Why Some Communities Succeed, Why Some Fail--and What to Do About It

Brian Cole is a community and economic development professional with 27 years of experience in the field. Cole’s driving passion is to transform the way communities envision and enact their future. After establishing a community and economic development program in a rural community in the late 1980s, Cole was a regional development officer serving five rural counties. After four years serving as a county commission chairman, Cole operated a community and economic development consulting firm before establishing Building Communities, Inc. in 2009. Building Communities operationalizes the theories, tools and practices described in this book to offer a comprehensive, objective, expeditious, self-directed and action-oriented strategic planning process, which has been used by over 60 communities from coast to coast. Cole holds a Master of Business Administration for Business, Government and Not-for-Profit Businesses from Willamette University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oregon State University. This is Cole’s second book. He authored Building Communities: 25 Strategies to Advance America in 2009.