’s startup ecosystem is valued at $9.7 billion. With the Raleigh Metro recently being named one of the most resilient tech hubs, it is safe to say that the startup scene will continue to drive innovation. Cindy Eckert is a self-made serial entrepreneur located in Raleigh. With a distinguished 25-year career in healthcare, Cindy has built and sold two businesses for more than $1.5 billion in the last 10 years alone. Cindy moved to the Raleigh Metro and calls it her home for a number of reasons. “If you are a female or diverse founder looking to build your business, there isn’t a better market in the country than Raleigh. We’re outpacing others when it comes to talent, earnings and ultimately exits,” she said. “While the secret has long been out that Raleigh is a great place to live, I think people are just discovering what a powerhouse ecosystem Raleigh has built to grow successful companies. If you want to hire high-performing talent who deliver better multiples than virtually anywhere other than Silicon Valley…welcome to Raleigh.” Addressing the Need for Talent The question on the tip of everyone’s tongue is, with so much growth occurring, how are you addressing the need for talent? Though the Raleigh Metro is routinely ranked one of the most educated populations in the country with nearly 50% of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher and over 100,000 students currently enrolled in the area’s colleges and universities, we are not resting on our laurels. The Raleigh Metro is home to 12 colleges and universities, including two Historically Black Colleges & Universities in downtown Raleigh, not to mention another HBCU in neighbouring Durham. Not only does the Raleigh Metro replenish our workforce annually, but we also have a high success rate of retaining graduates in the market. The academic institutions work closely with local economic developers and businesses to ensure course offerings align with industry needs and prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. Our highly educated workforce is one of many reasons so many businesses continue to choose the Raleigh Metro. In a mostly post-pandemic world, people have more choices than ever when it comes to where they live and work. And the “how” and “why” people make these decisions are changing. For the past 6 years, DCI, a leading place marketing firm, has conducted a “Talent Wars” study, surveying over 1,000 people from across the US aged 21-65 who have moved to a new location at least 100 miles away from the previous residence over that last 24 months. To answer the growing need for talent, Wake County Economic Development launched one of the very first national talent attraction initiatives in 2012. We gave the program a makeover, relaunching in 2022 to address the ever-changing talent attraction landscape. The findings of the Talent Wars report have helped to shape our strategy in a few key ways. WCED utilises a digital media advertising campaign focused on Facebook and Google Ads as well as the Work in the Triangle website because the top means for people to find information and complete research on a new location is internet research. The Work in the Triangle website uses a variety of videos and testimonials because the #3 way people discern on a location is “word of mouth”. The videos give a personal touch to the description. WCED leverages social media to tell stories of the region because 40% of respondents indicated that is how they gather information to make a relocation decision. The campaign is focused on 20 top US metros for two reasons. 1) Since most people are likely to relocate within the same US region metros such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Washington D.C. and other southeast cities are targeted. 2) Because the cost of living and quality of life are so important the campaign also targets higher-cost metros like New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia. The Raleigh Metro is taking a highly proactive approach to talent attraction, ensuring that we have both the homegrown pipeline and inbound talent migration necessary to meet the growing needs of our workforce.
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