Leadership Memphis president/CEO David Williams writes an op-ed posted below in contributors posts about the importance of the Talent Dividend for our city. It reminded us of some ideas that came out of a panel curated by our colleague Carol Coletta about what cities should do to connect talent to place. We hope you’ll post your ideas as well.
Here are some big ideas that came out of the session:
Eric Avner of Haile/US Bank Foundation in Cincinnati:
* If you’re hemorraghing smart people it is really difficult to do an economic development strategy.
* Building a perception of opportunity is so important to cities. (Check out the Ignite Fund in Cincinnati.)
* Cities need distinctive places where the talent you want can say, “I see my people here.”
* There are stickier parts of every region. Recognize and amplify them.
Helen Johnson of CreateHere in Chattanooga:
* Don’t underestimate good design and good voice to accompany it in selling cities.
* Key is retention, then attraction follows.
* Google your city. Populate the web with what is authentically yours.
Todd Hoffman, Collegia on retaining college students:
* Encourage college students to create a personal relationship with the city. Get them off campus.
* Talk to students. Go after the undecided group (students who are not sure if they will stay or leave after graduation).
* Audiences need their own authentic channel.
75% of all businesses in the US are “small businesses”, so, most employment does not require a college degree to be able to do ANY of the work that gets done.
If we don’t start manufacturing things again, there will be little to do even if you have a degree.
It wouldn’t be the first or only country with overeducated people with no jobs.
“Authentic” is the key to Memphis future.
* Cities need distinctive places where the talent you want can say, “I see my people here.”
I wonder what that is here. Gotta be something.
Cheap labor and “I hate whitey” isn’t going to work anymore.
I guess it’s remarkably similar for most places, livable, attractive, efficient, not a drag, no major negative vibe and lots of jobs.
Most employment is not in those small businesses.”
It is when there’s no factories, unless your whole economy is built around cheap labor which won’t survive the future.
The estimated 29.6 million small businesses in the United States:
Employ just over half of the country’s private sector workforce
Hire 40 percent of high tech workers, such as scientists, engineers and computer workers
Include 52 percent home-based businesses and two percent franchises
Represent 97.3 percent of all the exporters of goods
Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms
Generate a majority of the innovations that come from United States companies
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2009
The number of self-employed workers in June 2005 fell 3.1 percent or 303,000 from the month before, Labor Department data showed. Self employment tends to fall as the economy grows. That’s especially true among laid-off workers who start tiny companies after failing to find work in slow times. (Source: USA Today, July 17, 2005)
During 1979-2003, self-employment increased: 33 percent for women; 37 percent for African Americans, 15 percent for Latinos, 10 for White Americans and 2.5 percent for men. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)
Where do small business owners go for advice?
52 percent from individual mentors; 51 percent from social networks; 44 percent from trade associations; 36 percent from business advisors; 31 percent from the Internet and 27 percent from Chambers of Commerce (Source: American Express)
Women in Business
Women represent more than 1/3 of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2005 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)
Between 1997 and 2002, women-owned firms grew by 19.8 percent while all U.S. firms grew by seven percent (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)
Women-owned firms accounted for 6.5 percent of total employment in U.S. firms in 2002 and 4.2 percent of total receipts. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)
The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms (23 percent vs. 9 percent). There are an estimated 10 million women-owned, privately-held U.S. businesses. The greatest challenge for women-owned firms is access to capital, credit and equity. Women start businesses on both lifestyle and financial reasons. Many run businesses from home to keep overhead low. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy and Business Times, April 2005)
Women are more likely to seek business advice—69 percent women vs. 47 percent men. (Source: American Express)
Minority-Owned Businesses
Black-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment, up 45 percent between 1997-2002. Revenues generated by the nation’s 1.2 million black-owned businesses rose 25 percent between 1997 and 2002 to $88.8 billion in 2002. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
The number of U.S. businesses with Hispanic owners grew at three times the national average from 1997 to 2002 to 1.6 million businesses in 2002, a 31 percent increase from five years earlier. (Source: MSNBC)
Hot markets for small businesses:
eBay drop-off sites
Search engine optimization and Internet marketing
Performance apparel
Niche health and fitness
Technology security consulting
Services/products for Hispanic-market
(Source: Entrepreneur magazine, “Newest Trends & Hottest Markets,” January 2005)
In Tennessee:
Small businesses are vital to the financial well- being of the state’s economy. Their contribution is essential for economic growth since they make up almost all employer firms in the state. As entrepreneurs and innovators, small business owners represented a diverse group in 2004 and continued to keep the state’s economy productive. The Small Business Profile provides information on the performance of small businesses in the state using the most current federal data available.
Number of Businesses. There were an estimated 471,316 small businesses in Tennessee in 2004.1 Of the 109,853 firms with employees, an estimated 97.2 percent, or 106,729, were small firms. In 2004, the estimated number of employer businesses decreased by .05 percent. The number of self- employed persons (including incorporated) decreased overall by 11.6 percent, from 327,013 in 2003 to 289,202 in 2004. Non-employer businesses numbered 364,587 in 2002, an increase of 4.2 percent since 2001, based on the most recent data available. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau; U.S. Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Women-Owned Businesses. In 2002 women-owned firms totaled 117,970, an increase of 18 percent from 1997, and generated $17.8 billion in revenues. Firms owned jointly by women and men numbered 51,257 with revenues of $11.0 billion. Women represented 32 percent of the self-employed persons in the state. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.)
Minority-Owned Businesses. In 2002, Hispanic-owned firms numbered 4,301, an increase of 18 percent from 1997. Black-owned firms numbered 26,816, an increase of 33 percent; Asian-owned firms numbered 7,245, an increase of 40 percent; American Indian and Alaska Native-owned firms numbered 3,567, a decrease of 5 percent; and the number of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander-owned businesses was unavailable.2 (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.)
Employment. Small firms with fewer than 500 employees numbered 97,856 in 2002 and employed 1,032,883 individuals, or 45.1 percent of the state’s non-farm private sector (Table 1).3 Net job gains among firms with fewer than 20 employees totaled 10,453, while large firms with 500 or more employees lost 74,138 jobs between 2001 and 2002 (Table 2). (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses.)
Small Business Income. Non-farm proprietors’ income, a partial measure of small business income, increased by 7.7 percent, from $18.3 billion in 2002 to $19.7 billion in 2003. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce.)
Care to argue with the department of commerce or SBA?
It’s even more so in TN.
One way to ensure failure is to misdirect efforts to the wrong target, one that is unattainable because it isn’t even real. I’m not for low wage jobs, I’m not for uneducated people, but, there is no evidence TODAY that there is any intent to spread education equally starting in schools. HOWEVER, I think with our new administration there is a chance it will be, ONCE the “Sith Lords” and “Sith apprentices” at MCS are removed.
GET MCS STRAIGHTENED OUT or this, like everything else in Memphis has NO FUTURE. That’s what has to happen.
If these businesses will bootstrap a bit more, get more in control of their financing, and even finance themselves, they’ll have more of a chance in the future, because there is a war brewing against the oil/bank/reserve system and the propaganda is getting very hot. The dollar as an internationally monetizing instrument is about to end, and that will destroy the fake bank, err, federal reserve.
The point is:
If you’re looking to attract the future, that’s who you have to attract “the most of”, more than biotech, but, that doesn’t negate your goal, it just makes it less of a focus.
Think about this:
Where will the college grads you seek to “retain” come from?
Private schools only?
MCS graduates?
MCS MUST play a large part in this new set of “retained” talent.
Nothing wrong with that, but, if MCS’ entire system does not change to a service oriented system with the student and parents centered as the customer, it will never generate the amount of talent you need to retain to attract any business here.
Then you have to deal with:
How will you retain the grads if there is nowhere to work when they graduate to pay their school loans?
The key to Talent Retention in Memphis is MCS restructuring AND Small Businesses.
The key to having small businesses survive is a different model for funding and supporting startups, refocusing business strategies in a changing market, surviving a war like banking atmosphere, and a lawful and legal atmosphere in which to conduct business.
Each element is as important as the other. Even an internet business can be destroyed by multiple burglaries of either product or computer systems.
College supports a lot of business, high school supports college, middle school supports high school.
It’s not that complicated.
If you got MCS “transformed” today, it would only be 8 years to maximum retained talent! That would be enough time to create enough places to for them to prosper HERE. Don’t feel guilty about getting it done either, there’s room here for that kind of expansion, UP.
Why have we still not imposed the now legendary Pittsburgh model of transformation? Locally, it could hardly hurt to follow such a model ourselves- just replace corporate with biotech and time sensitive production. Having friends and a professor that either hail from Pittsburgh or spent a significant amount of time there, they have made it known that Pittsburgh went through a real low point after the exodus of its smokestacks. How did they convince graduates of Pitt and Carnegie to invest in that city? There has been a lot written on the topic and I know that we could learn a lot from the process.
Brian, I have to disagree on some points. Investing in manufacturing outside of time sensitive production and perhaps those areas directly related to the biotechnology sector is sticking our heads in the sand. Both of these areas either suggest or demand the need for a labor force with at least some continued education to their credit.
What about the labor force we have NOW between the ages of 18-50 that may have been incarcerated, out of work for years, lost their jobs in the latest recession, have more economic incentives not to work or simply don’t fit ( or can’t)into new knowledge based economy?
The City of Cleveland is addressing this issue head on. Their efforts are well worth a look.
See:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1947313,00.html
Right, I agree with that, I understand, BUT, we already have a majority population of unskilled labor.
Memphis Workforce Assets
• Huge Hidden Potential Workforce: •……….:
Underemployed 135,367
Not Employed, Wanting Work 355,350
Recent College Graduates 14,500
Total Hidden Labor Supply 532,090
Large Percentage of Employed & Unemployed are Interested in Training:
41.9% Want to Upgrade Skills – 341,097
Leading Fields of Interest among Workforce are Nursing and other medical-related fields
Employers Report:
Above Average Work Ethic and Productivity
(as far as trained goes, but, training here, for most “unskilled labor” is inadequate)
• • Good Availability of Unskilled and Semi-Skilled Workers • •
• • • • Region Perceived as a Low Wage Location • • • •
Belief that Region Can Support Higher Skilled Emerging Industries
I don’t for a second believe that have ex-inmate be your doctor or nurse is appropriate, and I’m dead right.
“Huge potential Hidden workforce”
Essentially they are SLAVES, if we don’t do something better than we have been doing about it.
Keeping a large portion of the population under-employed, under-payed, through institutionalized policy IS slavery. These folks are NOT going to be biotech geniuses ever. They MUST be mobilized, utilized, and compensated. But Where?
We market that “hidden potential workforce” but where are they supposed to be employed in a biotech economy, as guinea pigs?
There needs to be a LOT of retraining that needs to be started yesterday.
We can’t keep doing things the same way and expect a different result.
Accepting attrition via death based on judgement of that population is not acceptable as practice.
Regions near us are manufacturing Nissan’s “leaf” batteries (Smyrna), Mitsubishi’s Wind Generators (the big clunky ones), Chinese electric cars (Mississippi), and we’re making what?
If we go as we have these hidden workforce folks are either going to be a drag as below market wage earners, sucking on government funds to be cleverly misdirected through MLGW, MCS, DHS, or, an asset and not as below market wage earners, making those ridiculous programs un-needed as a hidden source of support for a badly designed failing city.
Here’s a reality check:
Banks aren’t done failing, they will continue to fail as we get off of oil, and it isn’t just foreign oil we WILL be getting off of. We will be converting to solar and wind energy as a primary, because, nuclear energy will not cut it. Too many drawbacks.
The entire world that uses the US dollar as it’s international trading instrument is converting to the Euro, which is severely devaluing the dollar, i.e. more bank failure. Considering the entire world’s economy is based on petro-energy dollars, this is going to cause problems for at least 50 years. The ONLY way to survive it is if we aren’t making payments to the “fossil system”, they are too expensive to survive. The word is out on Narco-dollars, the “hidden source of funding” of the war, and no one is willing to get behind the wars anymore.
Iran is using free energy to support their government and everything else. Ahead of their time and not stupid, not supporting the fuel-money system and profiting, the Iranians aren’t stupid and yet we seek to make them adhere to it with threat of death. Their leaders are idiots for threatening others over this, but, economically, they can survive any embargo now and no one using the Euro will support us.
The wind tech is already outdated but will remain useful, but, not portable, batteries for cars and utility storage will be useful and leaf batteries are great. What we need is an industry related to this type of energy to replace what is going out. It’s not just about Memphis, it’s about supporting our country and working with the rest of the world (instead of against it by trying to enslave it with genetically engineered agriculture, petroleum, loans, and drugs).
We can expand further with the new petroleum free economy and our hidden labor force for decades. Biotech will never support that much alone.
A new energy source has potential to be much bigger than biotech and will support the largest part of our workforce, which is what they need to be come vital, redeemed people, money, retraining, and time to recover. Doing it by participating in the reformation of our country’s economy won’t hurt their self esteem either. Won’t hurt Memphis or this entire region either.
It’s better than selling cups of coffee.
We can either get with it and see it as urgent or we can be left behind, either way, without it we are DEAD.
The longer we stall, the more the Chinese will take these areas and develop them so cheaply that we haven’t got a chance. They won’t give back what they take either. We may be proactive and make a deal with them before even that is to late, that’s all they want, entry into all of our markets. They will either negotiate and get in or they will glut it with cheap product and take it.
Our least and rejected people can be our cornerstone.
Good points.
Where did you get those stats? I would like to use them fora report I am working on. Thanks.
Brian- I see you point on some of the ideas discussed but I have a few questions. First, when discussing Memphis Workforce Assets, are you describing the Memphis metro workforce? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Memphis metro is home to a labor force of 605,400 individuals. Are you suggesting that nearly 88% of that workforce is “hidden”?
Another point we have not addressed is the static nature of the labor pool you described. Referring to the Pittsburgh experience again, one finds that city’s metropolitan area’s population has seen an almost continuous decline for many decades reflecting the decline in the heavy manufacturing sector, but it reached almost “crisis” levels in the 1980s as many of the regions steel mills finally shut their doors. Since then, while the population decline has continued a reverse trend of employment growth in the healthcare, education and service industries coupled with growth in the financial sector have added jobs, albeit at a slower pace than employment has been lost in the manufacturing sector. What does this mean? While many have left and many continue to depart, the average salaries have increased and now the city is a top draw for college educated young professionals. Pittsburgh has right-sized its population for its new base and place in the global economy. In the process its economic base has diversified and strengthened and the quality of life has increased. Part of Memphis evolving to compete on a global level- evolution that can be harnessed to increase the quality of life here- will be giving up old notions of exactly who defines this city or for whom this city is meant to serve as a home. The region might see a decline in its population in its effort to refocus on potential growth sectors.
Since moving to Memphis, I have noticed a decided and often obscured message that underlines a lot of events and actions. The only way I know to define this vibe is the idea that Memphis is meant to be a place for “us”. The “us” changes by topic and setting, but any time “us” is used to define a place as an exclusionary idea (and it often is), the region loses a few more individuals who do not find themselves included in that group. Dropping this message or mindset from the local scene (thinking leadership and talking heads) would be a decidedly positive step in making ourselves “stickier”.
“Right, I agree with that, I understand, BUT, we already have a majority population of unskilled labor.”
The Cleveland article addresses your “BUT”. Read it.
Aaron,
I got them from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Labor Market Information LMI/Research and Statistics Section is the official source for all employment-related data for the state, the metropolitan areas, and the individual counties, Fed Stats: http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/47000.html.
You’ll like Fedstats.
Also, I’m familiar with the Mondragon story and I’m ALL for it.
That can absolutely be a very strong leg of a recovery. It works anywhere you do it as long as it is consistent.
Urbanaut, I’m not suggesting anything, apparently, our leadership is.
I agree with your post too. My point is also that we don’t have to see a decline in the population if we just do what is called for, the right thing to do, what we owe for what has been done, we HAVE TO redeem a large portion of the population, (if our lame policies of the past have proven anything it’s that spreading poison instead of curing it just poisons a bigger area) and if we accomplish it, we will have one of the best and most motivated workforces in existence, self actualizing.
Another point is that while industry did decline and some left the country, with public funds, and moved to China liquidating American assets, i.e. General Motors. They are a perfect example of a non nimble business married to a dying practice, at war with their union, not making what is called for, in terms of product survivablity and service life in a changing energy landscape and economy. They didn’t read the zeitgeist of the nation and continued to make a product that no one wanted. They effectively died, they couldn’t sell their cars, but, they didn’t die. They became a Chinese corporation. For a bit, you couldn’t buy their American stock.
They still may not survive as an American company if they don’t get their stuff together.
Memphis can’t move to China, liquidate assets, and start all over.
Thank you Brian. Good source info. I like how you call the invisible workforce our “hidden potential workforce.” You have some great insights.
Brian,
I in no way meant you were making an “us” statement. I can see where you might have read it in such a light and I apologize. I should have listed that last little paragraph as a separate response to the request for ideas mentioned in initial post by SCM.
No prob, Urbanaut. I understand.
Oh, to address the numbers, I “believe” they are not referring to the already accounted for 600,000, I believe they are referring to the :
Underemployed 135,367
Not Employed, Wanting Work 355,350
Recent College Graduates 14,500
Total Hidden Labor Supply 532,090
Earlier in their stats they mentioned the already known 600,000.
I could be wrong, but, that’s what they allude to with the way they put the stats out, that there are two distinct groups.