The Cylinder Narrative

The Cylinder Narrative: Architecting a Regional Operating System for Economic Development, Innovation, and Prosperity

11150 Overbrook, Suite 200 Leawood, KS 66211

913.693.8282 enterprise-kc.com

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Table of Contents

1. A Little History ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

2. A New Vision for Economic Development: Architecting a Regional Operating System................................. 3

3. A Focus on the Enterprise ..................................................................................................................................... 4

4. Enterprise KC’s Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 5

5. EnterpriseKC’s Vision ............................................................................................................................................ 6

6. EnterpriseKC’s Mission.......................................................................................................................................... 6

7. EnterpriseKC’s Operating System Kernel – The Cylinder Model ...................................................................... 6

The Top View of the Cylinder Model.................................................................................................... 7

The Front View of the Cylinder Model ............................................................................................... 12

A Kernel Designed for Regional Prosperity ..................................................................................... 13

8. The Application Layer .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Internal Applications ........................................................................................................................... 14

External Applications .......................................................................................................................... 14

9. Measuring What Matters ............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

10. Rebooting Regional Prosperity with a New Economic Operating System ..................................................... 16

11. About EnterpriseKC .............................................................................................................................................. 18

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A Little History

Our Entrepreneurial Spirit

When you think of Kansas and Western Missouri as a regional economic engine, it’s easy to identify multiple entrepreneurial successes—and the enduring economic lift they’ve created. The list is long and storied: the Hall family, the Dunns, the Kauffmans, the Helzbergs, the Blochs, the Kochs, and others. Their enterprises not only created thousands of jobs but also seeded an innovation culture that became part of our region’s economic DNA. Cerner’s story exemplifies this dynamic. Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig, and Paul Gorup didn’t just grow a company— they engineered a scalable system for healthcare IT innovation. Prior to its sale to Oracle, Cerner employed tens of thousands, with billions in revenue flowing back into the region. However, Cerner’s impact was more than economic—it was and remains today viral. Through its associates Cerner’s DNA continues to propagate, seeding new ventures, strengthening existing firms, serving as a catalyst for enterprise growth. Yet despite this entrepreneurial legacy, our region has not realized its full potential. Many of our economic development support systems operate in silos. Talent development, enterprise growth and retention, research commercialization, and multi-stage capital formation have lacked the systemic integration needed for consistent and elevated regional prosperity. That is the challenge EnterpriseKC was built to address: not through isolated programs, but by architecting a scalable, data-driven, modular solution—an operating system for economic development and regional prosperity.

2. A New Vision for Economic Development: Architecting a Regional Operating System

As a 501(C)(3) business-led “think and do” tank EnterpriseKC was born from two interwoven insights. The first was the recognition that the common denominator for accelerated regional economic growth was the presence of enterprises – firms that derive 70% or more of their revenue from outside the region, thereby “importing” those dollars back to the region. These imported dollars function like high-bandwidth data packets that flow into the system, fueling economic lift across clusters, communities, and supply chains. The higher the concentration of enterprises, the greater the economic lift and the greater the regional prosperity.

The second recognition was that economic development, like computing, requires a system architecture—an integrated structure that orchestrates resources, optimizes processes, and enables scalable, repeatable results. What the Kansas and Western Missouri region lacked was not talent, ideas, or institutions—but a systematic, scalable, and measurable approach to align them. That systematic approach is what EnterpriseKC calls its Operating System for Economic Development , with EKC’s Cylinder Model at its core. The Cylinder Model serves as the operating system’s kernel—the core engine that executes strategic functions across all industry clusters.

The Cylinder Model leverages Cerner’s proven vision-to-value (V 2 ) formula which acts as our programming logic, where V ISION + M ISSION + S TRATEGY + P EOPLE + S TRUCTURE + P ROCESS + T OOL s = A CTIONS that lead to RESULTS. As the operating system kernel the Cylinder Model defines eight (8) strategic “Pillars” — each focused on a specific aspect of what is necessary for accelerated enterprise growth and regional prosperity. The Pillars are activated through internal and external “applications” that serve as user-facing tools to implement and scale measurable, results-oriented actions. Enterprise growth within any given industry cluster is dramatically accelerated by leveraging the various business-defined applications within the operating system. This structure ensures every part of the system works together, like threads in a high-performance computer processor, toward a single outcome: regional prosperity for all.

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This is not traditional economic development. This is economic development as a deliberate, collaborative, engineered system— strategy is data-driven, where structure follows strategy, and results are measurable and repeatable.

EKC’s Cylinder Model is not simply a metaphor—it is the operating system’s architectural blueprint for the region.

A Focus on the Enterprise

EnterpriseKC shares the widely held belief that the most effective way to drive regional economic growth is to grow clusters of enterprises . Clusters are simply groups of similar companies in a defined geographic area. Clusters share common markets, technologies, and workforce skill needs, which are often linked by buyer-seller relationships —similar to how a suite of software applications share a common operating system and common infrastructure.

As enterprises grow, regional businesses also grow. Every Cerner, every Koch Industries, every Euronet, every Hallmark creates the need for more accountants, more lawyers, more restaurant workers, more bankers, more healthcare workers – more businesses! By managing these clusters through the Cylinder Kernel, EnterpriseKC can:

• Coordinate targeted workforce strategies based on industry-defined specifications.

• Drive innovation and commercialization through shared infrastructure.

• Facilitate collaboration across clusters and across institutions.

• Optimize resources and policies for maximum ROI.

Each cluster’s development is part of a coordinated and collaborative orchestration, ensuring alignment, interoperability, and compounding impact.

The Power of the Enterprise on Economic Development

Just as an operating system increases productivity and performance across devices, EKC’s operating system for economic development works to increase the economic output of the entire region. Using a data science model inspired by economist Enrico Moretti ( Local Multipliers . American Economic Review , May 2010), EnterpriseKC measures the first order (direct) and second order (indirect) economic impact of enterprises in the region:

• Direct impacts include local employment, payroll, and capital investments.

• Indirect impacts include job creation in supply chains, service sectors, and community infrastructure.

Using Moretti’s model EKC worked with data scientists to create an algorithm that quantifies the economic lift an enterprise has on the regional economy. Inputs to the algorithm include revenue, local employment, total local payroll, average salary, and the ratio of skilled versus unskilled workers at a given enterprise. The output is an estimate of the new local jobs created outside of the enterprise due to the presence of the enterprise in the local economy. In addition, the model projects the spending impact from the enterprise’s local employment base on things like housing, transportation, healthcare, entertainment, clothing, and other items purchased from businesses within the region.

The following chart illustrates the economic impact of two enterprises in the region: Garmin and Honeywell FMT.

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Garmin’s Impact

Garmin an additional $450 million to the regional economy on an annual basis . provides

Honeywell FMT’s Impact

Honeywell provides another $1.1 billion to the regional economy on an annual basis.

Just as an operating system is designed to optimize the performance of its applications, EnterpriseKC’s Cylinder Model and broader operating system are engineered to support enterprise success—at scale, with precision, and with measurable and repeatable returns. The economic lift Garmin, Honeywell FMT, and other enterprises provide directly impacts the regional tax base. It directly impacts the housing market. It directly impacts the local car dealerships, the bars and restaurants, the local banks and financial planners, the barber shops and styling salons. It directly impacts the charitable giving and the level of volunteerism. By architecting the system around the needs of its highest-value users—enterprises that import capital and fuel job creation—EKC ensures that every component of the OS contributes to the goal of sustained and inclusive regional prosperity.

Enterprise KC’s Purpose

To maximize regional prosperity for all by creating an economic development operating system that accelerates enterprise growth, innovation, and high-value, high-opportunity jobs through business-led, cluster-centric, results-oriented strategies and programs.

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EnterpriseKC’s Vision

By definition, a vision statement is simply a vivid description of a future state. EnterpriseKC’s vision for the region is… Imagine a region powered by an operating system for economic development — one where enterprise attraction, accelerated growth, solution-based innovation, and high value job creation are all orchestrated through data-driven platforms and business-led, results-oriented strategies and programs.

Imagine Kansas and Western Missouri as a globally recognized region where:

• Enterprises thrive because they are supported by precision tools, talent supply chains customized to their needs, and targeted strategies engineered through intelligence — not intuition. • Clusters scale through an ecosystem integrated by design that coordinates investment in workforce-ready talent, solutions-based innovation, and state-of-the-art infrastructure.

• People prosper because opportunity is built into the operating system — not left to chance.

EnterpriseKC’s Mission

A mission statement is an actionable and achievable extension of the vision statement. The mission of EnterpriseKC is: To architect, build, and deploy a next-generation, data-driven operating system for regional economic development — a scalable system of strategies, platforms, and programs that attract and grow enterprises, accelerate innovation and commercialization velocity, and create customized talent supply chains supported by real-world learning platforms that ensure industry has the right talent, with the right skills and attributes , at the right time, to maximize growth.

We do this by:

• Leveraging a repeatable, systematic methodology across strategic clusters that aligns talent, innovation, infrastructure, and investment.

• Driving insight-to-impact through state-of-the-art data and analytics platforms.

• Building customized talent supply chains based on employer defined specifications that quickly connect employers and talent through precision-mapped pathways. • Creating immersive, hands-on learning environments where individuals build job-ready skills and experience through high-fidelity simulations. • Integrating and connecting the digital and physical infrastructure that powers enterprise growth, collaboration, and workforce development across the region.

EnterpriseKC’s Operating System Kernel – The Cylinder Model

If EnterpriseKC is the architect of a regional operating system for economic development, the Cylinder Model is the kernel—the core code that manages execution, optimizes system resources, and accelerates application performance across the regional economy. Where a computing kernel manages hardware, memory, processes, and drivers, the Cylinder kernel manages clusters, strategies, and programs, that lead to results. It creates order from complexity, and structure from chance. This model was designed for modularity, scalability, and performance—qualities every great operating system requires. The Cylinder Model was created as a three-dimensional construct to visualize the elements of the kernel. The image below on the left, depicts the top view of the Cylinder and identifies eight (8) strategies or “Pillars” for any

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given cluster, as well as a governance structure to support those strategies. The Cylinder is architected around the challenge of: how do we grow enterprises in the region, including the necessary workforce supply chain to scale cluster growth? The image on the right represents the front view of the Cylinder, a series of stacked clusters. To date, EnterpriseKC has identified twenty (20) clusters, eight (8) of which are believed to have a very high potential for growth in the region.

Top View of Cylinder

Front View of Cylinder

The Top View of the Cylinder Model

EnterpriseKC believes the most effective way to understand what is really taking place across the region is to talk directly to our customers – all the enterprises, gazelles and start-ups in a given cluster. By speaking directly, and regularly, with customers in each cluster, EnterpriseKC can collect more reliable, real-time data to answer a variety of strategic questions that maximize cluster growth and regional economic lift. The following Pillars represent strategies that are applicable to each cluster and any future clusters that may be added to the Cylinder Model.

7.1.1 Pillar 1 Opportunity Analysis, Vision Description & Branding

Strategic Goal: Build and promote a compelling story, ensuring the rest of the world understands the many assets and opportunities our region offers, positioning the region as a magnet for talent and enterprises. Strategic questions to answer : What is the overall economic situation in the Cluster? What is the opportunity in each cluster – how big could it be? What can we do to promote the cluster and the region to ensure it isn’t America’s “best kept secret”?

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Activities

Objectives and Key Results – Enterprise KC Will…

• Determine the size of each cluster by revenue and employee count. • Identify and document the unique assets of the cluster. • Determine the number of enterprise employees in the cluster and calculate the Regional Enterprise Employment Index (REEI) – the jobs tied to an enterprise. • Determine the revenue the companies in each cluster generate in total – the Regional Gross Enterprise Product (RGEP). • Define the potential of each cluster and manage it as an opportunity. • Develop a detailed description, vision, and brand identity for the cluster. • Create brand awareness and aggressively promote the region to attract both talent and high-growth enterprises and ensure it is no longer America’s “best kept secret.

7.1.2 Pillar 2: Workforce Demand

Strategic Goal: Codify enterprise-led workforce development, create the most agile, diverse, and experientially trained workforce in the country for high opportunity, high demand jobs, and accelerate connections between talent and demand for talent. Strategic questions to answer : What is the workforce taxonomy, including job categories for the cluster? How many employees, by role, does each enterprise need now? In 3 years? In 5 years? What knowledge, skills, attributes, and experiences do they need?

Activities

Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Define the enterprise workforce taxonomy, including roles / job categories, common attributes, and relevant market value assets for each cluster. • Define “well qualified”, “well-potentialed”, and “well suited” requirements by role. • Determine the current and future demand forecast by job category by cluster. • Develop a workforce framework for each cluster, including the knowledge, skills, attributes, and experiences needed for each role. • Develop assessments to identify high performance attributes by role and by cluster to increase the talent pool. • Accelerate connections between talent and the demand for talent across the region.

7.1.3 Pillar3: Workforce Supply Chain

Strategic Goal: Create customized talent supply chains TM based on industry defined specifications and work with the region’s talent production plants to increase the pool of workforce-ready talent to meet industry demand. Strategic questions to answer: How do we ensure we have the necessary talent supply chain to maximize cluster growth? How do we ensure the supply chain is producing the talent that meets the need of enterprises and businesses? How do we leverage a robust talent supply chain to attract companies to the region?

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Activities

Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Work with the regional workforce supply chains to map curricula to workforce taxonomy needs. • Work with the regional workforce supply chains to develop high demand, high opportunity market value assets and skills training across all talent development pathways. • Establish partnerships between the regional workforce supply chains and industry to create real world, experiential learning opportunities. • Determine the current supply chain production capacity by job category and by institution.

7.1.4 Pillar 4: Innovation & Commercialization Supply Chain

Strategic Goal: Substantially increase the volume and visibility of high opportunity research conducted among the R1 and R2 universities and enterprises in the region and ensure that the research is commercialized in the region.

Strategic questions to answer : What are the academic and industrial research dimensions we have today to support any given cluster? How do we more tightly couple regional economic development strategies with academic research strategies? How do we vastly increase the level of federal both classified and non- classified research? How do we increase the visibility of the research being across the region? How do we increase the rate of commercialization for the research done at area universities? Can we simplify / streamline IP licensing for research conducted at regional universities?

Activities

Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Identify and track the annual research dollars granted to regional universities by cluster and the startups per research dollar spent. • Identify strategies and programs to increase federal research dollars for universities and industry. • Work with universities to streamline and expedite the IP licensing and commercialization process. • Increase visibility of IP available for licensing across all research institutions in the region. • Identify and track the risk capital invested into regional startups and gazelles by investment stage. • Measure the startup and gazelle density and rate of change by cluster.

7.1.5 Pillar 5: Enterprise Growth

Strategic Goal: Accelerate economic development through industry-led initiatives that foster enterprise growth, new startups, and the targeted recruitment of new enterprises to the region. Strategic questions to answer : Who are the enterprises, gazelles and start-ups in each identified cluster and where are they located? Which enterprises, gazelles and start-ups are at risk in the region? How do we keep them here? Which enterprises, gazelles and start-ups have the best opportunity to grow? What do we do to ensure they grow here? How do we create proactive, targeted strategies around the recruitment of high impact, high opportunity enterprises?

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Activities Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Inventory the enterprises, gazelles, and start-ups in each cluster. • Analyze and inventory the cluster’s unique assets and the supplier eco-system. • Measure the enterprise density and rate of change by cluster • Interview and survey the enterprises, gazelles, and start-ups in each the cluster to understand the key limiting factors to growth. • Calculate and publish the Regional Gross Enterprise Product (RGEP) and the Regional Enterprise Employment Index (REEI) for each cluster. • Work with Cluster Brain Trusts (CBTs) and regional partners to identify and evaluate programs that target enterprise and cluster growth.

7.1.6 Pillar 6: Network Development & Alignment

Strategic Goal: Align policies, programs, and resources to support an ecosystem that ensures graduates remain here, enterprises grow here, the region becomes a magnet for enterprises and talent to relocate here. Strategic questions to answer : How do we ensure a cohesive regional strategy, including public-private-civic collaboration? How do we effectively breakdown the economic development silos? How do we ensure that our efforts and resources are aligned (clarity, alignment, and focus)? How do we move the region’s mindset from a donation model to an investment model? How do we ensure this region becomes a destination?

Activities Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Ensure programs and strategies have clarity, alignment and focus with state and county strategies. • Work with regional partners to align policies in support of enterprise growth, innovation commercialization, and experiential learning. • Analyze the current economic development resource allocation from an investment capital model. • Work with the EDCs to identify federal, state, and local resources for alignment with cluster goals. • Based on the strategies developed by the CBT, develop a business case for each and offer a prospectus with an ROI.

7.1.7 Pillar 7: Infrastructure & Finance (Investing For Strategic Growth)

Strategic Goal: Develop cluster-specific state-of-the-art infrastructure and attract outside capital sources to enhance and advance innovation tied to enterprise development, innovation, and workforce education. Strategic questions to answer : How do we create the necessary cluster-specific infrastructure necessary to establish a vibrant cluster ecosystem? How do we quantify the ROI for additional investment for research that is complementary to existing and future cluster strategies? How do we get more investment to transform the workforce supply chain into a nationally recognized regional asset? Where will startup funds and resources come from? Where will we find later-stage investment capital, so successful gazelles are the acquirer versus the acquired?

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Activities Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Determine the cluster-specific infrastructure needed for accelerated growth. • Evaluate existing tools for extensibility within the cluster. • Inventory existing assets by cluster and perform gap analysis. • Inventory capital sources by focus and stage invested. • Identify gaps and recommend new funding programs to accelerate cluster growth. • Develop a prospectus with an ROI for each of the key strategies and programs that require funding.

7.1.8 Pillar 8: Data Intelligence & Analytics

Strategic Goal: Map all enterprise, business, government, academic, and innovation assets into the EKC DataSphere to serve as a single source of truth supporting strategy and cluster-level decision support and measure and report results against objectives and return on investment. Strategic questions to answer: Will regional enterprises, gazelles and start-ups contribute anonymized revenue, workforce demand and other important data so we can answer questions such as, how many software engineers do we need in the next 5 years? Across clusters? How do we present the dimensions of the potential economic impact of these clusters?

Activities Objectives and Key Results – EnterpriseKC Will…

• Measure the Regional Gross Enterprise Product (RGEP) twice each year. • Measure the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Shift Share for each cluster, twice each year. • Measure the Regional Enterprise Employment Index (REEI) twice each year. • Analyze and publish the trends, variance, and cluster key performance indicators in the bi-annual Cluster Segment Analysis . • Measure the open jobs by role and by cluster and develop a common framework for the knowledge, skills, and abilities of each role.

7.1.9 Governance

As part of EnterpriseKC’s business-led, highly scalable approach, the top of the Cylinder also represents an operating structure based on human intelligence and dynamic governance and designed to deliver measurable and repeatable results – a Cluster Brain Trust (CBT) and a Governance & Thinking Task Force (TTF). In a modern operating system, the operating system kernel has multiple “schedulers” each responsible for orchestrating the deployment, scaling, coordination, and health monitoring of workloads and resources. In EKC’s Operating System, the CBT acts as a scheduler to optimize each cluster and the TTF performs a similar function but across all of EnterpriseKC operations.

Cluster Brain Trust

A CBT is a group of high-performing enterprise leaders who have a passion and the expertise to maximize the development of their cluster. They act as domain-specific orchestrators embedded within each cluster execution environment. In plain terms, the CBT is the leadership group for a given cluster that decides what work gets prioritized, how resources are allocated, and when initiatives are deployed — ensuring the cluster operates at peak performance.

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CBTs use Wayne Gretzky’s principle, “Skate to where the puck is going , not to where it is.” Within each cluster, the CBT will ask, “How is the cluster evolving?” “How are the workforce needs evolving?” “How is innovation impacting the cluster?” “How do we maximize the cluster’s growth?”

Governance & Thinking Task Force

Whereas the CBTs operate at the cluster level, the Governance and Thinking Task Force operates at the system level — analyzing, learning, adapting, and optimizing how the operating system components behave across all clusters, adjusting macro- strategy in response to new threats, opportunities, and trends. In plain terms, the TTF acts like the system-wide strategy team that monitors everything across all clusters, identifies emerging opportunities or issues, and recommends adjustments to keep the entire operating system aligned, efficient, and moving in the right direction.

The Thinking Task Force and Cluster Brain Trusts each serve as intelligent governance layers, ensuring the EKC Operating System remains adaptive, efficient, and aligned with its mission to grow enterprises and drive regional prosperity.

The Front View of the Cylinder Model

The front of the Cylinder Model displays 20 distinct industry clusters that collectively define the region’s most promising economic opportunities. These clusters are not arbitrary—they are the result of rigorous data analysis, extensive enterprise mapping, and an understanding of the region’s capacity for export-driven growth. In the framework of EnterpriseKC’s operating system for economic development, these clusters serve as execution environments— modular domains that provide the context, constraints, and requirements for deploying talent, capital, and innovation strategies leading to enterprise growth. The EKC operating system operates within cluster-specific environments, each with unique enterprise composition, workforce demands, innovation trajectories, and economic multipliers Legacy economic development approaches have too often treated industries monolithically — resulting in fragmented and ineffective growth strategies. EKC’s Cylinder Model, by contrast, uses cluster execution environments to:

• Isolate variables and tune strategies with precision.

• Tailor the deployment of system functions—workforce programs, innovation support, business incentives—to the real needs and dynamics of each cluster.

• Accelerate deployment of Pillar functions like workforce development or capital access and applications like the TalentSphere. • Benchmark results at the cluster level — just like OS monitoring tools measure CPU or memory usage by process group. By treating clusters as execution environments—not just categories — EnterpriseKC ensures that each Pillar strategy is context-aware, each program is fit-for-purpose, and the region’s economic OS runs at maximum efficiency — with enterprise growth, talent development, and innovation aligned and optimized in every environment. This also allows the system to operate concurrently across clusters,

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with each environment benefiting from shared infrastructure but receiving differentiated support—a hallmark of modern, high-performance operating systems.

7.2.1

Cluster Selection Criteria

EnterpriseKC has developed a comprehensive, data-driven evaluation process to determine whether system resources should be committed to growing the enterprises in a given cluster. The following list represents some of the cluster selection criteria that are considered: • Does the cluster offer high wage, high impact career opportunities for all? • What is the size and growth potential for the cluster? • Is there a critical mass of enterprises in the cluster? • Are there academic and enterprise assets that drive innovation? • To what extent will EnterpriseKC be able to influence growth within the cluster? To date, EnterpriseKC has identified twenty (20) clusters, of which eight (8) clusters are believed to have a very high potential for growth in the region.

7.2.2

“N-Dimensional” Clusters

It is important to note that while the front view of the cylinder represents a series of vertically stacked clusters, certain clusters have workforce roles and other attributes that extend beyond the individual cluster. Clusters with these characteristics are referred to as “n-dimensional” clusters. For example, the Financial Services cluster employs many accountants, financial analysts, and auditors. Yet, all other clusters have a need for accounting, financial analysis, and audit roles as well. Advanced Manufacturing is another “n-dimensional” cluster with roles that span multiple clusters. The two “n- dimensional” clusters with the largest role overlap are the Technology cluster and the Cybersecurity cluster. Software engineers, IT technicians and security engineers permeate every cluster. Therefore, workforce roles and forecasts must be viewed both within a given cluster as well as across multiple clusters in order to develop an accurate view of regional demand.

A Kernel Designed for Regional Prosperity

The Cylinder Model is not theoretical. It’s already operational within the Cybersecurity Cluster. Like a Linux or UNIX kernel, the Cylinder is designed for extensibility. It can scale across new regions, support emerging clusters (e.g., AI, microelectronics, critical materials), and integrate new applications as the ecosystem evolves.

The Cylinder Model enables the EKC Operating System to:

• Identify and prioritize high-impact clusters.

• Deploy strategic Pillars as repeatable system functions.

• Support internal and external modular applications.

• Integrate with infrastructure for real-time, data-driven execution.

This approach transforms economic development from an art into a programmable system—reliable, transparent, measurable, and updatable.

The Application Layer

In the EnterpriseKC economic development operating system, the Application Layer serves as a primary interface between strategy and action Just like in traditional computing, applications on an OS interpret user input and convert system capabilities into real-world functionality. The Application Layer turns strategic potential into measurable, impactful outcomes that grow enterprises, develop talent, and fuel innovation. EKC’s operating

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system for economic development is architected to work with internal applications built and maintained by EnterpriseKC as well as external applications built and operated by third party partners.

Internal Applications

EnterpriseKC has developed and deployed several strategic applications in support of the Pillar strategies. These include: The DataSphere – an aggregated information warehouse and analytics platform to track regional assets and help policy makers make more informed decisions. It tracks all primary and secondary enterprises and businesses across Kansas and Western Missouri by cluster. It tracks all academic assets across the region, including program offerings by cluster and graduation rates, and provides a near real time view of workforce demand by cluster and by role. The TalentSphere – a platform to create customized talent supply chains to accelerate connections between talent and demand for high-impact, high-opportunity jobs – cluster by cluster. The TalentSphere was architected to look at candidates from multiple dimensions. In addition to being well-qualified, is the candidate well-suited for the role and is the candidate well-potentialed? So, the TalentSphere includes a psychometrically valid tool to determine candidate fit and potential for a given role. The Heartland Cyber Range – a hands-on learning and simulation environment for real-world, experiential training. The platform allows users to simulate real-world networks and other IT systems to build and test skills against the latest threats without risk. Users work with the same tools used by professionals in live network infrastructure environments and gain experience with techniques required for high- demand jobs. Built on a secure, extensible architecture, the Range was designed to support clusters beyond cybersecurity; the learning management system and simulation engine can just as easily deliver content and lesson plans for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and robotics in the Advanced Manufacturing cluster or MRI training in the Digital Health and Healthcare cluster. The IdeaSphere – an innovation repository that consolidates IP disclosures from regional R1 and R2 universities, federal labs, and select private research organizations. The platform is an extension of the DataSphere and is designed as a public-facing interface to provide a consolidated view of regional innovation and to speed licensing and commercialization.

Ora Nexum – an edge-based high performance, highly secure private cloud network that hosts the DataSphere, TalentSphere, Heartland Cyber Range, and IdeaSphere. Ora Nexum ensures that anyone accessing EKC’s applications will have the same user experience in terms of speed, availability, and security regardless of where they reside geographically.

External Applications

In any well-designed computer operating system, third-party applications extend the system’s reach, translate core capabilities into specialized outcomes, and bring value to diverse user groups. In EnterpriseKC’s operating system for economic development, our partners are these mission-critical applications. Each has a unique function in the economic development ecosystem. EnterpriseKC’s operating system for economic development does not compete with or replicate these efforts— it enhances them, providing a stable, data-rich, interoperable environment in which they can perform at peak effectiveness. Specifically, the OS provides: • Strategic alignment across clusters and Pillars ensuring each partner application operates with common goals, definitions, and metrics, avoiding duplication and fragmentation.

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• Access to real-time data on workforce, enterprise performance, and innovation pipelines— enabling smarter targeting, messaging, and investment. • Plug-and-play compatibility with partner strategies and systems. Whether it’s a chamber rolling out a sector campaign, or a city launching a workforce program, EKC can provide the data, infrastructure, and coordination services to accelerate execution. Just as a computer operating system enables its applications to reach their full potential through stable infrastructure, system services, and data access, EnterpriseKC’s OS amplifies the work of our regional partners. It offers them the structure, intelligence, and interoperability needed to scale their impact. This model ensures that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts—and that our shared mission of economic growth, innovation, and prosperity can be achieved collaboratively, efficiently, and measurably.

Measuring What Matters

As a think and do tank focused on creating and deploying an economic development operating system and strategic applications in support of enterprise and innovation growth across the region, EnterpriseKC is accountable for results. In a traditional economic development context, results are often anecdotal, disconnected, or difficult to track across time and programs. In contrast, EnterpriseKC’s Operating System is designed to produce and report real-time, quantifiable outputs that show how well the operating system is allocating resources, scaling applications, and optimizing for growth across its execution environments (clusters). They are not just outcomes — they are signals of system health, alignment, and regional economic lift.

What We Measure – And Why

Each output is tied to a core subsystem of the EKC Operating System. Together, they define a feedback loop that powers continuous optimization and accountability across the ecosystem. EnterpriseKC’s Operating System is designed to optimize toward four high-leverage, interdependent performance outputs:

Net-New Primary Enterprises

These are the “active workloads” of our economic operating system — the companies that generate revenue from outside the region and import dollars into the local economy. o Metrics: Year-over-year increase in net-new primary enterprise count and average revenue growth of existing enterprises within priority clusters. o Why it matters: Enterprises are the most efficient engines of economic gain — producing high-value jobs, funding R&D, and multiplying regional income.

High-Value, High-Opportunity Jobs

The region’s “compute capacity” is its people. EKC focuses on talent roles that pay well, are in high demand, align with future- facing sectors and can be performed in communities of any size or geographic location.

o Metrics : Year-over-year growth in high-value job placements, average wage, and mobility pathways in high-opportunity roles across clusters. o Why it matters: These roles anchor the workforce in the innovation economy and create inclusive pathways to prosperity.

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Talent Supply Chain Performance

For the schools, colleges, bootcamps, and training centers across the region this is device driver-level optimization — ensuring that every training node (institution) produces a manufacturing plan with outputs that fully meet the industry spec, so the system avoids misalignment and inefficiency that slow enterprise growth. o Metrics: Growth in the number of graduates or completers whose skills, credentials, and work- based experience meet the job specifications of priority enterprise roles. o Why it matters: A high-functioning OS can only run if its workforce is fit-for-purpose. This metric ensures that training programs are not just active, but accurate — aligned to employer needs and real-world performance.

Commercialized Innovation

Research and development is our region’s innovation engine. But it is only beneficial when it turns into startups, products, or licensing revenue and becomes a multiplier. o Metrics: Increased number of federally funded applied research projects translated into marketable outputs, with measurable economic spillover effects. o Why it matters: When research, IP, and ideas move from lab to market, the region captures innovation value — not just academic reputational equity. This is the innovation-to-product pipeline that turns knowledge into enterprise. These four outputs aren’t just performance indicators — they are adaptive feedback signals the EKC Operating System uses to continuously improve, prioritize investment, adjust policy levers, and allocate services based on real-time economic need. Together, they validate that this system isn’t just functioning — but delivering compound, measurable, and equitable returns on investment.

10.

Rebooting Regional Prosperity with a New Economic Operating System

Decoding the formula for a dynamic, vibrant, and growing economy in this region has proven difficult. Despite many programs, many dollars, and the best intentions, we continue to fall further behind our peer cities and regions. If we persist in running the same legacy “programs” on a fragmented system, we’ll keep getting the same application errors. As the saying often attributed to Albert Einstein warns, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results.”

It’s time to upgrade the system.

EnterpriseKC offers a new approach. Something grounded in the time-tested discipline of listening to customers. Something architected not just as an initiative, but as a fully integrated, scalable, economic development operating system. Designed with the same precision of the underlying software that runs a high-performing computer, EnterpriseKC functions as an economic operating system for the region — one that supports existing applications, optimizes resources, coordinates strategies, and delivers measurable outcomes. With your help, EnterpriseKC will run a new stack of coordinated programs and services — like system-level functions — designed to accelerate enterprise development at every layer. This is not just a patch or reboot. It’s a complete system upgrade.

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Together, we will:

• Launch collaborative “applications” across each high-opportunity cluster, bringing together the brightest business minds to design and execute enterprise strategies with the interoperability of a well-integrated platform. • Query the system directly — talking to “end users” (enterprises) regularly to understand demand and the knowledge skills and attributes needed to fill that demand ensuring the system adapts in real-time to changing needs. • Continue to feed insights into the Datasphere — the region’s single source of economic truth — allowing the operating system to generate data-driven recommendations for policies and programs, like predictive analytics does in a smart operating system. • Publish real-time results, metrics, and KPIs — just like a system monitor — tracking enterprise growth, workforce dynamics, and innovation, commercialization and investment trends across clusters. • Drive a bold regional identity — installing a recognizable “interface” so the region isn’t America’s best- kept secret, but a visible, competitive economic destination for talent and enterprises that choose to locate and grow here. The Vision-to-Value algorithm is our programming logic. It always starts with vision—a vivid description of a better, higher-performing future state. And from that vision, EnterpriseKC, together with its partners, compiles, executes, and optimizes for value creation.

Now, imagine this region:

• Running a collaborative, unified system that persistently DRIVES enterprise development by identifying and scaling the highest-potential enterprises—regardless of stage, sector, or size. • Equipped with a decision engine that KNOWS, based on real-time data and demand modeling, where the economic lift will come from—and how to support it efficiently. • Elevating existing applications from area economic development partners, drawing from shared data pipelines, and system-level support, working together as orchestrated extensions of a unified system. This is economic development as deliberate system design—a strategic deployment of code, data, business- defined programs, and workforce-ready talent that generates returns like never before. Imagine the impact of building the next Cerner, Garmin, H&R Block, Koch Industries, Hallmark, Spirit Air, Seaboard, or JE Dunn — not by accident, but by system design. Imagine the region as the preferred environment to create economic engines around clusters such as advanced manufacturing, precision agriculture, plant and animal sciences, digital health, fintech-insurtech, and data analytics because the OS behind the economy is built to run them.

Imagine the possibilities.

With your help, this next-generation economic operating system and the returns it promises won’t just be imagined—it will be compiled, launched, and scaled into reality.

Let’s install the future and get to work.

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11.

About EnterpriseKC

EnterpriseKC is a business-led 501(c)(3) think-and-do tank dedicated creating an economic development operating system to accelerate enterprise growth, innovation, and the creation of high-value, high-opportunity jobs that drive measurable economic returns for Kansas and Western Missouri. Through data-driven insights, cluster-centric strategies, and a team of smart, creative, results-oriented associates, EKC systematically identifies, supports, and accelerates the growth of enterprises, innovation, and high value jobs that bring with them regional economic prosperity. By focusing on firms that drive dollars back into the region, EnterpriseKC is helping to build an economic future where regional enterprises thrive, communities prosper, and regional talent flourishes. For more information, please contact us at 1.913.728.0133 or visit our website at www.enterprise- kc.com.

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