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October 7, 2010Terrebonne Economic Development Authority (TEDA) had a challenge of describing its big picture objective in very few words. Three words, to be exact.
“Grow the Economy.” A tag line significantly pared down from the organization’s previous mission statement, which read: Strengthening Terrebonne’s economic base through business retention, expansion, and growth.
“The new mission statement is very clear as to what we do,” TEDA Marketing Director Michelle Edwards said of the new moniker.
A 14-person volunteer board created TEDA’s new mission statement during the Sept. 13 annual retreat.
“Our board goes into retreat a minimum of once a year to better guide the organization,” TEDA CEO Mike Ferdinand said. “Part of our strategic plan was to review our mission statement and to update it because it was a bit long. The recommendation is for all mission statements to be very concise in what you’re supposed to be doing.”
Ferdinand also was advised the best mission statements are eight words or less.
“What it comes down to is, if you look at our previous mission statement and the one before that, they both look at growing the economy and all aspects of that,” he said.
TEDA can, according to a press release, guide businesses through loan applications, help them obtain low-interest financing, assist in BP claims, get hurricane re-entry badges and more.
“Over the past six years, TEDA accomplishments can be seen in the growth of small and large local businesses alike,” TEDA Chairman Matthew Armand said in the release. “While attracting new companies to Terrebonne Parish is part of our mission, our track record of expanding existing businesses speaks for itself – that is where we are placing an even greater emphasis.”
Ferdinand added TEDA intends to move forward regardless of the consequences surrounding the oil spill.
“Regardless of the events and the consequences around the oil spill, the organization has reached a certain maturity level in its sixth year, and it was appropriate to revisit this outside of the current situation,” he said. “The current issues made it even more important, but we would have still reviewed and amended [the mission statement] appropriately.”
To keep the organization moving forward with its revamped mission, a staff retreat took place on Oct. 4, where five full-time TEDA staff members got together to discuss strategies on how to implement the new statement.
