A Skilled Workforce: If you Build IT, Business will Come

In the movie "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner played a farmer who built a baseball field in the middle of Iowa after hearing a voice say: "If you build it, he will come."

I was reminded of this scene after reviewing Small Times’ annual state-by-state ranking of small tech. The reason is because if you look at the six categories by which the states were ranked – research, industry, venture capital, innovation, workforce and costs – one category alone beckons with the same alluring build-it-and-they-will-come appeal and that is workforce development.

It is my contention that if states start building a nanotechnology workforce today, the businesses will come in the near future – even to relatively low-ranking states in the middle of nowhere. While many nanotech startups will spawn from the top-ranked university and research labs, and these startups will be fueled by VC, those ingredients alone will not be enough to establish long-term success. At the end of the day, nanotech businesses, much as Shoeless Joe Jackson was lured by the timeless simplicity of an ordinary baseball field, will similarly be lured to go where their most timeless and valuable commodity – workers – are.

By Jack Uldrich
Small Times Guest Columnist

Full Story: http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=9015