Innovation key to NM economy
State has resources to attract, retain innovators and entrepreneurs
“The Mouse That Roared” was a film set in a fictitious economically struggling European country called the Grand Duchy of Fenwick. Its leaders couldn’t contain their growing deficit so they decided to do the unthinkable — invade the United States and then capitulate to get foreign aid!
The film reminds me a bit about our own economy here. Smart people on both sides of our political aisle have offered solutions. Unfortunately, most of them have been traditional ones: tax more, cut back or ramp up our efforts in seeking new outside investment.
Money and investment are vital to every economy and we all know that money follows money just as investments follow attractive investment climates made up of reasonable taxation and incentives.
It appears the Trump administration is dedicated to fixing our national economy, but New Mexico can’t wait. We must solve our growing problem of joblessness and become more competitive while bending back our spending curve and diversifying our economic base.
We know that it won’t be easy, but we have no choice. Lessening our dependency on oil and gas and/or the federal government is a New Mexico imperative. While we’re constructing a plan to correct those shortcomings there is something else we need to do: rebrand ourselves, separate from the pack, move away from the safety of the shallows and stand in contrast to our neighbors.
We need to heed the words of Henry David Thoreau: “When a dog runs at you, whistle for him!” In those nine words Thoreau was telling us that we can turn adversity into something positive if we are brave enough to try a new, unexpected approach.
We live in a state filled with perpetual opportunity because of our gray matter and our “gray gold” (our well-educated and well-heeled retirees). The brilliant minds at work in our businesses, universities and the national labs give us a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting technology companies from many sectors like energy, medicine, biotech, nano and information technology.
And while we’ve been rather successful in research, we’ve lagged behind our neighbors when it comes to commercializing our technology and hanging onto the companies that create the products that have emerged from that technology.
Unlike the Grand Duchy of Fenwick, we have options that we haven’t tried. One of those is to brand ourselves as the premier Laboratory of Innovation in the U.S. — a place where every technology and new idea can take root and grow. We already have most of what we need to achieve that status, so taking the next few steps shouldn’t be too difficult.
Think of what innovators and entrepreneurs are looking for. They want pleasant surroundings, access to technology and people that know how to use it and who are willing to push the envelope. They want existing synergies between the private sector and government (again, the labs).
Fortunately, most of our innovators know each other and are already working together. While we may lack second-tier venture capital companies, we have enough start-up capital to carry most small new technology companies to their next stage of development.
We will never be able to compete, toe to toe, with states like California or Texas, so we shouldn’t waste our time trying. Instead, we should be building technological nexuses with those states and especially with natural partners like Arizona, Colorado and Utah. We need to start thinking like a region while we work on building up our image as a laboratory of innovation.
The new, improved New Mexico needs to be viewed as the place to go to sample the best in best practices — a place where the sun always rises but never sets on good ideas and creative thinking.
Achieving this goal will require a broad buy-in and close partnership among those in the private sector and in local and state governments, but most of all it will require leadership. It’s time to “whistle for the dog” and make him our friend.