You might remember Procrustes, the mythic innkeeper who offered rest to weary strangers on a miraculous bed that fit everyone. What Procrustes neglected to tell his guests was how the bed worked- as soon as the guest lay down, Procrustes stretched them on the rack if they were too short for the bed or chopped off their legs if they were too long.

For too many years Kansas City has made a Procrustean effort to sell itself on the national market. Often times we hire people from outside the area who have come to town with a variety of tried-and-true packages and attempted to stuff Kansas City into one or more of them, but the city never quite fits. We tend to repeat this process time and again, (in some industries for decades), until we find that our city has lost is competitive edge.

The Kansas City area is on the threshold of a great opportunity, but this opportunity will materialize only if we can engage leaders who understand the distinctive nature of the region and can better unify the interdependent interests that comprise it.

This is not necessarily easy. Unlike, say, Indianapolis, which is one city, the capital at that, in one county, in one state, with one very "community-minded" foundation that profusely supports it, Kansas City is a veritable jigsaw of competing interests. Our metro area comprises two states, five primary counties, many surrounding counties and lord knows how many cities and towns.

To pull all of this and us together into some coherent force requires exceptional leadership. The key to success here is that leaders know the area, understand its dynamics of our region and love this place.

When they sell the city, they have to do so not perfunctorily but with passion.

In this issue, for instance, we explore the Kansas City area as a national engineering mecca with more engineers per capita than any comparable city in the world. We also tell how Kansas City has quietly emerged as the sports architecture capital of the world, bar none. In this month's Banking and Finance Industry Outlook, readers learn of the inherent stability of the Midwest and the region's resistance to economic maelstroms.

Forget about jazz and barbecue or other limiting packages, the facts above and those found throughout Destination KC are the kind that define and unify the metro and should be understood by everyone involved in its marketing. Indeed, the area has the strength, the intellectual capital, and the infrastructure to reshape itself as the "ideal American city." All it lacks is the unity, and this necessary unity only comes through exceptional and cohesive leadership.

If we at Ingram's seem to care too much about Kansas City's success, it is because we are now the most serious locally owned media outlet with metro-wide influence. The reason we preach of the area's potential and create products like this edition and Destination KC derives from a genuine love for our home and a hope to make it better in the future. Unlike paid staff of some organizations, we drive this mission with a deep commitment to our community and are concerned when impediments are gratuitously placed in the path of progress, as they all too often are.

As a strategy, let us recommend one we call "competitive cohesion"--a strategy that recognizes the inherent competition for business among local communities and promotes it as a way to ensure responsive local government. The strategy also recognizes that the bistate divide has political dividends. Kansas City is the the most significant major American city, for instance, with two state governments and four U.S. senators actively and primarily working on our behalf.

As to cohesion, we recommend the creation of a non-political Greater Kansas City Area Development Coalition--an entity that is both entirely inclusive and authoritative, one that resolves disputes within the area and coordinates the presentation of the city without.

The 2002/2003 edition of Destination KC provides a good example of how a reasonably well supported effort can engage area communities in the creation of a tool to attract investment to the region. Destination KC is being strategically distributed throughout North America to site selectors and expansion-oriented business executives. Alas, the logical players don't always participate in projects like this--thus the critical need for the formation of a Greater Kansas City Area Development Coalition. We encourage organizations that benefit from investment in the region to get involved. We greatly appreciate the patrons who support our mission to help make Kansas City an ideal American city, and we encourage the logical players to get on board.

I'm curious of your thoughts,