Collaboration beginning to drive South Carolina’s economic development
By Bill Settlemyer
President and CEO, Setcom Media Inc.
Earlier this month, the Business Journal hosted the last of our 2006 Power Breakfast forums. The title of the forum was “Research in South Carolina: Coordination, collaboration and technology transfer between universities and businesses.”
A mouthful, to be sure, but thanks to our team of panelists from around the state, the forum lived up to its billing. The panelists were:
• Anthony (Tony) M. Boccanfuso, director of research and economic development for the University of South Carolina;
• Ian M. Forbes-Jones, venture capital development manager at the S.C. Department of Commerce;
• Andrew Hugine Jr., president of South Carolina State University;
• Mark S. Kindy, assistant provost for technology transfer and corporate relations at MUSC;
• Joseph W. Kolis, executive director for the Clemson University Research Foundation; and
• William (Bill) T. Mahoney, CEO of the South Carolina Research Authority.
Moving from talk to action
I’ve been a resident of South Carolina for more than a quarter of a century, and in my experience, there’s something happening now that’s unprecedented: A new collaborative model for pushing our economy forward via research and knowledge-based business development is emerging. And this time, it’s way more than talk; there’s action, from one end of the state to the other.
I’m going to try to give you a flavor of the mindset and strategies at work by sharing a few quotes from our panelists.
Tony Boccanfuso: “People talk about six degrees of separation. In South Carolina, it’s more like one degree. Anyone who wants to get in the game can do so. We are relatively connected across the state.”
Ian Forbes-Jones: “Areas like Route 128 near Boston and North Carolina’s Research Triangle offer options for other high tech jobs for workers who need to shift jobs (from one high tech company to another). We are starting to see that in our urban areas. We need a culture more open to risk-taking; more ‘serial entrepreneurship.’ We are starting to see this happen in South Carolina too. All the writing on the wall is looking fantastic.”
Bill Mahoney: “The CIO at Greenville’s health care system says the business model used to be ‘make or buy,’ but it’s becoming ‘make, buy or collaborate.’ If we collaborate in South Carolina, we are small enough to be nimble but strong enough to do good things. It’s no longer a zero-sum game.”
Mark Kindy: “We’ve got all the universities working together. (Greenwood-based biotech incubator) SCBIO, MUSC and Clemson are collaborating on projects, and I have appointments at all three research universities and the Greenwood facility. We also collaborate with South Carolina State University on brain/computer interface research.”
Andrew Hungine: “Our involvement (at South Carolina State University) is expanding daily with SCRA. Being located near the intersection of I-95 and I-26, we are working on projects involving transportation issues. We have a working relationship with the Savannah River Site and the group in Washington, D.C., responsible for SRS.”
Joe Kolis: “Chris Presemble is our V.P. for research and economic development (at Clemson). He takes that title very seriously, and his charge is to ‘make it happen!’ When state government created the endowed chairs program, along with other developments it created a ‘perfect storm’ for growth. Our time (in South Carolina) has come; the pieces are falling into place.”
Leadership happens
During the decade we’ve been publishing the Business Journal, I’ve been involved in many discussions about the need to strengthen business and civic leadership in the Charleston region. For a time, everyone fell back on the hope that one “great leader” would appear on the scene and lead everyone else in the right direction. But over time, it became obvious that wouldn’t happen. The only hope was for the evolution of collaborative leadership.
In 2001, I wrote about a new book claiming that the regions around the country making the greatest economic strides were succeeding due to the efforts of “civic entrepreneurs,” who came from all walks of life but shared common traits as people who:
• See opportunity in the new economy;
• Possess an entrepreneurial personality;
• Provide collaborative leadership to connect the economy and the community;
• Are motivated by broad, enlightened, long-term interests; and
• Work in teams, playing complementary roles.
If you benchmark those traits against the comments of our Power Breakfast panelists, you might well conclude that civic entrepreneurship is alive and growing in South Carolina. And in my view, you’d be right on the money. It really is a new day dawning, and if the momentum continues, good days are ahead for our state and our people.
Nuts, bolts and a new culture
I don’t want to leave the impression that our panelists were there just to cheerlead for economic growth. We heard a lot of basic “nuts and bolts” discussion about missing pieces in the state’s growth strategy. We need to attract more heavy duty venture capital firms to set up shop in South Carolina. We need to address education and work force development issues. We need to make sure we get all of our higher education assets into the game, not just the major research universities.
We need to do a better job of marketing the progress we’re making so we can attract more interest from large companies outside the state. We need a way to educate small businesses interested in technology transfer so they understand the constraints universities deal with while working under federal grants. We need to move biotech innovation up to the top rung in the priorities of state government. We need lab space outside the universities to serve as incubators for small companies. We need “super high-speed” Internet to connect research facilities around the state.
Yes, there’s much more to be done. But the key technology we’re developing right now is the emerging culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship that’s spreading across the state. That culture will help us fasten all those nuts and bolts together so we can put the pedal to the metal and see how fast this baby can go!
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