Worker prowess in data pushed

How to compete state panel focus

Arkansas will need to retrain its workforce and prepare the next generation to be competitive in computing in the near future, a commission of top executives in business and education was told Tuesday.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson formed the 19- member, blue-ribbon commission in March to report on the economic competitiveness of computing and data analytics in Arkansas and asked the commission to help guide Arkansas in responding to the needs of the business community.

The commission is made up of top executives from Arkansas companies such as Wal-Mart, Stephens Inc., J.B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, Murphy USA, Acxiom, AT&T Arkansas, E-Z Mart and Inuvo. Also represented are the Circumference Group, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Arkansas Research Alliance, the Lawrence Group, Smiley Technologies, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the University of Arkansas System and Arkansas State University.

The co-chairmen of the commission are Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, and Charles Morgan, chief ex-

ecutive officer of First Orion Corp. and former chief executive with Acxiom.

A report on the commission’s findings, due this fall, will address three areas — business challenges in computing and data analytics (the process of examining data sets to draw conclusions about the information they contain), potential application niches for Arkansas to build excellence and depth in computing and data analytics, and the skills Arkansas workers need and the challenges they face.

The infrastructure to prepare current and future workers to be ready to compete is in place at some of the universities in the state, Jerry Jones, executive vice president at Acxiom, told the commission.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has a “fantastic data science and data visualization program that is already there,” and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and Arkansas Tech University offer programs in computing and data analytics, Jones said.

The commission members brainstormed ideas that could be helpful to the state.

Rather than giving businesses tax incentives to move jobs to Arkansas, Jones suggested offering incentives to individuals in data sciences to relocate to Arkansas, possibly by waiving state income taxes or property taxes for several years. Instead, the state would pay those taxes.

Instead of having Amazon come to Arkansas to hire hightech employees, as was reported Tuesday, Arkansas needs to get to the point where it can recruit data scientists from Silicon Valley, Jones said.

“If you want to win, you have to act like a winner,” Jones said.

Jones also suggested the idea of Arkansas companies swapping high-tech employees for several months.

“It will help our companies and it will help our people,” Jones said.

There was also the suggestion of holding a three-week summer camp for high school students in technology fields, possibly spending a week to learn about companies in Northwest Arkansas, a week learning about central Arkansas companies and time in south Arkansas and northeast Arkansas learning about companies there.

The biggest decision the commission and the state faces is finding the right person to lead the effort making Arkansas competitive in data sciences, said Gaylon Lawrence of the Lawrence Group, which in 2010 bought the assets of Lee Wilson & Co. in Wilson.

“Part of the whole answer here is finding the right leader,” Lawrence said.

Arkansas needs to stand for something, said Monica McGurk, chief growth officer at Tyson Foods.

“I think we need to know what our aspirations are and where we want to focus,” McGurk said.

The commission is getting closer to determining action steps for the state to take, Jones said.

“It’s really helpful to get to the hard issues and try to come up with solutions to those issues,” Jones said.

The group is committed to moving Arkansas forward much faster than it has been moving in the past, Jones said.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful in 10-15 years if the world’s pre-eminent data analytics firm was located somewhere in the state of Arkansas?” Jones asked. “We need to be thinking about taking this all the way to the top and start developing a strategy to support that.”