Who Moved My Smokestack?

About the Book

Globalization has changed the way we all do business and has impacted most folks employment in some manner. This continued pressure for more productivity and lower costs will continue to put pressure on America´s cities to rebuild their competitive business climates in order to remain viable in the 21st century. Many people have seen their version of the American Dream dry up like a creek bed in the desert during a drought and many Main Street American small businesses are being forced to close. This dire situation is quickly creating the American Nightmare of a new paradigm where we are not better off than our parents and the hope for our children is almost as bleak if we do not take decisive action to turn things around. This book gives the reader examples of how to become a survivalist and thrive during this economic tumultuous period of our nations transition into the Energy Century.

About the Author

Don A. Holbrook, Certified Economic Developer, (CEcD) Don Holbrook is a private practitioner involved in the major elements of site location analysis for major private sector investment projects. He specializes in public backed inducements and incentives that reduce the risk of new business investments. He has worked on over 100 projects representing over 1 billion dollars in public capital investment generating more than 50,000 jobs in his 17 years in the profession. Don has specialized in creating customized incentive policies to increase equity and reduce operational costs. He is considered a foremost thought leader on what is referred to as Hybridized Public Capital Investments. Don’s approach is simple in deals there must be equilibrium that makes both parties feel satisfactory in their support for key business decisions to investment capital. He negotiates agreements that establish reasonable parameters for such investments to occur and removes the red-tape in order to establish an acceptable deal. He believes the process of developing world class communities is a paradigm shift in their mindset and not determined by their geographic location or population rather by the quality and vision of their local leadership. He advocates a seven step process to achieve such world class community mindsets.