Category: economic development

It has been a long time since I was in kindergarten, but my nephew’s oldest just started this fall and it sort of brought it all back to me. It also brought to mind how much that experience must have changed since I was in Mrs. Jacob’s class in the basement of the Baptist Church in Cambridge City.  Not just the part about it being half-days or that it was optional.  Both those things have changed.  My great-nephew goes all day and no, he and his parents didn’t get to opt in or out of this start of his educational journey.

Thinking of kindergarten, though, always brings to mind for me that Robert Fulghum book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. First published in the 1980s (about the time my nephew was born, I think), I never actually read it.  But I remember seeing the posters.  They said things like:

• Don’t hit people
• Flush
• Say you’re sorry if you hurt somebody
• Play fair

I think these were perhaps chapter heads, where the author expounded on why each was a good lesson to carry through life. While I don’t disagree that they are good lessons we should all follow, kindergarten—and life—is far more complex today. With all due respect to Fulghum (now entering his 80’s), I hope we are expecting more from those heading into the talent pipeline in Indiana.

It is often said that those in school now will not only change jobs many times over the course of their careers; many will hold jobs and work for companies that don’t even exist yet. Recently, IN Gov. Holcomb’s Secretary of Career Connections and Talent (and Boilermaker!) Blair Milo quoted a statistic of 85% that she and the team under Holcomb use as they work on the state’s talent pipeline.

While I didn’t actually get out my resume and take a count, I know that neither of my Purdue jobs existed when I was in kindergarten. Working backwards and thinking about my corporate career with Verizon (and its predecessor GTE), the majority of the positions I held were newly created—often in newly created departments and, in the case of Verizon, an entirely new corporation. So Holcomb’s and Milo’s 85% stat likely was true for me not only in kindergarten but even during my college years as well, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

The skills to be able to survive and thrive in that sort of environment are varied and can be described in a number of ways. The ones in Fulghum’s book seem to fall within what we used to refer to as “soft” skills but now are more likely called workplace or career skills.  Thinking a bit more broadly about workplace skills and this 85% statistic, what we often hear from employers is something like this—“Send me employees that are:

• Problem solvers
• Innovative
• Team players
• Leaders

and we will teach them the technical aspects of our business.”

Sadly, the corollary to this list of skills and employer needs far too often includes showing up on time and passing a drug screen. The real concern comes when I see a help-wanted sign with a notation “no drug testing required.” As long as the current low unemployment rate lasts, that may be the norm; once the rate ticks up (and it will), that laxity will disappear.

So back to the skills of a kindergartner (and younger). As one who didn’t grow up a digital native (Boomer in a Millennial World, after all), I marvel when I see those who can barely walk displaying digital device skills learned by doing. First example, walking through a store a few years ago, I saw a toddler who could barely walk standing in front of an Apple accessory display. The pictures on the front of the cases hanging at her eye level were of the apps that would typically appear on an iPad screen; she was clearly getting frustrated touching the icons and nothing was happening. Back to that great-nephew now in kindergarten. When he was about 11 months old his mother was telling me about a photo she had taken of him and his cousin. He picked up her phone, turned it on, found the photo and showed it to me. I’m fairly certain I couldn’t find a photo on someone else’s phone that quickly—if at all! For one thing, I’m Android and she‘s iOS.

Think about your path to where you are today and how much things have changed, regardless of your age and how long it has been since you began your journey. As we all work on the talent pipeline for all ages, whether we are employers, educators, employees, parents or prospects, let’s keep in mind that the skills of today must be flexible and fluid as we look to a rapidly changing set of workplace needs. No one person, group or organization can handle it all. Each of us must be a part of the process and work in a cooperative, collaborative, innovative and integrated fashion.

Thanks for reading!  Looking forward to your comments and connections, both in person and virtual!

Just about everyone in education talks about “lifelong learning.” Don’t be intimidated or discouraged by that, thinking it means sitting in a traditional classroom much longer than we would want to.  After finishing my masters back in—well, some years ago—I decided I wouldn’t darken the door of a college classroom ever again!  I learned later in the game, though, that lifelong learning could mean learning something from the people around you—in my case, nearly every day!

Working through the alphabet for topical blog inspiration has brought me to the letter “J” and not one, but three, amazing men all named “John” from whom I have learned more than will fit in the 1000 or so word limit here. So I will introduce them and how I met them, with links and some suggestions for how you can learn from them as I did.  Truth be told, many of you reading this will already know—or know of—one or more of them.  In that case, I encourage you to introduce them to others who will benefit from their collective wisdom.  Since I’m not sure in what order I met these three gentlemen, I will introduce them to you alphabetically by last name.

John McDonald is co-founder, CEO and President of ClearObject (https://www.clearobject.com/).  Seems like Venture Club (https://www.ventureclub.org/) is where I first became acquainted with him, since I am a member of that organization.  However, it could have been at any number of his speaking engagements in and around the greater Indy area, helping us to understand the importance of IoT to our everyday lives even before it became a buzzword.  He is one of those rare tech experts who can speak to a mixed audience (all ages, levels of experience, techies or not, business people, and laypeople) and all of us walk away understanding the very complex concepts he is sharing.  If you want to see what McDonald is saying in the @IBJTech, on @IIB with @GerryDick, or sharing news about his company and other things of importance to him, follow him on Twitter @jpmcdon. He is a true thought leader, not only in Indiana (where we make things, grow things and move things), but also on a much broader global stage.  If you want to connect with him on LinkedIn, send a more personal message like I just did when I looked at his profile on that platform and discovered we were only 2^nd degree connections.  Need tips on how to connect?  Go back and read my blog entitled “Connections” for advice.  On a final note, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that McDonald is a Boilermaker, supporter of Purdue Foundry—and we are proud of him and appreciate him for that!  Honored as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2007, much has happened since his bio appeared at https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/alumni-profiles/john-p-mcdonald.

John Qualls, among many other things, is a former Marine and President of Eleven Fifty Academy (https://www.elevenfifty.org/).  Eleven Fifty Academy teaches coding with both offices and classes at Launch Fishers, where I have my office, although I was familiar with their programs well before moving my office there a couple of years ago.  With a vision to skill up unemployed and underemployed prospective students of all ages, Qualls and his team are dedicated to feeding the pipeline of tech talent in the most efficient, effective way possible.  By constantly working to match the needs of employers with skills imparted in the classroom, moving graduates through as quickly as possible, and then matching those new graduates with the employers that need their skills, Qualls and Eleven Fifty Academy’s programs are a very important piece of the workforce development puzzle.  Proud to say that Qualls and I are already connected on LinkedIn and follow each other on Twitter @jqualls.  His frequent, pithy tweets are a combination of original and curated content, always wise and thought provoking.  Bonus something I learned from Qualls but have been too fiscally conservative to apply—he has talked to me now and then about the cyber-currency market, but since I don’t (yet?) understand the underlying technology, probably won’t jump into this one any time soon!

Last, but certainly not least, is my friend and now (sort of) landlord at Launch Fishers (https://launchfishers.com/), John Wechsler.  Often described as a serial entrepreneur, Wechsler and I first met at a luncheon (probably Fishers Chamber) several years ago when he was there to introduce the concept of co-working and his plan to open a space to serve that purpose in the basement of the Fishers Public Library.  Intrigued, but not quite getting it, I asked Wechsler for a meeting and tour of the space then under construction.  He agreed, and we held our meeting on concrete floors with no walls yet framed and the de rigueur coffee bar not yet in place.  I didn’t get it yet, but turns out he was on to something.  That’s what visionaries do.  They get it before the rest of us do and they forge ahead.  Spaces and memberships were sold out before the doors opened.  What I learned from this experience is to listen to him and ask how I can help, no matter whether I get it or not.  Flash forward to today, and here’s where we stand.  I say “we” because I not only “get it” now, I am a tenant at the new and much larger Launch Fishers.  Thanks to Wechsler’s vision, influence and hard work, we also have:

• Dozens of other co-working spaces around the state helping to launch and scale up companies
• A co-working passport program where Launch members like me can find other locations to work on a daily basis
• An affiliated IoT lab just across the parking lot in Fishers

Don’t forget those LinkedIn connection tips if you go after a Wechsler connection (for me, two outta three ain’t bad, as the saying goes). Following @wechsler on Twitter serves up a great variety of things going on at Launch, Iot Labs, and in Wechsler’s world. It’s an amazing one!

In closing, I would summarize what I have learned from these three amazing friends as this:

• Even if I don’t get it at first, listen and go along for the ride—could turn out to be great fun!
• Get out ahead of the naysayers and take risks that nobody else is willing to take (even if you fail)
• Be gracious in your wins, share your wisdom, reach out to others to make a difference

Thank you to McDonald, Qualls and Wechsler for all you have done and will continue to do to make a difference in so many lives—mine included! Sure am thankful that our paths crossed

Looking forward to your comments and connections, both in person and virtual.

As my mother likes to say, “Not bad for a kid who went to high school in the middle of a cornfield.” If you read the middle part of the last blog entry, you know that my high school was (and still is in fact) surrounded by the farms of rural Henry County.  As a nod to what we hear each May during the opening ceremonies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this time I am celebrating my own return home.  After more than a decade of corporate moves around the country, I celebrated moving back home after so many amazing experiences that elicited this response from Mom more often than I can count.

When I left Indiana in 1995, things were quite a bit different than they were in 2006 when I returned. And things have changed rather dramatically in the intervening years.  Let’s look back and see how our home state has done.  Some of you like numbers, so here’s a look at those.

In 2009 dollars, 1995 GDP was something less than $222 billion (state data I found only goes back to 1997).  By the time I left for Texas in 2006 GDP was up to $274 billion.  Most recent reported year 2017, GDP was up to $301 billion.  Our population grew during that timeframe as well, from just over 5.9 million in 1997 to over 6.6 million in 2016.  Breaking GDP down to a per capita figure, this also shows growth from $40,781 (1997) to $50,577 (2016).

A growing population in the state combined with lower unemployment rates means that more of the people in this growing population are working to contribute to this rising Indiana GDP. Let’s take a quick look at how the unemployment rates in Indiana have changed over this same timeframe, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By using the data finder (https://beta.bls.gov/dataQuery/find?fq=survey:[la]&s=popularity:D) I was able to chart the state unemployment rate for the state from 1995 through August 2018.  Beginning at 4.5% in 1995, dropping below 3.0% just before the 2000 tech meltdown and peaking at 11.0% in February 2010, the latest reported rate on this chart is 4.5% in August 2018.  We know from media reports that is has dropped to around 3.5% since then.

These numbers are reported in the aggregate and don’t represent the experience of individual employees or employers. They fail to reflect the experiences of those individuals that are underemployed as well as those of employers having difficulty filling positions. One of the first things I did in 2008 after beginning my stint as Director of the Purdue College of Technology (now Purdue Polytechnic, see  www.purdue.edu/anderson) in Anderson was to attend then-Congressman Mike Pence’s annual job fair at Ball State.  My objective was to find out who in the region was hiring and whether they were getting the right candidates.  If not, I wanted to know whether any of my students were potential candidates for their vacancies.  Fast forward a decade, and no surprise that the employers and vacancies most wanting are still in need of employees with STEM skills.  That’s the focus of Pence’s successor in the Statehouse, Gov. Eric Holcomb (see www.nextleveljobs.org).

As I matured in my work at Purdue and with the employers of the state, learning about their needs as well as Purdue’s capabilities, I began to match up the two and found a perfect match across the industry groupings that our state finds important to continued economic growth and expansion. As the basis of what I do every day, I focus on these four industry clusters:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Life Sciences (including agriculture, ag tech, pharmacy and so on)
• Logistics and Transportation
• Information Technology

Take a closer look at how they match up and how Purdue works with each of these industry clusters on my office’s web page at www.purdue.edu/engageindy.

IN CLOSING

The schools, colleges and academic departments at Purdue all match to one or more of these industry clusters. By providing employees, research support and other ways to make these Indiana-based industries the best they can be, Purdue is a partner in growing the Indiana economy now and into the future. So when you hear “Back Home Again in Indiana” and the Purdue All-American Marching Band at the opening of the Indy 500, remember this!

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and connections.

If you took the bait last week and guessed Purdue University (my employer), Tri High School (you have known me for a long time) and Hanover College (my undergraduate alma mater), then you win the prize—friend for life! Three weekends in a row for the Homecoming celebrations, two in the books now and Hanover’s coming up first weekend in October.  These three celebrations—and the schools involved—probably couldn’t seem much different to you, but bear with me and I will pull this together in the end.

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1869 shortly after the end of the Civil War, Purdue was—and remains—the state of Indiana’s only land-grant university. What that meant then was that President Lincoln was quite visionary, knowing that education would be the key to lifting the reunited nation out of the ravages of war.  By educating not only the elite, but sons (and now daughters) in those skills necessary for economic recovery, the Morrill Act spurred states around the nation to begin offering post-secondary programs in what was then called the agricultural and mechanical arts.  That became the foundation for Purdue’s world-class agricultural and engineering programs.

If you did some quick math in your head, you caught that it has been 149 years since Purdue’s founding. At Homecoming 2018 the University launched a yearlong celebration, 150 Years of Giant Leaps, to culminate at Homecoming 2019, commemorating that major milestone.  You may recognize the “giant leaps” part of the theme as coming from astronaut, Boilermaker and first man to walk on the moon, the late Neil Armstrong, in 1969—during Purdue’s centennial year.  I’m convinced Neil, NASA and Purdue planned that perfectly timed walk!  This overarching theme will not only celebrate the many advances brought about during the first 150 years at the University but perhaps more importantly, investigate and explore how the University’s capabilities can be harnessed to tackle the world’s major challenges in the next 150 years.  Stay tuned—great minds at work!

But Homecoming isn’t Homecoming without football at Ross-Ade Stadium, not in West Lafayette. So for the Boilermaker faithful, Coach Brohm and team pulled off the first win of the season over No. 23 ranked Boston College.  With Boston College the favorite going in, Purdue pulled off an astounding 30-13 upset over a nationally ranked team for the first time since 2011. By following up a week later with a win over Big Ten team Nebraska 42-28, the Purdue team now has a win both home and away.  But two W’s don’t make for much of a streak, so long road still ahead.

TRI HIGH SCHOOL

Still largely surrounded by cornfields in rural southeast Henry County, a few miles north of the small town of Lewisville on S. R. 103 sits Tri Jr.-Sr. High School. Tri is my high school alma mater, and this past weekend was our Homecoming.  In 1969 both the elementary and high school buildings were opened.  With the quick math in the head again, you now know that my high school also has a milestone celebration coming up next year.  Taking a page from Purdue’s playbook, the 50^th anniversary celebration planning committee launched our plans at Homecoming 2018 for the coming year, to culminate at Homecoming 2019.  While our parallels with the big University to the northwest are modest, they are nonetheless notable.

The president of my graduating class, our valedictorian, and her husband are all three Purdue graduates. Many others from our school are as well.  To grant equal time, many also went to IU, Ball State, ISU, and even a few to my alma mater, Hanover College.  More on that later.  As the planning committee has grown, alumni from several decades have joined in to share ideas, working toward a common cause.  Many of us didn’t know each other while we were in school, what with our age differences, but we are learning of our shared connections through parents, children, cousins, friends and neighbors in common—everything you would expect from a group of small communities over nearly half a century. We are hoping that plans for Homecoming 2019, to include things like big tents, tailgating (G-rated, of course), and a big parade with Homecoming royalty from all 50 years returning will be remembered for years to come.

And of course, there was the football. Not so grand and glorious as the W at Ross-Ade the weekend before.  In fact, perennial cross-county rival Knightstown handed us a drubbing 74-34.  Sounds more like a lopsided 7^th grade basketball score.  But we had a great time working together as a multi-generational committee on a common cause and getting to hear our big announcement booming out from the press box.  Turned out the announcer was Ron Chew, older brother of my classmate and friend Shirley.  Yes, it is a small school.

HANOVER COLLEGE

This coming weekend I will be traveling to the southeastern corner of the state, to one of my favorite places anywhere. If you haven’t visited that part of the state, I highly recommend it.  Not only the campus itself, but the town of Madison and Clifty Falls State Park, all have great attributes to recommend that region as a tourist draw.  But I digress.  Even though this year isn’t a milestone reunion year for my class, it is for the Class of 1978, so several of my dear friends will be there for me to see and catch up with.

Beyond the beauty of the campus, Hanover represents the other end of the spectrum from Purdue in terms of four-year post-secondary institutions in Indiana. Founded in 1827, it is actually a little older than Purdue.  The oldest private college in Indiana, I found it to be a liberal arts institution that suited my needs when I first visited as a high school student.  Coming from a very small high school (see above), I found the size of Purdue, IU, even Ball State intimidating.  Fearing I would get lost in the shuffle in one of those bigger state schools, a school the size of Hanover (then 1000, now approaching 1200 students) just about right.  Fortunately, the academic program, liberal arts and a business administration major, fit as well.

As for the Homecoming football game, Hanover comes in at 2-2 (2-0 in HCAC conference play), fresh off a 55-8 win at Anderson University’s Homecoming. HCAC opponent Earlham College comes in at 0-5.  However, never write off an underdog (see Boston College at Purdue above).  The outcome of this third game will have to wait, so watch for it if you are curious.  Suffice it to say whatever happens on the field, I will enjoy a weekend reconnecting with dear friends in the stands and around campus.

IN CLOSING

What do all of these institutions of learning and others around the state have in common? For many decades they have broadened the scope of opportunities for our citizens of all ages.  I always tell people that our state is richly blessed with schools of all sizes, and varied academic programs, for our people to prepare for their future and the needs of our employers. As we look ahead to the coming decades—and centuries—we need to celebrate their legacy and be grateful as we look forward. Ask yourself, what are you doing to help educate the next generations, either directly or indirectly?  It’s up to all of us!

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and connections.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than smart. Luck swung my way when Kristen Cooper, Founder and CEO of the Startup Ladies (https://www.thestartupladies.org/), asked me to submit a guest blog for that organization’s web site.  The timing coincided with her speaking engagement at the Madison County Chamber (https://www.getlinkedmadison.com/) and the letter “G” coming up in alphabetical rotation here.

Since Purdue University is a Support Services member in the Startup Ladies, I wanted to share with the membership of that organization some of the people and programs at Purdue—and beyond—that they should know about. Specific to my role, I wanted them (and now you) to understand my role as a gateway to connect with these people and programs.

Rather than completely repeat everything in that guest blog from the Startup Ladies web site, let me provide a link to it so you can look at it there. Below the link to my guest blog post from late last week is a list of the main subheads so that you know what kinds of topics are presented in greater detail via link through.  I also recommend a read of the other blogs, from both company owners and other subject matter experts, that appear there.  Well worth your time to read about the experiences of these entrepreneurs as well as the advice from those tapped to support them in their journey!

https://www.thestartupladies.org/single-post/2018/09/21/The-Office-of-Engagement-for-Metro-Indy-Your-Gateway-to-Purdue-University-and-Beyond

The Office of Engagement for Metro Indy, Your Gateway to Purdue University and Beyond:

ACCESS TO PEOPLE (HIRING)

ACCESS TO CAPITAL

ACCESS TO INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

ACCESS TO PHYSICAL SPACE

ACCESS TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

ACCESS TO NON-PURDUE CONNECTIONS

Thanks for reading. I look forward to connecting either in person or virtually—maybe both!  Watch for “H for Homecoming” as I will be featuring not one, but three of them!  Those of you who know me, see if you can guess.