Fifth Wave Consulting operates at the intersection of research and strategy—helping organizations better understand their economies and act on that knowledge.
- Economic Impact & Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Needs Assessments & Demographic Research
- Forecasting & Economic Modeling
- Survey Design & Data Collection
- Data Visualization & Reporting
- Site Selection & Market Analysis
- Economic development strategy design
- Workforce attraction and retention innovation
- Strategic plans and policy development
- Housing and community development frameworks
- Legislative and campaign advisory
strategy includes
research includes:
We don’t just apply existing playbooks—we develop new ones. Our work is grounded in research, tested in practice, and designed to solve long-standing challenges in new ways.
If I offer up an answer, it is because I have arrived at that after considerable thought.
Coming from a government background, we understand what governments and government-adjacent organizations need when seeking out research and strategy.
Only ever having a handful of clients, meant to maximize the service that can be provided. If you are my client, you will receive as much attention as you might need. Exploring new ideas/frontiers in economic development. Love exploring theory and prescriptive ideals just as much as descriptive analysis of a community. Well-reasoned. Growing up a competitive HS debater, then needing to prove out my own new ideas to the Nebraska state government, has led me to proving my point, whether that’s through research/data, comparisons, etc.
Fifth Wave Consulting works differently in a few specific ways:
introduction to the five waves
A framework for how economies grow and adapt
These waves are shaped by things like the economic environment of that time and the political and social responses to economic development actions of the time. While these five waves overlap each other, Fifth Wave Consulting was created with the intent of emphasizing and promoting the most recent research and theory in economic development.
Economic development research has identified five “waves” of economic development.
wave one
first-wave
wave two
Business Retention and Expansion
wave three
Industrial Clusters and Changing Perspectives
wave four
SLED and Placemaking
wave five
Strategic Regional Development
