News

Letter from Maine: Developing the "Fish and (Micro) Chips" Economy (This is a great article!)

When the University of Maine men’s hockey team lost to the University of Minnesota in this year’s college hockey championship, Maine Governor Angus King (I) upheld
his end of a bet with Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (I). The bet was that the losing state’s governor would have to wear the winning state school’s hockey jersey at
his capitol building.

(Thanks to Lou Gaburo- Assist Director New Jersey Institute of Technology for this excellent article- Russ)

Donning the Minnesota jersey was probably a small price to pay in Angus King’s mind. One reason is that, in the last year of his second term as Maine’s governor, he’s
committed to moving Maine beyond some of the perceived clichés of the state. And these might include hockey, lobsters, and LL Bean.

His goal, as he said in his State of the State address this year, is to retain all the specialness of Maine and its communities while working anew to foster home-grown
entrepreneurial growth companies.

Maine certainly is an interesting state. It’s home to about 1.2 million people. And it’s largely a state of traditional small businesses (in addition to the state’s natural
resource-based industries such as lumber and fishing). Nearly 29,000 of the state’s 33,700 companies have less than 20 employees, according to the U.S. Small
Business Administration. And only about 36 percent of the population live in the state’s metropolitan areas. In addition, while boasting no city bigger than Portland
(population roughly 200,000), the state is geographically isolated.

What Maine also offers, when it comes to considering how to develop a more entrepreneurial local economy, is a well-educated workforce and a high quality of life. The
state, known as Vacationland, has the highest rate of high-school completion (94 percent) in the nation. It was rated as having the best K-12 education system in the
country in 1999 by the federal National Education Goals Panel. Maine also has a child-poverty rate (14 percent) five points below the national average while 85 percent of
parents surveyed say their communities are good places to raise children. It almost goes without saying these are some of the key factors that entrepreneurs, who need
access to talented workers to start and grow companies, say are important.

To that end, King and his staff have joined with the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (which funds the NCOE) to craft a plan aimed at bringing Maine into a
new era of — as Governor King put it — the "fish and chips" economy. That is, developing an economy in which the state’s fishing industry, by way of example, is
coupled with a aggressive emphasis on fueling Maine’s high-technology economy, including semiconductor manufacturing as well as biotechnology and information
technology.

At the University of Southern Maine last month, King appeared on the Entrepreneurs! Tour of America television program (www.sayyes.com), hosted by Richard
Tavener. In his interview, King said state policymakers must take a long-term approach in helping Maine’s economy make the transition from an economy generally
based on natural resources and tourism to one also focused on developing high-growth start-up companies. "Sometimes government just needs to get out of the way,
but we also want to set a tone. We want [state government] to become more entrepreneurial, more risk-taking in helping entrepreneurs," King said.

Working with KCEL, the King administration has created five task forces that will examine ways in which Maine can generate more entrepreneurship (the task forces
plan to provide a final report to the governor this fall). And a Maine "E-Team" — comprised of successful state entrepreneurs — also will be created to work alongside the
task forces, which are detailed below:

K-12 Education

This task force will examine how and whether Maine schools can incorporate entrepreneurship education into its general curriculum. The task force is set to consider
two current challenges: exploring whether Maine education standards can mesh with entrepreneurship education programs and providing state educators with
information about — and models of successful — entrepreneurship education programs, such as KCEL’s MiniSociety program.

College Programs

Maine’s public universities are eager to expand their entrepreneurial studies programs with a specific interest in experiential learning through internships in
entrepreneurial companies. The state’s flagship universities — University of Maine-Orono (UM-O) and University of Southern Maine (USM) — and their business schools
plan to play a key role in this effort. This task force will work with the state’s universities in improving or developing new curriculum and in increasing school-to-school
cooperation. In addition, the task force will examine UM-O’s current curricular approach (a multi-disciplinary program between the business school and the science and
engineering program) as well as USM’s (activity is focused within the business school).

Adult Education

This task force will work on analyzing the state’s current use of KCEL’s FastTrac program, and what further steps can be taken to further expand the program’s reach.
FastTrac is a comprehensive entrepreneurship-educational program that provides entrepreneurs with business insights, leadership skills, and professional networking
connections to help them create a new or expand an existing business. This task force also will work on expanding quality adult education for both aspiring and active
entrepreneurs.

Support Services

This task force will examine a broad array of support services and service providers that entrepreneurs rely on to help grow their companies. In particular, the task force
will consider how to bring together a fragmented support services system; it will help service providers better identify those entrepreneurs who have the potential to lead a
high-growth company; it will look at boosting the number of business mentors; and it will encourage more local support, particularly from the media, for entrepreneurs
and their successes and failures. This task force also will closely examine Maine’s support service infrastructure in the state’s rural areas.

Policy and Program Review

Lastly, this task force will examine state policies that entrepreneurs say hinder their business growth and it will craft new policy recommendations in response. Key
issues the task force is likely to examine include regulatory burden, health care costs, capital gains tax treatment, and expanding access to seed capital.

All told, what may be unique about Maine and its new focus on developing an entrepreneurial economy is the laser-like commitment of Governor King to this issue. More
than two years ago, King put together a statewide, inter-governmental working group to explore how to develop an entrepreneurial economy, and he has since made it
clear to his cabinet and to the state’s private and non-profit sectors that this effort is his number one priority.

King also understands the need to undertake a comprehensive approach (along the lines of the five task forces) to make it work. More than anything, the governor’s
dedication to making Maine an entrepreneurial state is a ready-made model for other governors and local community leaders who want to create high-paying jobs, new
wealth, and stronger communities.

To visit NCOE’s website, click here: http://www.ncoe.org.

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.