Meridian and Mississippi State University have long had a working relationship, with the city hosting the university’s satellite campuses downtown and in College Park. Now that bond is set to grow stronger as the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation launches two new programs to put the university’s insight and research to work bringing economic development to Meridian.
During the EMBDC annual meeting Tuesday at the MSU Riley Center, Board Chairman Larkin Kennedy announced that eight EMBDC member businesses would receive custom business plans courtesy of MBA students at MSU’s College of Business.
Jeffery Rupp, director of outreach for MSU’s College of Business, said students spend a semester gathering data, conducting market research and developing a comprehensive business plan for their client business.
“Each client gets an applied research program that is built and designed specifically for them,” he said. “So they’re all customized.”
The reports and recommendations aren’t a cure all, Rupp said, but it does give business owners a plan and recommendations that incorporate more than 100 hours of applied research into their specific business to review and use to help their business succeed.
Normally, Rupp said, client businesses pay a $2,500 fee to participate in the program. This year, however, he said eight EMBDC member businesses had been selected for the program free of charge.
“We’ll start in January and be done by the end of April,” he said.
In addition to partnering with the MSU College of Business, Kennedy said EMBDC has also been selected to host a pilot program through Mississippi State’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center.
NSPARC Executive Director Steven Grice said the pilot program is a new approach toward economic development. The new program, Mississippi Business Intelligence Research, would give Meridian an opportunity to target industries that were a good fit for the community.
“Our strong suit at NSPARC is taking data from almost any source and really managing it and doing things with it to turn it into information,” he said. “That’s something that everybody can use to try and solve whatever problems they have.”
Using data on existing businesses, workforce training and other metrics, Grice said the pilot program would find companies that local city and county leadership could reach out to. Instead of marketing Meridian in an effort to catch developers’ eyes, he said the program would help identify industries that were already a good fit.
“We’re excited to pilot that kind of research here in Meridian,” he said.
Beginning in January, MBIR staff will take up residence in the EMBDC building on Front Street and begin the pilot program. While the initial program will focus on Meridian and Lauderdale County, Grice said he could see the MBIR program working to drive economic development in communities across the state.