How do you evaluate the performance of a city?
For some people, they listen to what the city’s leaders are saying, from their campaign promises through to their inaugural address, all the way to their parting words on the last day in office. (After all, they’re the ones in charge, right?)
For some people, they talk with neighbors, friends, and residents of a city, about how they feel their needs are being met on a daily basis. Are their roads cleared in the winter? Are the schools living up to their standard? (After all, they’re the ones that chose to live, stay and work there, so they have the most at stake, right?)
And yes, there are even those who beileve the performance of a city is measured in Lombardi Trophies, Stanley Cups and World Series rings. (The less said about this school of thought, the better.)
For Jake Haulk and his team at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, performance, in the case of Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region, lies in the data. They pour through the metrics that define the citizens of the region and shape our daily lives. They assess this data, both in comparison to its past performance and in comparison to other similar-sized cities, to provide concrete, no-frills analysis of just how well the region is doing, from education to transportation to optimizing its budget, and everything in between.
But what do their findings tell us about us?
On Sunday, Jake checks in with Your American Story Radio, as he talks with Raja about the mission of the Allegheny Institute, their latest projects and areas of research, the trends they’re noticing about the data, and what individuals and businesses should do to take advantage of this data. You won’t want to miss this discussion!
-And speaking of guests telling us about ourselves…..
Individually, each of us knows our story. How old we are. Where we come from. What we do. Our living and spending habits. But taken as a collective, this data can be the absolute lifeblood of business.
The demographics of our lives serve as a critical tool for businesses to plan their strategy on how to market their product or service to us. And when it comes to demographic analysis in the United States, few if any experts have the pedigree of Peter Francese. Peter is the founder of American Demographics Magazine (now a part of Ad Age Magazine), and has spent decades not only gathering the data about our lives, but analyzing that data, synthesizing it, and presenting it in a way that holds a proverbial mirror to businesses and consumers about the way we think and act.
This Sunday, Peter joins Raja to discuss the study of demographics, how business can and should use demographic analysis to get the jump on their competition, and what the future holds for our economy, based on his current analysis of demographic trends.
(And if you’re an entrepreneur, you may want to pay close attention. There’s plenty of good stuff for you to start your next business!)
