Something is stirring: we're at an inflection point

In the late 1990s, I began to sense that South Carolina was at an inflection point - needing to do different if we were going to continue to be globally competitive. The economic development model of branch manufacturing was running out of stream.

In 2000, I traveled across the state to talk with leaders about the need for a more innovative economy. I talked with Governor Hodges and ex-Governors, with CEOs, university leaders, economic developers, and newspaper editors.

Something was stirring. Shortly thereafter, Jim Barker called a meeting and asked if Clemson were in Greenville how our relationship would be different. George Fletcher continued the conversation, and ultimately the Clemson International Center for Automotive Research was born. Sam Tenenbaum was an early advocate of endowed research chairs, and Governor Hodges sent a small group of people, including me, to Austin to study their model. The SC Centers of Economic Excellence Act occurred shortly thereafter. Darla Moore, who had given tens of millions to the USC Moore Business School, created the Palmetto Institute to begin creating a strategic plan for the state. They engaged Michael Porter, whose advice to develop industry clusters has become orthodoxy. I began Swamp Fox and a series of conferences leading to InnoVenture which were grassroots efforts to build relationships among innovators and entrepreneurs.

We've seen some early experiments go away. The Upstate Coalition for Entrepreneurial Development recently declared victory in seeding several entrepreneurial activities and went out of business. A few other initiatives across the state, like the Supply Chain Coalition, have more quietly faded away.

But boom! Over the past four years, there has been a blooming of innovation in the state.

The early initiatives that gained traction are building momentum. SC BIO, the SC Centers of Excellence Review Board, and the USC Columbia Technology Incubator all report business is booming. The USC research campus is becoming a reality. The SC Health Sciences Initiative has built a coalition among USC, MUSC, Greenville Hospital and Palmetto Health Care. The SC Next Energy Initiative has been barnstorming the state. And InnoVenture has gained traction with major constituents who have gained a sense of ownership in the process.

Now something else is stirring. We’ve reached another inflection point. People across the state and across these initiatives are asking a similar question: how do we convert this activity into wealth creation in South Carolina. The Greenville Chamber is going on an intercity visit to Austin, TX, which in the late 1980s they had a supernova explosion – Dell Computer. When a company in your area creates several billion dollars in market value, and sprinkles some of that back into the local community into the next generation of companies, into the United Way and other community organizations, it alters the landscape of the community forever.

So how do we do that? Seed our Dell Computer that creates enormous wealth here. That is becoming a major focus here as we move forward.