Strategic Plan

In 2018, Fourth Economy facilitated a strategic planning process to clarify how Conexus, with its first new leader in a decade, could best support advanced manufacturing and logistics through technology adoption initiatives and ongoing industry engagement. The resulting plan called for a complete pivot of the organization to focus on manufacturers' readiness for Industry 4.0 and being a catalyst of the need to adopt new technologies in the AML sector. The plan implementation was successful and attracted significant state and philanthropic support to expand programming, including the Manufacturing Readiness Grants program. As of 2025, an investment of $80 million in the Manufacturing Readiness Grants program has leveraged $1.1 billion in private investments to support 772 technology adoption projects.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Assessment

In 2019, Fourth Economy led an assessment of the manufacturing-related innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The assessment identified several gaps that are holding back start-up and scale-up manufacturers. This work guided the development of additional programming and resources in partnership with the state's economic development agency.

Workforce Analysis

In 2021, Fourth Economy conducted a comprehensive analysis of the manufacturing workforce to uncover opportunities to skill up workers to succeed in the advanced manufacturing industry. We worked directly with the Governor’s Workforce Development Cabinet to align needs found in the analysis with statewide career and technical education initiatives.

Strategic Visioning

In 2023, as Conexus neared the end of the 2019 strategic plan life cycle, Fourth Economy facilitated a stakeholder and partner engagement to ensure Conexus is prepared to meet critical needs over the next decade. Our work identified areas within workforce development, technology adoption, innovation, energy demand, and electrification to increase productivity and GDP growth for advanced manufacturing and logistics firms.