By Denis Campbell

This article also appears in the Fall ‘09 Edition of Cambria Magazine.

Timing is everything. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) waited until just before summer recess to release details of £700,000+ pounds of credit card expenditures by International Business Wales (IBW) for global trade. It exploded then died over summer break. Dylan Jones-Evans wrote in The Western Mail: “those who accuse some Assembly Members of playing politics with these departments could ultimately have a detrimental effect on business and our economy as a whole.” It was soon business as usual once again.

While there’s no smoking gun in the 4,500+ transaction spreadsheet, a pattern of cavalier disregard for the source of those funds was clear. Most items would not pass the Sheldon Schneider “look over his reading glasses” test. Shelley was my managing partner at Price Waterhouse. PW expense rules were quickly learned, especially ‘that look’ and closing line, “if I ever see anything like this again, I will fire you on the spot.” That is a test our “public servants” could learn.

What’s missing in IBW and WAG is a clear, focussed concentration on taxpayer ROI for development expenditures. Taking credit for every company that locates or expands in Wales is, pardon the pun, a bridge too far. What, specifically, do they point to as measurable success for millions of pounds spent year upon year?

In early September an article I wrote about the development group Cardiff and Co. made headlines and got me wondering about this developmental malaise. The article chided their CEO for pursuing a personal vendetta vs. answering why they didn’t invest in the HSBC 10K? They take credit for everything from St. Davids 2 to the Ryder Cup (onw wondered it they eventually will offer national side player suggestions for the Six Nations?).

The Welsh Development Agency (WDA) was assimilated into a deep but well-funded WAG abyss. What do these groups bring to Wales and is there a better model all parties could learn from if only they stopped justifying their existence?

Yes, there is.

In the mid-1980s, Miami, Florida and Dade County were gripped by riots, an explosive ethnic mix of black, white and Latinos, suspicious fires and police brutality. Miami Beach was a decrepit strip of land with a spectacular ocean view and dozens of nursing homes where the rich “parked” elderly family members to die. Downtown was where one ventured at high speed, never after dark, to catch a cruise ship. Brickell Avenue and Coral Gables were home to Central and South American banks that were more drug money laundering fronts than real banking institutions. Guns and violence were everywhere.

It was a period so grim the punch line of a popular local joke was: “it’s not so bad… What do you do in Miami? Me, I’m a tail-gunner on a bread truck.”

We were in deep trouble.

A group of business people recognised the depth of the crisis and lured Tom Davis from Ohio (he’d revitalised Cleveland and turned it from the city whose river had caught fire, to a business success story). Tom went from business to business in Miami asking for funding grants. I remember sitting in as he asked our bank for $50,000 a year. We thought he was smoking something funny.

When he walked out with that funding, we knew something special was beginning. Tom got us to believe in our community and a fledgling private/public partnership called The Beacon Council was forged to both save and transform the city and Dade County. Wales needs a Tom Davis.

• We went on trade junkets.
• We all paid our own way.
• We needed real targets and a reason to go in the first place.
• We worked our tails off when we were there.
• We got huge benefits and businesses committed.
• We worked with City and County government to build tax programmes, roads and abatements for new jobs.
• We grew our communities and everyone benefitted.

Tom had no staff, there were no political appointees or pre-promises made. He just demanded we all work hard and we all work together. He insisted there was no “I” in the word team, wanted us to produce quantifiable results, upset a number of people in power and… the results spoke for themselves:

• Miami Beach became THE global fashion trend setter.
• Stadiums were built for American football and basketball
• Miami Vice put the city on the TV map and opened-up motion picture and TV production facilities.
• 3,000 Citigroup jobs moved in from New York.
• American Airlines built a Latin American hub.
• Bayside Market opened to attract those speeding by to their cruise ships to stop and visit.
• The NBA and Major League baseball took notice awarding franchises…

And the list went on and on. $2.3 billion dollar of direct inbound investment and the group gave real assistance to some 690 businesses over 20+-years.

Now that’s not so bad.