VIEWPOINT: Pierce County should develop our own innovative work force

When Russell Investments first considered relocating in Seattle, it asked area business executives a key question: “Is Seattle competitive in getting the best talent from around the world?”

The answer was yes.

This insightful question points to the key competitive ingredient in today’s global economy – world-class talent.

Why talent? Without talent, there can be no innovation, and innovation – the ability to create new products, businesses and services – is vital to economic survival in this era of escalating global competition.

Russell’s actions underscore the need for Pierce County to adopt new economic strategy. And the blueprint can be found in a country that once faced a similar situation: Finland.

In the 1970s, Finland struggled to attract businesses to a frigid country with a sparse population, a unique language and scant arable land. So instead they set about cultivating their own talent, pushing their schools up from mediocrity to excellence and motivating their own entrepreneurs and scientists.

Today that country – which is roughly the size of Washington – controls nearly 35 percent of the global cell phone market (Nokia) and recently won acclaim as the world’s most competitive economy. Its workers outscore every other country on innovative indicators.

Taking a lesson from Finland, we too should shift our focus to developing our talent – our engineers, scientists, mathematicians, entrepreneurs – instead of gambling on the capriciousness any one company to stay or move here.

Here’s what we need to do:

 • Let’s raise our expectations. Instead of trying to close some perceived gap between Tacoma and Seattle, let’s focus on excellence – creating an innovative, vibrant Pierce County that builds on its own advantages and brings out its own brilliance.

 • Let’s instill innovation in our children at an early age. Robotics competitions should be held in every high school. Science fairs should challenge our students to solve real-world problems. Innovative schools like the Tacoma School of the Arts and the Science and Math Institute should be the norm in our county, not the exception.

 • Let’s push our schools from average to excellent. For starters, all schools should measure and post performance data such as the number of students who go on to two- or four-year colleges. Unfortunately we have one of lowest rates of this in the nation.

The number of students who pass Advanced Placement exams or who take the ACT or SAT should also be posted. And we should know if these numbers are increasing or decreasing over time; they are key indicators of whether or not we are graduating students who can compete at the national and international levels.

 • We need to turn our universities into business generators – with programs like the Entrepreneurs In Residence (EIR) or the STARS program. The EIR program recruits successful entrepreneurs to use ideas generated within our universities to start new companies. The STARS program recruits global talent to our universities with the expressed purpose of commercializing their innovations and launching businesses.

At the University of Washington and Washington State University, these programs have already generated a new platform for computers called nanophotonics and have made us a national leader in celluosic biofuels. These successes should be the blueprint for further gains.

The cost of these programs is surprisingly modest. The EIR program costs approximately $100,000 each year for six entrepreneurs. The STARS program would cost us approximately $5 million for each world-class expert. Compare that to the $148 million incentive package we were prepared to give Russell. For a fraction of what we would have invested to retain Russell, our county could establish a world-class reputation.

Best of all, this strategy is not specific to a company. But it is attractive to any company.

I know this sounds ambitious, and it is. But I also know it’s doable.

Just ask Finland.

State Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, represents the 25th Legislative District and chairs the Senate Economic Development, Trade & Innovation Committee.