Finding strengths in the Flathead

Economic development chief sees great promise in valley progress

Fortifying a community's economic health is about being nimble enough for turn-on-a-dime responses when prospective businesses come calling.

It's about being proactive with other business recruitment. And it's about being far-sighted enough to spot the competition wooing those businesses elsewhere.

The new president and chief executive officer of Montana West Economic Development has a lifetime of training for all three.

"Economic development is hugely competitive. The world, as you know, is getting flatter by the day," Mike Strotheide said. "Our competition is not just the next state over. It's several countries over."

So to make the Flathead stand out on the increasingly level global economic playing field, the Montana West chief works to inventory local human capital and natural strengths, scope out the economic gaps that need to be closed, then look for the perfect wedding of new business and local character.

He knows what it takes to get noticed.

"We need better job creation, better resources, the best response. We need to be the best match for a company," Strotheide said. "We have to do things more efficiently and be better than our competitors."

Without that focus it's unlikely Montana West would have generated as much buzz as it did under Strotheide's predecessor, Liz Marchi. During her tenure, several small companies relocated to Flathead County and significant venture capital funding and gap financing were instituted.

Strotheide is all about focus, despite - or perhaps because of - a diverse professional life.

A foundation for an international perspective was laid in the young Strotheide as the son of a military man, living in several states and foreign countries before high school graduation.

He earned a B.A. in psychology from Minot State University in North Dakota, and was selected by Southern Business and Development Magazine as one of the top economic developers in the United States. Much of his professional life has been spent in Texas, North Dakota, Arkansas and Georgia.

In his career, he learned the inner workings of a Chamber of Commerce, nailed the finer points of the private stockbroker business and brought in financial backing for Concordia College, a four-year liberal arts college in Moorhead, Minn.

Two decades ago, he got into economic development work for city, state and regional organizations.

He's directed or worked with teams on a vast range of economic development initiatives over that time - relocating and supporting industries dealing with system integrators, aluminum truck bodies, chemicals, trusses and much more.

Those projects were responsible for $7 million invested in the local economies and 3,700 jobs created directly in those industries. Since then, all the ventures have grown and more spin-off jobs were created in peripheral industries.

To raise economies to new levels, Strotheide works with what he called the three-legged stool of job creation - bringing in new businesses, expanding existing businesses and supporting entrepreneurs who create new jobs.

He can't do it alone.

"My philosophy is the only way to get things done is collaboratively," he said.

That collaboration at Montana West, which covers Flathead County, reaches beyond his staff to the city, the neighboring cities and the entire county.

Immediately before moving to Kalispell, he was CEO for the city of Claremore's Industries and Economic Development Authority, just outside Tulsa, Okla.

Claremore's population is smaller than all of Flathead County's, Strotheide said, but the city's trade area and the associated population base outstrip Flathead County's.

He was responsible for Claremore's trade area where there is a high concentration of manufacturing, particularly in oil and metal fabrication industries, and oversaw operations at the city airport. Northeast Oklahoma's economy has a strong aviation mix, anchored by American Airlines' maintenance hub in Tulsa.

In the Flathead, small businesses play a more prominent role.

Business owners see an ebb and flow with availability of workers and other resources, but "we need to be the one that puts efforts into business attraction," Strotheide said. "A lot of others are doing the rest of the areas."

He counters trepidation over today's limited labor market here with suggestions for enterprises that might employ 15 or 20 people. An 850-person company "could not be supported in this labor market," he conceded.

But the Flathead is flush with highly skilled workers, he said, many holding master's degrees and working at jobs that don't fully utilize their qualifications, simply because they want to be here for the lifestyle.

That fact prompted Montana West's plans for a labor-force study this winter, gauging the skills out there and finding out how many workers would shift jobs for a better fit.

But the Flathead has its issues, too.

Workforce housing - apartments, condominiums and homes that the average worker can afford - is scarce and the solution is complex. That's outside Montana West's purview, but the authority is supporting groups chasing the solution.

The scarcity of land suited for manufacturing and light industry - caused by property prices and by the vast stretches of federal- and state-owned forests and other public land - is another knotty problem.

But Strotheide cited high-tech developments such as Old School Station south of Kalispell as promising. In Columbia Falls, Montana West has exercised its option to buy the industrial Park just north of Railroad Street and is negotiating with tenants.

"Internally, the organization is working on extending our reach," he said. The Flathead was a finalist for GE Commercial Finance, which just signed on to open its new operations center in Billings.

Software programming, upper-end manufacturing with robotic enhancements, telecommunications infrastructure and technology, value-added wood products such as flooring and doors, and niche manufacturers such as Semitool Inc. and Sonju Industrial offer the most promise for the Flathead now, he said.

And, he said, he'd like to encourage interest from "gazelle companies," the small, fast-growing companies in every genre that, because of flexibility offered by Internet commerce, are setting up shop just about anywhere their owners choose to live.

"I'm very optimistic for the future of this area," Strotheide said.

That future, he said, will be strongest with a wide spectrum of industries and technologies sinking their roots into the Flathead's healthy economic soil now.

"We can't plant seeds at a time when there's a crisis," he said. "We have to plant seeds now. There's a lot of diversity now, and we've got to focus on strengthening it."

It's crucial to bring native Montanans back to their home ground, he said, but college graduates heading off to start careers and families are not likely to return without solid proof that jobs and housing are waiting for them.

"That's a tough issue. There are a lot of pieces to that puzzle," he said.

In the meantime, second-home owners and retirees dominate the list of new arrivals, attracted by outstanding medical care, easy shopping opportunities, relatively uncongested roads and natural beauty.

A low-paying service sector dominates the job market but, Strotheide said, small and mid-sized business have been successful because of that service demand.

"The small business and big box both have their place. They're not mutually exclusive," he said. "I think people feel like we're all playing in the same sandbox.

"We've got the best of both worlds here - we've got people who are loyal and we've got the natural environment. We have a lot that people elsewhere envy."

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com