Focus on region to achieve success

An economic expert says cooperation is vital in the struggle for future growth.

By BETTY RIDGE

Forty years ago this summer, American astronauts became the first men to land on the moon, and return.

Their success was made possible by 400,000 people, 20,000 companies, and nearly a decade of hard work focused on achieving that goal.

Could this nation achieve a similar objective today?

It’s becoming increasingly more difficult, Bill Millett told people attending a regional economic summit Tuesday at Northeastern State University. Millett, founder and president of Scope View Strategic Advantage in Charlotte, N.C., delivered the summit’s keynote address. His firm has spearheaded economic and business development for corporations and communities.

This week’s summit, the first in a cooperative effort by NSU, the Cherokee Nation and SACC-EZ (Sequoyah, Adair and Cherokee County Empowerment Zone), focuses on “Giving Voice to Our Region.”

That’s a must in today’s economy, Millett said.

“In 2009, effective regionalism is not a competitive advantage; it is a competitive imperative,” he said.

Businesses make decisions not only on a local basis, but on a regional basis, and, increasingly, a global basis.

Years ago, a city seeking to attract a new business to town competed against a few other cities in the region, or perhaps in the nation, Today, it’s competing with cities around the world — and frequently, those cities are doing a better job of courting, Millett said. Other countries have an increasingly more educated workforce and other attractions for a company.

“It’s not just northeastern Oklahoma against the rest of Oklahoma, or the southwest area,” Millett said. “It’s you against the world. How do you compete?”

He said America is being beaten, on a knowledge standpoint, by many other parts of the world. Americans can no longer say, “We’re Americans, we’re here, make way for us and let us through.”

A regional economic approach is vital, Millett said.

“Can you come together as a people? Can you muster the educational resources, can you compile the data?” he said.

Northeastern Oklahoma already has a number of regional entities in place, he noted. The challenge is having those regional organizations work together to ensure growth.

“Look around the room. How many people do you know? How many people do you have to introduce yourself to? The more introductions, the less regionalism,” Millett said.

The audience consisted of local government leaders, people in the economic field, educators, business leaders and others. When Millett asked if any librarians were present, Jan Bryant, of the Muskogee Public Library, raised her hand.

Millett said he considers a good library the equivalent of an MBA in the quality of a community. Preparing leaders begins at birth, he said, and the library is a powerful resource.

America is no longer No. 1 in having an educated workforce. Knowledge and infrastructure will determine the future.

“Places that may have been OK 10 years ago, may have thrived 20 years ago, look like this today,” Millett said, showing a photo of a crash during a NASCAR race.

The top countries in the race are teaching people how to think collaboratively, he said.

Companies look at many factors, with the educational level high among them, in deciding where to locate. They consider the percentage of high school and college graduates in a city, a county, the region.

“Northeastern Oklahoma doesn’t knock anybody’s socks off in that regard. I can tell you, for companies you want to have right now, you don’t make the cut,” Millett said.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said that Americans’ performance, on all educational levels, is dropping off when compared to the rest of the world.

One place where Oklahoma does excel — and this should be a selling point, more promoted than it is, Millett said — is early childhood education. Oklahoma ranks first in the number of 4-year-olds in pre-kindergarten programs. Companies want to know not only what type of workforce they can expect now, but 15 or 20 years down the road.

“The knowledge infrastructure is not kindergarten through university, it’s birth to the workplace,” he said.

Today, Americans comprise only 5.8 percent of the world’s population.

“We don’t have resources to waste,” Millett said. “We can’t afford 30 percent of us not graduating from high school.”

He said China will “nail us” because the country has the numbers and the motivation to do it.

But America has its success stories. Millett pointed to two examples. Six counties in South Carolina have cooperated to attract the highest percentage of foreign investment in any comparable place in the country, including a new BMW plant. And four counties in New Mexico have pooled their resources to form a strong entrepreneurial network, developing new businesses and business people.

Communities must recognize and sell their assets, but they must also recognize their liabilities and move to correct them, Millett said.

“Don’t say, ‘We’ve got a good workforce.’ Everybody says that. Don’t say, ‘We’ve got a great place to live.’ Everybody says that. Be ready to show that to me, prove it to me,” Millett said.

His last example was a picture of Benjamin Franklin, with his famed remark to the other signers of the Declaration of Independence that they could all hang together, or they would hang separately.

“What we’re talking about here in the next two days is a declaration of interdependence. If you don’t hang together, you will decline separately,” Millett said.