Organization of Economic Development at Mizzou
The University of Missouri-Columbia has embraced its economic development mission with a comprehensive agenda that incorporates many and diverse activities that cluster to form seven functional areas that are broadly distributed across the entire MU organization.  The functional committees appointed in these areas are:  Quality of Life, Commercialization, MU as an Economic Enterprise, Human Resource Development, Economic Policy Development, Support for Existing Business, and Direct Support in Attracting Business. 

The broadly distributed activities in each functional area are integrated by a so-called Functional Committee.   The Functional Committee’s coordination and collaboration is promoted by joint grant-funded research, contract work for state and federal agencies, educational programs, and outreach to counties, municipalities, and families.

Work in these seven functional areas is integrated across the campus by the MU Economic Development Council, which consists of chairs of the functional committees, the Assistant to the Provost for Economic Development, and several other members appointed by the MU Chancellor and Provost.  Several members of the Council are from outside the University, assuring that campus-wide planning is informed about needs of external stakeholders and about opportunities they pose. 

The Council integrates activities in several ways.  First, it assures that faculty and staff in different units know of other units’ activities that are similar to their own, a prerequisite for their being integrated and becoming mutually supportive.  Second, the Council assures that the campus-wide agenda is coherent and has continuity necessary for MU to have significant impact.  Third, the Council assures that the economic development agenda is integrated with all other mission elements and operational thrusts. 

Taken together, the structure composed of the Functional Committees and the MU Economic Development Council facilitates articulation of university activities and resources with needs of state, county, and municipal governments, of the corporate sector, and of diverse stakeholders such as aspiring small business entrepreneurs. 

The integration of the myriad economic development activities at MU into a coherent and compelling agenda allows the University to better align its work with the activities of external organizations.  It is important to collaborate with or provide services for individual stakeholders.  It is quite another thing to assure that the University agenda is aligned as a whole with initiatives of governmental and business sectors. 

Finally, an MU Economic Development Cabinet works with both the University and the external stakeholders to assure that the main thrusts of MU’s agenda are positioned to best complement and enhance broader local, state, and regional economic development programs.  Membership in the Cabinet includes numerous government and business leaders, the Assistant to the Provost for Economic Development, and key high-level university administrators.