High-Tech's Wish List

By Joseph P. Keithley
Keithley Instruments, Inc.

By giving high-tech industries what they need to succeed,
Northeast Ohio can make its own wishes come true.

High-tech industry is commonly recognized as the fuel in the engine of the "new economy" -- the path to prosperity for the foreseeable future. As high-tech hot-bed areas such as California's Silicon Valley and North Carolina's Research Triangle Park continue to boom, other communities around the country have begun asking themselves how they can attract and retain their share of the businesses that can power their economies into the next century.

After all, the potential payoffs are high. For example, Keithley Instruments represents one dynamic sector of high-tech industry -- Instruments and Controls (I&C). In Northeast Ohio alone, the I&C industry consists of more than 150 companies with over 8,000 employees who design and manufacture products used in energy conversion, industrial processes, quality assurance testing, and measurements associated with new product development. The success and expansion of these companies, in one high-tech sector alone, will contribute substantially to the region's overall economic growth.

But while communities are competing with each other to attract high-tech industry to their areas, high-tech businesses are competing to survive in a consistenty more challenging market. The development of global economics and the Internet's e-commerce potential have forced today's industries to compete on the international scale.

While global success must be our focus, Keithley, like many other high-tech companies, realizes that such success begins with an appropriate environment here at home. That's why the keys to attracting and retaining high-tech industries to this are the same as the keys to success for those individual businesses. By working together, businesses and communities like Northeast Ohio can accomplish a win-win situation.

High-tech firms will locate -- and thrive -- in areas that can provide three important assets:

1. Good (and ample) Employees

In a world of technology, people really do make the difference. High-tech companies like Keithley need a consistent supply of talented, well-educated people to design and manufacture the products of the future. But while the need for engineers is increasing, the number graduating from engineering schools is not, creating a workforce shortage that most high-tech industries are feeling.

Communities in search of high-tech's economic promise must take the initiative to properly develop their home-grown talent and/or successfully attract talent from outside areas. For Northeast Ohio, such initiatives begin with programs like SMART, an educational effort involving 22 school districts that are working to increase math and physics skills across the K-12 curriculum. Not only will SMART better prepare students for further technical education, but it should also increase students' interest in pursuing technical careers.

The region's colleges and universities can support high-tech industry by providing courses that reflect the latest in technological advances. Specifically for the I&C industry, this means offering up-to-date programs in electrical engineering and computer sciences. And all technology-centered programs need to have a strong research and development foundation.

To keep talent in the area after graduation, or to draw it here from other communities, Northeast Ohio must be able to offer people a high "quality of life." Competing with the coastlines is not an easy task, but our area does have a lot to offer. Further enhancement of the city's image can be accomplished through:

• Continued development of Cleveland's lakefront and downtown areas, including the addition of a modern convention center
• Regional organizations committed to promoting tourism and making Cleveland a high-visibility city
• Ongoing programs that help give the area a "high-tech feel," including strong, well-publicized technical research programs at local colleges and universities.