The Good Oil by Rod Brown *
I knew zilch about Montana, so I asked some guys at my local golf club – but all this ageing pool of knowledge could offer was grizzly bears, the Rockies and the Horse Whisperer movie. A week later I was in Billings, the State’s biggest city (population 120,000), addressing the Montana Economic Development Summit about the issues facing regional Australia and the cluster agendas taking shape here through Clusters Asia Pacific (CAP). This suited me fine because of CAP’s interest in linking clusters between Australia and the US, Canada, Europe or wherever.
Our view is that clusters mostly contain companies with collaborative instincts, and therefore provide ready made vehicles for information exchange and joint ventures.
During my presentation, I outlined some of the development opportunities being pursued in this vein by Playford City Council, East Perth, Cradle Coast, Brisbane, Cairns, Ballarat, Western Sydney and more. Some of the other speakers raised issues of relevance to Australians, and I’d like to share them with you.
First up was Senator Max Baucus (US Senator) who declared three rules for the Summit – no politics, that it be private sector driven and nothing’s off the table. He covered the following in his address.
- Benjamin Franklin’s dictum ‘Either we hang together, or we hang separately’.
- The need for Montana folk to ‘hustle’ together.
- His intention to put investment ‘sales’ teams together and visit New York, Washington and Houston.
- The need to understand that infrastructure is the key to the economic development of regions.
John Morgridge (Chairman of CISCO Board) argued that the core elements of economic growth are the workforce; government-industry interaction; a culture of risk taking; a spirit of community involvement; and infrastructure, such as high speed Internet access, venture capital, university interaction and strong local institutions. He asserted that to succeed in the New Economy regions and States have to do the following.
- Focus on quality – not quantity of jobs.
- Understand their position in the global economy.
- Rethink business incentives.
- Invest in workforce skills and infrastructure for innovation.
- Support industry clusters.
- Promote quality of life.
- Develop balanced regional strategies.
The agenda then swung to Stuart Rosenfeld (Regional Technology Strategies, North Carolina), who explained that clusters are not about scale, but about relationships. He added the following.
- Clusters are spawned, not manufactured.
- Clusters are systems, not membership organisations.
- The boundaries of clusters are set by the distance people are willing to travel – to work, to associate and to network.
- Regional groups should pay attention to what is important, rather than what is measurable.
On the second day, the conference used workshops that zeroed in on the six industries identified as having the greatest potential to drive the development of Montana – namely wood based products, agrifood, information technology, life sciences, creative industries and tourism.
Take away ideas
The real benefit of these events is the take away ideas. Outlined below are some for Aussies to think about. Montana’s population is less than one million, and low population density is an issue. It’s the place many Americans say they want to visit. Montana can arguably develop a stronger brand. It currently has a ‘Big Sky’ slogan that could be extended to position its environmental, food and lifestyle industries. Tasmania, Far North Queensland, the Flinders Ranges and areas of New Zealand have similar prospects – hence there is an opportunity to share ideas.
There is a desire to capture more value adding. An example is the beef industry, where despite Montana ranking 12th out of the 50 States in terms of cattle numbers, much of the value adding is done outside its borders. It would seem that an investment in an abattoir is needed to trigger value adding activity, which could then trickle down into the specialty meats segment. The concept of natural or drug free beef has been discussed.
Montana businesses are mostly small – in excess of 90 per cent of businesses have less than 10 employees. Sound familiar? Montana folk also have a genuinely sunny disposition and are relatively laid back. Missoula, one of the larger cities, even has a rugby team called the Maggots – there is a solid basis for interaction with Aussie regions.
Local Government is much more involved in investment attraction than in Australia. As is the case in much of North America, local Councils and development agencies are totally upfront about selling their communities. We can learn much from them about putting incentive packages together.
Billings is very interesting. The streets are spotlessly clean.
It has a quality airport on an escarpment within two kilometres of the CBD! It is also within an hour’s drive of the site of Custer’s Last Stand, the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone Park. This is a unique mix.
Politicians running workshops
The Summit featured something I have never witnessed before – three federal politicians convening workshops, and doing it very well! Senator Baucus (Democrat) convened and MC’d the session on health care, Senator Conrad Burns (Republican) handled the session on fuels for the future, while Congressman Denny Rehberg’s session dealt with aerospace, aviation and defence.
Each had done their homework – it contrasts with the situation in Australia where pollies tend to deliver a standard speech and make a hurried exit. Not good form.
Russ Fletcher of the Montana Associated Technology Roundtable (www.matr.net) told me Federal, State and Local legislators in Montana are very approachable and are not afraid to lead by example. Russ added, “I once hosted a roundtable for Senator Baucus on telecommunications. He apologised before we started that he’d only be able to stay for a few minutes – three hours later, we (about 150 people) were still actively discussing our views with him. Take a look at Ireland, Michigan, Maine or any number of successful economic development areas. The first thing that had to be done was to engage all politicians and not make it an ‘if’ but a ‘how much’ when their dedication to economic development was discussed. If they didn’t put 110 per cent of their efforts behind ED, they weren’t in office very long.”
There is substantial potential for Australian organisations to share ideas and experiences with Montana. When next visiting the USA, why don’t you spend some time there and lay the groundwork for some long term development agendas? Check with your accountant, but your costs should be tax deductible. Clusters Asia Pacific can connect you up (www.capinc.com.au).
* Rod Brown’s Canberra based consultancy group, Australian Project Developments Pty Ltd, specialises in industry/regional development and government liaison. For further information telephone (02) 6231 7261 or email apd@orac.net.au
