Snohomish County Business Journal


YOUR COUNTY.	YOUR BUSINESS JOURNAL.

Published June 2003

Tech report
a call to action for state

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

There’s no doubt that Washington state’s Puget Sound region is one of the world’s centers for technology — in aerospace, biomedicine and computer software — represented by such global names as Boeing, Immunex and Microsoft.

Snohomish County shares those bragging rights with the rest of the region, having Boeing’s 747, 767 and 777 airliner assembly plant in Everett and Immunex’s research facilities in Bothell’s Canyon Park business center.

Mulally: State needs plan for growth environment

SCBJ Staff

“Think of the technology in the Northwest and what we can do together. It’s exciting,” an enthusiastic Alan Mulally told the Technology Alliance luncheon audience in May. “If this is not a reason for us to come together to make the changes we all talk about, what is?”

Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Co., said the leaders and people of Washington have to “make a decision about what we want to invest in. …We need to resolve that we are going to create a world-class environment. … Right now, we’re not growing, and we don’t have a plan for a growth environment.”

He said Boeing is committed to working with the state’s government and business leaders to keep Washington in the running for the assembly of the company’s new 7E7 airliner, which would presumably be built at Boeing’s Everett 747-767-777 plant.

“Our wonderful state needs to get out of denial and start thinking about what it takes to grow business and to keep business,” Mulally said.

He also singled out Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel and others in the county who are working to promote a pro-business climate.

“I know what Bob is doing to pull things together regionally,” he said, “but right now we’re not growing, and we don’t have a plan.”

But remaining a leader means Snohomish County, the Puget Sound area and the state of Washington need to make some changes if they are going to not only attract new technology businesses but also hang on to the ones they already have.

Rarely has that challenge emerged more clearly than at the Technology Alliance of Washington’s sixth annual “State of Technology” luncheon in May. The Alliance, founded in 1996 by Bill Gates Sr., is a statewide consortium of business and community leaders dedicated to Washington’s economic success.

This year, the 1,000 business, technology and political leaders gathered at the Westin Hotel in Seattle found themselves facing serious challenges to the state’s leadership role in technology in general and its role as home to the world’s largest aerospace company in particular.

A report released by the Technology Alliance at the meeting compared Washington’s support for technology-based business development to eight competing states. The comparison wasn’t flattering.

In almost every one of the indicators the report used to gauge the business and technology climate in the nine states, Washington ranked in the bottom half of the list — earning an average or failing grade in all three major areas that drive technology-based growth: education systems, research capacity and entrepreneurial climate.

“The results are alarming,” said Technology Alliance President Ken Myer. “In only one measure — a strong work force — do we rank at the top of the technology states. This isn’t good enough. We have to be excellent because we’re competing against an elite group of states who are working hard to attract the best companies, the most highly skilled workers and the top researchers, facilities and ideas.”

Grading Washington state in academic fashion compared to California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Texas and Virginia, the Technology Alliance awarded this state an embarrassing range of scores:

Our K-12 education system was rated as C-minus.
In higher education, the state fared even worse, receiving a D.
In research capacity, Washington rated only a C-plus.
And in entrepreneurial climate, Washington was granted a C-plus.

The Technology Alliance’s action plan, focused on the weaknesses found in the survey, will measure and “benchmark” the state’s progress toward four goals set by the Alliance:

Improving K-12 math and science skills.
Increasing college access to all interested and qualified citizens.
Dedicating state support for academic research and development.
Re-establishing the state as a leader in creating and sustaining technology companies.

“As business leaders, we don’t accept mediocrity in our businesses. Why should we be willing to accept it in our state?” asked Steve Davis, chairman of the Technology Alliance’s board of directors and CEO of Corbis.

To its credit, the Technology Alliance did much more than simply point out the problems with Washington’s business climate and set goals for solving those problem areas; it also pledged its own involvement in reaching those solutions.

The organization will join Gov. Gary Locke and leading institutions in the state to launch a public-private partnership to leverage Washington’s strengths in life sciences, information technology and computer science.

Also on the partnership group’s agenda is working together with business, research and political leaders at both state and federal levels.

Bringing inquiry-based science and math programs into school classrooms is another element the technology groups see as an important goal for the state’s education system to improve its competitive position in the technology marketplace.

A fourth venture for the partnership will be to support establishing greater flexibility for the state’s colleges and universities to manage their own financial assets.

The fifth essential goal on the public-private partnership’s agenda focuses on ways that government and research leaders can improve the transfer of technology ideas, products and processes from state research institutions to the marketplace.

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