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Below is a
text of the remarks delivered
by Gordon Myers at the NCCBI Annual Meeting dinner
marking the beginning of his term as chairman of the
association.
"What
will the technologies, the industries, the businesses that
define the 21st Century be? More importantly, will North
Carolina be in a position to lead in them or to merely react
to them? Will we widen or narrow the gap we now have between
the high tech commercial corridors along I-85 and I-40 and our
struggling communities whose fortunes, one way or another,
have been linked to tobacco, textiles and furniture? The
answer is up to us. And assembled in this room tonight are
likely a hundred ideas for meeting the challenges and
opportunities ahead for North Carolina."
NCCBI's new
chairman believes
investing in workforce training today
will produce corporate profits tomorrow
 Dust
off your imaginations for a moment and think of what a
gathering like this one would have been like 100 years ago,
when top leaders from business and industry anticipated a new
century rich with the prospect of exciting technologies –
electricity, the automobile, the first fledgling steps toward
aviation. Railroads, steel and oil were the emerging
industries of the day. As things turned out, those pivotal and
empowering new technologies were primitive compared to what
came later – jet travel, atomic power, genetic mapping and
the Internet.
What will the
technologies, the industries, the businesses that define the
21st Century be?
More
importantly, will North Carolina be in a position to lead in
them or to merely react to them? Will we widen or narrow the
gap we now have between the high tech commercial corridors
along I-85 and I-40 and our struggling communities whose
fortunes, one way or another, have been linked to tobacco,
textiles and furniture?
The answer is
up to us. And assembled in this room tonight are likely a
hundred ideas for meeting the challenges and opportunities
ahead for North Carolina.
One that I
have, and I’ll take a moment to share it with you, involves
doing more to harness what is perhaps our most underutilized
resource – our workforce.
In my tenure
as chairman of AdvantageWest, the regional economic
development partnership for 23 western counties, I’ve
noticed dramatic changes in recent years when it comes to how
companies make decisions about expansion, relocation and site
selection. The process used to be fairly slow – firms, after
all, were making a major decision about their future and
wanted to take their time and be thorough. But it’s
different today, it’s much faster-paced. Businesses
competing in a global economy must move quickly to ramp-up new
sites. Amid fast-moving, fast changing economic realities,
time is of the essence and the pressure is on economic
developers to be ready when site-selection professionals call.
That means
being ready with high-quality industrial properties that have
the infrastructure today’s businesses need. It also means
having a workforce that is prepared. Simply having people
around that need jobs is no longer enough. Industry needs
workers with up-to—date skills, skills that are relevant in
today’s Information Age economy. That means assembly-line
workers trained on the latest computer systems, something
unimaginable just a few short years ago. And it means that
these individuals are ready to go to work in a modern
manufacturing plant from day one.
Like never
before, NCCBI’s strong leadership is needed in this critical
area. Given Phil Kirk’s role as chairman of the State Board
of Education, we have a natural link between business and the
classroom. And we need to involve key officials like Schools
Superintendent Mike Ward, Community College Systems President
Martin Lancaster and our university system leaders, all of
whom are on the same page when it comes to the need for bold
action n workforce development and training.
So, just as
the state recently addressed the need for adequate site
infrastructure with its Certified Industrial Site program for
all 100 counties, we must now dedicate ourselves to being
proactive when it comes to North Carolina/s workforce. Working
together, we can implement an ambitious program to ensure that
new and expanding industries have access to the best human
resources anywhere. That means launching an intensive effort
to collect data about our workforce:
Who are they?
Where are
they?
Where do they
work?
Are they
commuting to jobs in distant towns in order to earn an
adequate living?
Are they
working two or three jobs just to make ends meet?
Are their
skills everything they could be?
Are they
willing and able to participate in training programs to
enhance their employability?
Knowledge, it
is often said, equals power. And NCCBI’s leadership is
needed in helping the state understand its workforce better
than we currently do. Only then can we hope to seriously deal
with the gaps that exist between employees, employers and the
institutions that provide the right knowledge and skills to
our workforce.
As in the
case of the Certified Site Program, we must do these things
and more if we are to be ready when corporations consider
brining new jobs and investment o North Carolina. And in the
end, all of us will benefit by having a workforce capable of
competing with any in the nation.
Expect to
hear more on this key issue and be thinking about the
workforce initiative you’ve had experiences with. Whether
successful or not, they could be a significant factor for the
continued success of your businesses. I’m convinced that, in
the year 2001 and beyond, workforce readiness is urgent for
the entire state. On these and other fronts, we have an entire
new century to shape, so let the real work begin.
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