Center for Economic Growth: The Capital Region’s best kept secret:
https://www.troyrecord.com/2024/04/2...tent=automated
"Most business owners know that if you need help or have questions, a great resource is your local or regional Chamber of Commerce. What a lot of Capital Region businesses don’t know, but should, is that there’s another resource that can provide invaluable assistance, especially in the manufacturing industry: The Center for Economic Growth.
Headquartered in Albany, the Center for Economic Growth, or CEG, is a nonprofit organization that acts as a resource for businesses in the Capital Region to innovate, grow, and succeed. They specialize in helping small-to-medium manufacturing businesses. CEG works in partnership with the Capital Region Chamber, sharing office space with it at 5 Computer Drive South.
The two organizations have a lot in common and provide many of the same services, so it’s not unusual for them to collaborate on helping Capital Region businesses find the resources they need for success. If a company is found to not be a good fit for the CEG, often the Capital Region Chamber will be a good match.
There are two sides to the CEG – attracting and retaining businesses in the Capital Region and helping manufacturing businesses get funding as the region’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).
The MEP operates under the umbrella of the Federal Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST), administrated in New York State by the Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). Every major region of New York State has an MEP hub, and CEG is the hub for the Capital Region, serving all eight of its counties. MEP members are mostly nonprofits and higher education institutes.
“The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is provided with federal funding with the sole mission of helping small and medium manufacturing companies to do better – that’s growing, being more productive, resolving workforce-related issues, innovate, and get access to tools that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to,” explained Carlos Flores, the CEG’s vice president of Business Development and Business Growth Solutions.
Flores says that one of the great things about being part of the MEP is that it provides access to all of the MEP hubs in the state. The CEG can network with any MEP member across the state to find resources that a local manufacturing company might need.
“Many, many of the things associated with manufacturing that a small or medium company will need, there’s potentially an answer, there’s potentially support, there’s potentially know-how within that NIST-MEP network,” Flores said. “It’s either part of who we are – we have an employee or professional or engineer who knows how to do it – or there’s another company somewhere else in New York state and they can help us.”
A large part of what CEG does for companies is helping them to operate more leanly, finding areas of waste in their operations and eliminating it. CEG calls this “operational excellence.” It saves companies money, and those savings can often be passed on to customers. Flores likes to say that made in America is great, but made efficiently in America is even better.
Flores hopes that CEG will have come to be known in the Capital Region by manufacturers as a trusted advisor and the resource of choice.
“We’re not just a consultant, though we do do some consultancy,” Flores explained. “We love when companies call us and we can help them with a very specific project. We sit down with the client and talk about new sales, new markets, investments, creating and retaining jobs, productivity. Everything we do needs to create economic impact with our clients. About half of what we do is in continuous improvement.”
CEG can also help clients qualify for grants, obtain certifications, scout for materials or suppliers, and get workers into the manufacturing pipeline through apprenticeship programs.
Flores says that workforce gaps are a very real problem in the manufacturing industry, as older generations retire and younger generations don’t fill those positions as quickly. The apprenticeships programs, run through the Department of Labor, are excellent ways to get young workers into the industry in well-paying jobs, while they are finishing their trade educations at the same time.
Another resource the CEG provides is “Knowledge at Noon,” a series of monthly webinars on specific topics about manufacturing operations, such as sustainability, global exporting, leadership, and even the utilization of artificial intelligence. Flores says that expanding a company’s institutional knowledge can be the key to its success.
“I think that if any of our clients are eager for continuous learning, they will embrace us,” Flores commented.
CEG’s work in the Capital Region so far has saved companies millions of dollars and created and retained hundreds of jobs.
“Companies should really consider including us kind of as another tool in their toolbox,” Flores said. “We could really be of help.”
To learn more about the CEG and the many services it offers, email Carlos Flores at
carlosf@ceg.org, or visit the CEG’s website at www.ceg.org."
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