Strategic plan commences under new Perry County EDA chief

Launching strategic plans are almost foundational for 21st century organizations, particularly when there is new leadership.

Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michael Doukeris, within 5 months of taking the helm of the world's beer behemoth — responsible for 25% of the industry's total revenue — began writing a 10-year strategic plan to guide the company.

Doukeris's thoughts are captured in December's Fortune magazine.

"While everybody is thinking short term, I was really thinking 10 years [ahead] and thinking, 'What are the small things consumers want to do today that will be very big a decade down the road?'"

Perry County

Crystal Jones

Crystal Jones became executive director of Perry County Economic Development Authority (EDA) in May.

Jones is a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, native, who earned her undergraduate degree at Southeast Missouri State University and a MBA from William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri.

True to the pattern, Jones's organization — including the county's eight-member EDA board — is beginning its own strategic planning process this week.

"We have hired a consultant, Rob O'Brien from the Joplin (Missouri) area, and he's going to walk us through some short-term goals. The mission and mandate of [Perry County] EDA is something we really have to define. In general, we work with expanding and relocating companies who want to consider Perryville or Perry County home," said Jones, who began her career in economic development a dozen years ago with Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission and has also logged employment time with her alma mater, in what used to be known as SEMO's Office of Economic and Business Engagement.

Region's benefits

From her perch in Perryville's Catalyst Center, a 5,000-square-foot small business incubator/co-working space at 508 N. Main St., Jones is quick to extoll the county's benefits for a company considering relocation or a startup operation:

• Ready access to Interstate 55 with desirable transportation routes
• Access to Illinois via Chester Bridge
• Vibrant downtown Perryville for shopping with locally owned restaurants, wineries and craft breweries nearby with few vacant buildings
• Excellent broadband coverage
• Workforce with strong work ethic
• Parks, lakes, creeks, trails

A phrase Jones uses multiple times is "very unique."

"We have very unique tourist attractions here that you won't find anywhere else," she said, noting in particular Perryville's American Tractor Museum, which debuted in 2020 next to the Catalyst Center.

"People have come from all over the U.S. to visit [the museum]," Jones noted, adding Missouri's National Veterans Memorial and Association of the Miraculous Medal, both in Perryville, also regularly attract out-of-county visitors.

"I consider Perry County to have a very unique quality of life, too, with a sense of place and atmosphere plus multiple amenities. For business and industry purposes, we're right in the center of everywhere with St. Louis and Memphis not that far away," Jones added.

Employers

Gilster Mary Lee, headquartered across the Mississippi River in nearby Chester, Illinois, is currently the county's largest employer, with a workforce of approximately 1,300 producing baking mix and cereals in Perryville.

Other major employers include TG Missouri, Buchheit, East Perry Lumber, Perry County Memorial Hospital, Perry County School District, West Star Aviation and Walmart.

Final thoughts

"My favorite aspect of Perry County is the collaborative spirit here," Jones said. "It's very refreshing to know we're all on the same page. The quality of life we enjoy here is just not possible without everybody working together. It isn't about who takes the credit in Perry County; it's about getting things done and that's what I've really liked."

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