(00:00:00) I first came to the Twin Cities when my son was two weeks (00:00:05) old. It was his first business trip. (00:00:09) I carried this little infant with me to do something for the Minnesota project on corporate (00:00:15) responsibility (00:00:17) as a guest of Roger hail and Angus Wordle who had first brought me to the Twin (00:00:22) Cities and ever since I have also been (00:00:25) taking my son when I could on business trips around the world and I've (00:00:30) learned a large number of things because of that one of the things (00:00:35) I learned was about the global (00:00:37) economy and its effect on places all over the world because I'm aware that it's important for young people to understand cultural differences and broaden their Horizons. So when Matt became a teenager I arranged for him when he could accompany my husband and me on business trips. I arranged for him to spend a day. Is the counterpart his age who was a child of a local business person in countries. We were visiting so he could learn something about local culture spend a day with a typical teenager and in five different parts of the world. (00:01:18) He spent the day doing exactly the same (00:01:21) thing in Jakarta in Indonesia Manila in the Philippines San Paulo in Brazil Milan in Italy Utrecht in the Netherlands. He spent the day going to a local shopping (00:01:34) mall where they played video games and ate McDonald's hamburgers. (00:01:41) Well, that's when I began to realize that in many ways at least for teenage boys. If not for affluent consumers and customers all over the world that while local cultural differences and becoming an Insider in every Market you serve is very very important than in fact, the world was becoming a global shopping mall and the effects were truly revolutionary. Not only are they transforming the context for businesses and (00:02:12) workplaces and communities in (00:02:14) America. They have literally had political impact when I was at a dinner recently with a Hungarian economic Minister and his wife talking about why communism fell in Eastern Europe and the Hungarian economic Minister got up and gave a fairly long-winded macroeconomic explanation that had to do with currency rates and oil prices and trade flows. (00:02:39) When he sat down his (00:02:40) wife got up who was a prominent entrepreneur, and she said I'm not sure that I understand everything. My husband just told you but I will tell you my friends and I we want to go shopping. Well, I'm not sure we can attribute every geopolitical change in the world to the desire to go shopping. First of all, most of us don't even have the time to literally go shopping if we wanted to but what was I hearing a very important message about change that people increasingly do (00:03:14) want to have the (00:03:15) world's best available to them and (00:03:17) they want the world's best available to them wherever they are. They don't want their choices restricted. In (00:03:23) fact for my book one of the things I examined in (00:03:26) terms of our response to the (00:03:27) global economy was by (00:03:29) American movements domestic content movements (00:03:32) and I found that while we all care very much about preserving American jobs. Most Americans felt that they wanted the highest quality and that high-quality was much more important because high quality would even stimulate domestic companies to raise their standards. It was as though the right to shop was one of the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution. Well customers want choices and this is part of something very revolutionary those of you from the business World know this directly, you know that the most important Force transforming your business is the rise of customer power the systematic shift of power from those who make goods and services to those who buy them customers do have their choice of the world's best. I mean, it is part of the movement that is also (00:04:24) transforming government and transforming (00:04:27) communities that people want choices. They want the highest standards. They don't want to be restricted by what's available in their neighborhood if what's available in their neighborhood doesn't meet the highest (00:04:38) standards in the world. And (00:04:40) that's why I say the global economy is transforming the context even for locally focused businesses, even for public services people want access to the world's best. They're aware of higher standards, and it's not just individuals, of course. Us the impact is even greater for large organizational customers large companies are consolidating their purchasing and using their purchasing power to get the world's best from fewer suppliers that Supply them on a world basis and that have to give them extra Services wherever they are. So for example, the little envelope envelope supplier down the street that thought they had all the business locked up of all the corporate headquarters in their neighborhood now has to compete with large International chains. Like Colorado's fastest growing private business is called corporate Express and it's supplying stationary to companies all over the world. The competition has changed for every single business and every single organization and this means that the standards are higher and (00:05:50) higher and the (00:05:52) success factors are (00:05:54) more important than ever. Before in terms of the (00:05:57) ability to compete to World standard. So when I named my book world class, I meant two things by it was a play on words it meant first of all the need to meet the highest (00:06:09) standards existing anywhere in the world (00:06:12) not only to compete in international markets, but just to hold your local business and secondly it meant the growth of a new kind of Citizen the kind of person the kind of company that was going to thrive that would be Cosmopolitan in their Outlook that would know how to include ideas products material from many parts of the world in order to create the best product or the best service (00:06:38) for whatever markets they serve (00:06:41) and that's how I began to (00:06:42) see that the context was also changing for (00:06:44) communities, of course as businesses increasingly have to serve ever more demanding customers to ever more demanding standards as they can consolidate their operations and their Purchasing in fewer places that Meet World standards what happens to communities our communities fought going to fall behind because the large businesses in them have their choice of the world's best places in which to operate what would make communities for flourish in this new environment because as you know, there are people who are afraid of the global economy and some of those fears are being fanned by populous politicians who are telling people they have two things to blame for the changes in their careers and their lives the federal government and foreigners. Well, neither of them are to blame if anything both those forces International companies and international customers can be our friends and the federal government the partner to communities and regions that are trying to reshape themselves to fit Global Market forces. So my message to you is an upbeat can do positive message about How to understand what it is that businesses need to compete in this new economy and how communities can help them get it the three things that businesses need the most to compete I call it the three golden assets of the world class the three C's somebody said to me recently. I just learned you're for f so now I have to learn three C's I said, well, you know, it's a shorter list. It's a little easier the three C's of the world class Concepts (00:08:24) competence and connections. (00:08:27) Those are the assets that companies that are flourishing in global markets or flourishing locally in the face of international competition possess in abundance. The world's best and latest ideas packed into their products and (00:08:44) services (00:08:45) Concepts the world's highest quality standards the competence to execute or to deliver forever more demanding customers that not only Spect companies now to meet a minimum quality standard, by the way, you know that high quality is no longer a guarantee of getting the business. It's just an entry ticket into the game demanding customers who know, they have the power not only expect High competence in terms of the quality with which their goods or services are delivered. They also expect value added Services a lot of extra Services packed into those products which again raises the (00:09:26) need for a competent Workforce (00:09:28) and the third C is connections the ability for companies to gain the power that comes from being part of stronger networks, whether it's being the best partner to their customers and to their suppliers or whether it's having Venture partners that stretch their reach and augment what they can do so Concepts competence and connections or as one talk show host said the best ideas the best skills and the best Rolodex. Well, there's a little more to it than that, but that's what businesses need. And if you look at each of those three C's you can see that that's exactly what's helping those businesses with the greatest growth potential flourish. And then I want to show you that the way communities succeed in this new economy is being sources of globally relevant skills that is sources of the best and latest ideas the best and latest executional skills and the best and latest ways to make connections to New Markets or connections among local businesses Concepts first, it's very clear that those businesses in growth industries that are flourishing have the best and latest Concepts and Technologies in their products. I mean, that's why the high-tech industry that exists in this area or like my home city of Boston flourish command a premium on World Markets because Advanced knowledge Built into the products because there is a New Concept with each new offering and in fact emerging Industries in high technology fields in those fields that we see as the source of future brain power oriented jobs in software in biotechnology in Health Technologies, like the medical devices industry that flourishes in Minnesota. And by the way, we benchmarked your industry in Massachusetts because we're also a source of medical devices in those Industries new companies and growth companies are increasingly what I call born Global they have to design their products and services with World standards and world markets in mind even before they ever sell a single product into an international market if they ever do they can't even hold their local customers if they're not meeting the highest standards in the world. Those are highly Innovation oriented Industries. (00:11:56) Are (00:11:56) constantly looking for the next concept and in fact in software as my friends at powersoft said a great success story in client server software. They said if we're not redefining the whole category with each new offering we're never going to get a toehold in these positive markets. So brain power oriented industries that are built on Concepts and that are able to incorporate Technologies from outside of their industry. Sometimes in order to create a new industry or a new market for very new and different kinds of products. The one I always like to titillate people with a little bit. Just think about this for a moment. There's a Japanese company that is currently working on making what is they're going to call a smart toilet. Excuse me for telling this over lunch a smart toilet is sort of like a smart card. Although it does different things. It would have computer chips. It's embedded in it and it would be able to not only run electronically, but it could take medical readings, you know Health readings as you use it as you deposit those samples into it. Think about that by the way is a New Concept that re-engineers a very awkward process of having to go to a doctor's office deliver a sample. It goes off to be tested etcetera etcetera, but think about it not just as a funny new product. I mean as you know, there's lots of new products that are going to be like that there's a bathroom scale that accompanies working on a bathroom scale that would be able to measure bone mass because of the pressure as you stand on it, which would be very useful in us for diagnosing osteoporosis. Well think about that not just his you know, titillating new products, but think about that is the fact that new Concepts often crossed industry lines how many of the companies currently making medical instruments or involved in medical testing whatever think that their next competition would come from plumbingsupply.com. But in fact, you know Vader's are constantly looking outside their field outside their territory for the best and latest ideas and they also build their customer issues right into the loop in terms of building that right into the design process looking for the next great concept. The second thing that helps companies be world class and succeed of course is competence world-class skills. I was amazed in my research for the book. It had over 2,600 companies responding to a survey from five US regions how much the skill level required for the whole Workforce had gone up it was not only because of quality programs. That was number one that you needed minimum quality certification often just to continue to be the supplier of goods or of services. But also it was because jobs had become more demanding more and more jobs required computer literacy. There were fewer and fewer things left that we could call manual jobs. I mean Imagine that what you want to do in life. Your fondest dream is to be a delivery person driving a truck delivering packages has become computerized if you want to work for federal express our ups. You have to know how to use the handheld computer manipulate data answer customer problems and their feet therefore be multifunctional e skilled knowledgeable about many functions in your company. So I found that the companies that were succeeding had constant training and retraining they wanted people who are computer literate who had analytic skills who could serve on problem solving teams and could work in more than one function could work on teams across functions and the third C of connections was was perhaps the most important new asset that companies were acquiring not only did they need to collaborate with their customers understand how to be their customers best Partners, but companies were succeeding in New Markets because they understood how to use Power of networks how to create joint ventures and alliances with other companies. And again, this is now a hot fad but it was new for many US companies that also that always felt if we didn't own it totally ourselves, we couldn't control it and now they see the power of their connections of collaborations obviously in certain International markets. You can't succeed at all in becoming an Insider. If you don't have a local partner and many companies have stumbled because they didn't sufficiently value having a local partner with know-how and relationships and Connections in China. They have a word for a guanxi which is which symbolizes the importance of having good local connections, but it was also the power I began to see of local collaborations right here at home that could Propel companies into new markets one of my favorite stories that I use as a case study in world-class is of a small camera. And your facture makes photo identification cameras because it was the best local partner to Polaroid and had in its 30-person company was constantly innovating. I asked them who state-of-the-art in photo ID cameras. They said we are I said around the world. They said yes I said how do you know they said because we know who makes these in Italy and we know who makes these in Germany and we know who makes these in Japan and we're the best but we watch what they do and because of that broadened Horizon and a Workforce that could deliver to high quality standards. They were the best local partner to Polaroid when Polaroid got a big contract in Mexico. They took Tech Ridge to Mexico there for opening doors to an international market based on a local collaboration. Well that those three C's Concepts competence and connections are what businesses need and what communities can do is they can become the world's best center of those global. Only relevant skills and we do come back exactly to how we train and educate people but also who comes here and what we encourage as institutions to build those because cities can Thrive as centers of those three C's Concepts. They can Thrive as thinkers as places where Innovation flourishes and new businesses start based on new technologies and New Concepts and my home region of Boston is succeeding in World Markets as a thinker as does Silicon Valley Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado, we can now call silicon Mountain there are places that are flourishing because they are centers of brain power. There are places that are flourishing because their centers of executional competence their they have makers they have a work out a world-class Workforce that knows how to execute to high quality standards where quality is a Unity agenda and where work relevant job skills are part of what schools do and also what the government does in terms of offering customized job training to people and I use Spartanburg and Greenville South Carolina as my example of a world-class maker where you may say well Spartanburg is the city that attracted BMWs first-ever Factory outside of Germany and not because of tax incentives there were some tax incentives, but because of a world-class Workforce and the presence of many many foreign companies that had already made this a center of international manufacturing. And by the way the next time you hear the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee talking about turning our backs on the world. Just remember that the secret of the prosperity of the new South is that it's have been heavily financed by Foreign investment. Just remember that as a little aside but that has become a center for international manufacturing and my example of a place that flourishes because of connections because it's a place where you can find International Partners to take companies into new markets Miami, Florida south Florida now called the capital of Latin America. Well, a lot of people are suspicious about why somebody from Boston would choose Miami is one of the places to study especially during the winter, but it is an amazing place again. Every time we hear Californians say, let's become anti-foreign anti-immigrant. This is a place whose biggest Economic Development agent was Fidel Castro. It was the fact that Castro's regime let all those talented Cubans come to South Florida and even though Florida past and English only an official English statute, even though they passed that luckily those Cuban Americans kept speaking Spanish and used their connections to Latin America to make Miami flourish, and now they are flourishing as a Center of Trade trade trade Capital. Well, I think your region this region is poised to be world class on all three of those Dimensions, but it really requires attention to be a world-class Center for thinkers for concepts for places where Innovative businesses flourish. You not only need to keep supporting your institutions of Higher Education and Research Laboratories, but also make sure that there are mechanisms for translating people's good ideas into jobs through support for entrepreneurship and not only Venture Capital but forums where people can Change ideas where startup companies can get advice industry associations where people in the same industry can exchange ideas exchange a Workforce and where the entire industry thinks about elevating its level and its potential in Massachusetts. For example a center for software telecommunications medical devices. We have industry councils in each of those fields and the Massachusetts software Council, which is now well over 10 years old also serves as a training Network and job finding Network for people in software because they understand that the skills of the entire Workforce benefit every company doing business in the region. So the software Council has its own retraining program to help people move from Hardware to software jobs, for example, and it's the only industry Association we know of with its own rock band. So, you know, they also know how to have fun to have World-class to be a world-class Center of competence requires again customized job training. That's industry-specific South Carolina went from the bottom of the Heap to a World Class Manufacturing Center in the western part of the state because 30 years ago, they invested in customized job training free to employ potential employers and those potential employers did not even have to take the workers that were trained because it was assumed that someone else would they wanted to meet the needs of specific employers. That's why your apprenticeship program as a model is so exciting and quality became a community crusade to make sure that companies exchanged hints about quality and served as each other's often HR function when Sara Lee moved into South Carolina Fuji lent them staff members to help them get established and help them select a Workforce and Help them learn about team-based work processes. So the entire Community work to elevate the competence of the workforce. And of course to be a great Center of Trade requires emphasizing ones International connections that already exists here. You already have many International companies here and you have great potential because many of the products made here are in demand in World Markets. It's a question of community competence. So the five things that regions need to do to make sure that they are places where world-class companies emerge and world-class communities are built first is to have a strategy. I mean, it's exciting to see the work. The chamber has been doing on a strategy for the region that is a regional strategy because the issue spill across jurisdictions, by the way in the fact that there has been Regional Consciousness here for such A long time was it what the Metropolitan Council Sandy that I had come to speak for in years past. I mean you have such a tremendous Foundation here other parts of the company country are lagging behind when I was in Pittsburgh and I learned that Pennsylvania is near the bottom or at the bottom in terms of new job creation. It turns out that one of the reasons is a highly balkanized and fragmented political structure. There are over 1300 government entities surrounding Pittsburgh alone surrounding Allegheny County alone amazing fragmentation. So you need a strategy that builds Regional Consciousness in which you say, where can we be globally excellent as thinkers as makers or is Traders. How do we Elevate the skills of our companies and of our people second thing is more mechanisms for collaboration for ticularly collaboration across businesses businesses can't solve many of their problems alone as smart as we are. Are particularly the small and midsize businesses that are more rooted in the community large Global Enterprises are a tremendous asset to every Community but they don't have the same stake in the community (00:25:52) that a smaller mid-sized company does because they (00:25:55) can come or go and they're often expanding their operations elsewhere but small and midsize businesses can benefit by the ability to join networks that help them with training for example training collaborative, 's where many small companies joined together or job finding networks that transcend a single company where networks of companies think about a pool of Human Resources in which they have a joint steak. And of course the kind of business to business collaboration that helps local companies get into new markets as a great partner to another Local Company. The third thing communities need to do is to become World ready and foreign friendly need to become. Old ready in terms of holding in front of the businesses and the school systems and the institutions of the community what world standards are and how do we match up? So it's benchmarking its awareness. It's consciousness-raising. We're thinking in Massachusetts of bringing over a team that might look at our airport and enter Massachusetts Through The Eyes of an international business visitor and we might bring in a team that includes somebody from schiphol airport in Amsterdam and somebody from Southeast Asia and let them tell us whether we meet world standards or not and similarly things that hold up a mirror to small and mid-sized companies about what the standards in their industry are and help them constantly upgrade their skills. And we do need to become foreign friendly that is emphasized as an asset the international ties that already exist in our community and help small and midsize businesses, see how they can join those. Right here at home meet somebody from a foreign country many small and midsize businesses are afraid of international trade. First of all, they don't think they have the time for the CEO to go over to another country. Secondly, they don't even know how to start I keep saying begin with ties right here at home. And in fact, you have some world-class universities here that have a network of alumni. I'll bet many of whom are in prominent positions in many other parts of the world. All of those are assets for local businesses. The fourth thing we must do is in addition to training the workforce, which is very important to your agenda right now. We also must make sure that the workforce feels reasonably secure that they have a future because one of the things that has changed (00:28:25) in the global economy is the (00:28:27) Lark greater uncertainty people have about what it means to have a career as as global companies downsize as they move from place to place as they consolidate purchasing and (00:28:39) Our (00:28:39) for change the economic context for local businesses local suppliers more vulnerable. People are more concerned about their future. The my favorite single line from my book was the man who said in a focus group where we sat with workers from all over the country for several hours talking about the changes in their lives and their careers. We said, we asked all the people in these focus groups. What do you think you're going to do three to five years from now and this man said three to five years. He said I live day to day. In fact, I don't even buy green bananas. Well, that's the green banana problem. If we don't show people that there's a future particularly our young people then why should they invest in high-quality now in high skills now they have to see that there's a payoff and that problem must be addressed in America or we are going to have a populist (00:29:35) backlash against not only the global (00:29:37) economy foreigners the federal government but also against big business and you watch I mean, so that's a community priority and finally we must make sure that our communities continue to have high quality of life and be great places to live because if in fact you are going to thrive as a world-class Center of thinking making or trading that means you're wanting people who are in high demand all over the world brain power is in high demand. There are already World labor markets for engineers. There are World labor markets for Physicians with high skills, and therefore you're competing. With every other place for the people with the most desirable skills. It's very important the quality of life remain high in quality of community remain high because that's what (00:30:28) attracts knowledge workers and holds them (00:30:30) to a particular place. But one more thing we also must make sure that we keep Community quality High by engaging business in the tasks of communities the businesses that are there to be engaged a very different today. Even the Minnesota project on corporate responsibility is very different. Some of those companies don't exist. Others have been bought by Foreign donors others have downsized or the CEO is on an airplane looking at operations elsewhere. But the way we're going to re-engage companies in their communities is through their employees you us it's because people do care about the quality of the community where they live that I suspect I predict that the chance to do. Community service through one's employer as a part of the job is going to be the hottest new employee benefit of the next five years the chance because people are busy they're overloaded and they like to see that they're making a difference in their communities the fact that their companies give them a chance to be involved as part of a company team doing something good for their Community is something highly desirable to the most skilled workers and is a way to reconnect companies that have to think globally (00:31:50) to the needs of local communities. (00:31:53) So that's the agenda that I'm setting forth for American communities and I'm proud to say that the Twin Cities is well on its way to having a strategy into thinking through many of these issues. That's the way that you'll ensure not only that businesses Thrive, but that the communities thrive in the future and you know, especially for those Growth companies that are going to create many of the jobs of the future. It's not only a matter of finding a good Workforce. It's also a matter of being in an environment that's targeted to helping those businesses flourish because in the future we have to be world class or will fall behind in the future those that are well connected and well endowed with the three C's will flourish, and it's the isolated that will fall (00:32:48) behind. So I (00:32:49) think you're well on the way and I wish you every success as you continue to be not only a national model of a great place to live, but also a world-class success story. Thank (00:33:02) you. Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter speaking recently actually yesterday at a forum for local Business Leaders sponsored by the greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Ceridian Corporation the title of her talk was world class business in a world-class economy. Well following her remarks Cantor participated in a panel discussion with local business government and Community leaders who responded to questions submitted by the audience will be hearing from panel members Jane Brown of the Minnesota Department of Economic Security, Jane Samardzija executive director of a group called hired and Canter herself panel moderator was st. Thomas management Professor Jack Militello. I see is the isolated in quotations and our communities as the homeless young people between 16 and 21 years of age. How can communities through their companies work to incorporate these young people into the community and how can they be trained to enter the world class Society? But (00:34:09) I don't know what you have. That's the equivalent of this but let me just make a little pitch for my absolutely all-time winning new new approach to community issues for young people and I do write about it a little bit in world-class it City year, which was the model that was used for national service national service under the Clinton Administration is really community service its Youth Corps that get a chance to get involved in the life of their Community for a year like an urban Peace Corps and you know, my commercial break here is the because President Clinton probably made the mistake of calling it his favorite program. The Republicans are trying to kill it and actually it has broad bipartisan support. We've been sending prominent Republicans to go Lobby the republicans in Congress because it is so effective and it does two things. First of all it puts, you know, this Urban Youth Corps out on in their Community doing Nervous so they are doing actually making actual contributions. But secondly, it also serves as an incredible role model for other kids and there are young people who have come into City year and other forms of national service that have come in without their having been high school dropouts that get to work on these teams side by side with Harvard graduates, you know, that's our equivalent of a University of Minnesota graduate and they you know, we think of ourselves as the Minnesota of the East they they get to work side by side on these teams and they get inspired. They see a future they and they are role models for the entire community. And so having these teams of young people out in the community is a way to get other young people to see that that there's a future for them and one of the things I love most about City year. There's so much I love about it. I can't tell you all in a short period of time but one of the things I love about it is they've made it really cool for gang kids to The city your jacket instead of their gang jacket and think about how fabulous it is to do service to other people. I mean, it's a tremendous Force for a community. So we have to have means that get young people doing something positive and productive helping other young people serving as role models. And the final thing it does is it helps companies get more involved because the companies that sponsor these teams have a direct link to the problems of the cities and sometimes the team members get to know that company and again see that there are job prospects for somebody like them (00:36:42) the next question again fits very closely into this and I'm not going to read the question because you've answered part of it here, but the second part of the question is asking about how teenagers and preteens can build personal competencies to fit and the question is more rather than the Community Helping is more to focus on the individuals. Anyone on the panel willing to address that or interested in addressing that Jane. (00:37:10) I just give a real quick change that at least I think it can be a quick change that will help feed that and that is that if we write from day one and I go all the way back to can let's go to kindergarten and say the first day a child goes into the classroom and kindergarten that they start to learn that they will work someday. I think that's a piece that's missing that that causes education to not be relevant to some so many young people and therefore leading to dropping out is that here's this is not my idea that was talked about in a task force that I once served with and it's if when the little children are in there if they were given a little portfolio and they were told that everything that you learn we will write down that you learned how to do this and we will put this in this portfolio. So you'll be learning skills all Through the next 12 13 years of school and Beyond and every time you learn a skill that goes in there and then someday you will take this portfolio and hand it to someone and that will be proof that you have competence and that's how you will get your first job and then extend on to what you've been saying and that's may lead these skills can lead to you owning your own company and on and on and on but I think that simple little understanding very early on will start to lead to building competencies and recording them (00:38:36) to the end of the table chain 2 Chainz. Well, I certainly agree with what the other day and said, I think it's really important that school from day one be seen as work that it has the same kind of discipline the same kind of requirements the same kinds of attitudinal things that are acceptable or not acceptable from the beginning competency for work doesn't spring out of a senior high school student after after nine months and be full-blown when they go into the workforce. It has to start much much earlier and and part of it. I I firmly believe having having worked with several programs in the schools. Is that matter of discipline and structure and also relating work school to the Work World from day one for so many of our teenagers especially those described by the person asking the question work has absolutely no relevance. And having relevance doesn't happen overnight. It's got to be instilled over a very very long period of time many nonprofits work in the school's right now. And the reason that we do to provide work preparedness information is that the schools are so poorly funded that their vocational counselors can't really work on those issues nonprofits can come in and provide that information in one school. We're working with the vocational counselor has been cut to 12 hours a week and usually that person or very often that person ends up dealing with truancy problems discipline problems things of that nature. So there isn't a great deal of tying vocational planning there isn't time. It's not that the school staff in many cases do not want to do that and don't value it in some schools. They can't afford it and that should not be happening. Perhaps we need to look at and so At a higher level in terms of say Economic Development funding that's made available to businesses having some sort of attachment to funding Education and Training taking on high school students as interns or apprentices of some sort. Perhaps also tying Economic Development funding throughout to actual hiring of residents that come from the community where the business is located this speaks to that issue of Hope if there's a quality of life that kids see around them that shows them that there's no hope for them to get a job at a decent living. They recognize this early on they know it. They know when all the new buildings are many of the new buildings that go up have part-time service jobs are retail jobs that they're not going to get rich doing that. So we need a mix we need we need a mix of Business Development in every community. And we need a mix of spreading that funding around in tying it to getting these kids to work and showing them that there is some kind of Hope out there for them. (00:41:49) Let me just add one little note because the question asked about self reliance on the part of individual young people. I want to just add the family context for a moment since what we know is often responsible for high levels of school achievement is that there's a supportive family not just a great school system and here's my idea of the moment which I'm pedaling around the country hoping somebody will really do it. Here are companies that are training their Workforce in quality disciplines analytic problem solving techniques. Why can't there be a shared curriculum between that company and a school district nearby? So that that kids starting at a certain age are also learning those same they can do fishbone diagrams along with everybody else. Then they can go home and (00:42:35) talk about it with their parents. They're learning the (00:42:37) same thing and in fact We could even use that bridge time at the end of the school day. If parents do still pick up their kids from school, but we can we can even use that time for an occasional shared seminar mean we treat these worlds of school and work so separately and it's not only apprenticeship programs, of course our way to bridge school to work for the young person himself or herself, but we don't bridge to the parents work and we could I mean there are tremendous opportunities to share a curriculum between a corporate training and fifth-grade education not to trivialize the corporate training but there are certain techniques that are translatable that provide for shared dialogue at home and we just don't do that and you know our big Challenge and why I wrote this book right at this moment is because we have been Reinventing business for the last 15 years and I think many businesses are in better shape and do understand what they need to be competitive. Our Frontier is Reinventing society and Reinventing all of these institutions and you know, You reinvent re-engineer business process is why can't we re-engineer the connections among all of these institutions? So there's tremendous opportunities for creativity here and I actually agree with the panelists that have been talking about how government can be creative nonprofits can be creative and you can be creative. They're going to be whole new ways. We link work places in schools and the nature of what a school is and when and how people learn might be very different because of creative ideas that you come up with (00:44:12) evidence suggests that Minneapolis is not on its way to world-class former Atlanta. Mayor Andrew Young told this chamber that Although our cities were similar in many ways Atlanta will surpass Minneapolis economically because they are more International and everything Atlanta does. Fortune Magazine calls the Twin Cities more insular than International, how can we wake up the business Community to recognize the Region's challenge to be globally competitive and to get private sector Champions on this issue fairly direct here. (00:44:48) Well, you know you do have as I said in my talk praising you you do have some of the components but I totally agree that the international Dimension hasn't sufficiently been emphasized and that's very important even in terms of national prominence today. I mean Atlanta not only has had a 25-year quest to attract the best technology companies to the area, but I think as I indicated in my speech the the South this this new prosperity of the new South has has rested on reaching out to foreign investors and international companies to come locate their as a great place to work and that then gives local suppliers. Base of connections out into that global economy. So they've been doing that for a long time. They've been trying to take away our high-tech base in Massachusetts. We think of them as competition, but then they used the Olympics and the search the Quest for the Olympics as a way to upgrade every single aspect of the community including the fact by the way, the people could not get opportunities to volunteer at next Summer's Olympics if they hadn't built up their volunteer resume earlier and they used it to scrutinize the city to see if it was ready for international visitors and again to systematically upgrade everything and to think of themselves as an international Capital not just a regional capital and and you're in that transition. I mean, this is you're not surrounded by lots of other dense metropolitan areas right here. You need to bring the World to You Seattle by the way, which is incredibly livable. It has a little bit of the same problem in terms of remote location, but it's now Working very very hard on its Pacific Rim ties and Seattle is now becoming a place where if you want to find a business partner for Korea you can go to Seattle. So they like Miami have have made themselves a trade Capital the answer about how you do it is you do it by starting. I mean, we're starting here today by raising the issue you raise Consciousness you talk about it constantly. I am you know, as I said, I'm on this this Crusade, that's more than just a book. I'm active on these issues in Massachusetts. I'm the co-chair of the international trade task force for our Governor's Economic Council and I'm writing a constant stream of op-eds in the Boston Globe trying to heighten awareness of these issues were trying to get the newspapers to cover more about the international activity of our companies. I mean you work on every front to raise awareness and then to create the mechanisms for companies to LEAP in to world markets and you scrutinize your city in terms of its World Readiness, you might start with an audit and by the I do applaud greatly the effort the greater Minneapolis Chamber has made in terms of an agenda for the region, but I think you do need to add the international Dimension to that (00:47:37) agenda. Let me ask a question of dr. Canter that might come in your classes. What are the main barriers to the three C's (00:47:49) the main barriers? I mean insularity insularity is one of the main barriers. I mean thinking too narrowly getting complacent. So I mean basically in order to get the three C's what do you need you need investment in constant Innovation. You have to constantly be thinking up new things and in fact areas and companies based on brain power are only as good as their last idea. They have to keep coming up with a new one so you can get lazy. That's a barrier. You have to keep innovating in order to have great confidence to World standards. You have to keep learning learning doesn't stop when you graduate from school. It's a continuous lifelong process and you have to be willing to learn often from people younger and more Junior to you my 16 year old son that I mentioned at the beginning has a flourishing Consulting business teaching senior. Executives how to use their personal computers. I mean when in ever in history would we have very senior Executives taking a teenager to learn from but this is an attitude again where you have to get rid of feeling that I'm better because I'm in a certain position. You have to be open to constant learning and finally you have to be more collaborative that comes back to the questions about the soft skills skills in relationship making are essential for global trade a lot of international trade agreements and international Partnerships. And even International sales come because people are able to make really good relationships with somebody who might be a little different who comes from a slightly different culture. So the barriers are limiting your horizons becoming arrogant lazy insular and and complacent which I guess through the barriers to success in anything. (00:49:33) Thank you. I'm gonna ask one more question and we would encourage those of you like to stay and talk to the panel afterwards to do so and this is truly an economic development question. What advice on this topic would you give to individuals / Consultants as they pursue growth in their client base? (00:49:49) What I would give advice to consultant or the advice for everybody as they pursue growth in their client base. I mean, well, first of all, you know as the three C's indicate you're more desirable to the extent that you are pioneering a new Concepts you have something new to teach people you execute with quality, you know more about their business than they know. So you have some value to add and you do extra Services Etc and I think you know Consultants are desirable for two reasons one is because they bring something new that the company doesn't already have or that they can be a partner who can take on a function for that company. That's another kind of consultant that really becomes an Insider member of the team.