Quotes of the Week

Saturday, June 03, 2006

"Manufacturers tend to think, `We make stuff and we ship it,' and customers don't just want to buy stuff, they want you to solve problems for them. And increasingly, that means customers expect that you are going to somehow combine service and a product into a total solution that is going to make two or three of their `to-dos' on their to-do list go away." John Brandt, CEO of the Manufacturing Performance Institute Group.

"Our colleges and universities are successful — just not successful enough to confront the challenges of globalization without significant change." David Ward, president of the American Council on Education.

"There was a bunch of disconnected individual initiatives. There's a hundred things going on. We wanted to figure out a way to connect the dots." Eric A. Reisner, vice president for strategic programs at Johnson Controls on his company's expansion of their MetroMarkets initiative to a regional scale.

"Just as schools must improve their knowledge of the actual job skills required in the business world, so too must businesses improve their knowledge of the career paths available to their employees." Charles Lawton, Senior Economist, Plannning Decisions, a consulting firm in Portland, ME.

“We as a region have made the strategic choice to address the energy crisis facing our society. We would like Northern Colorado to become the global leader in attracting clean-energy projects, R&D (research and development) and technology.” J.J. Johnston, head of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation, announcing the creation of the Northern Colorado Clean Energy Cluster.

"From its research institutions, to its multi-national corporations and its 'techpreneurs,' Illinois has the necessary ingredients to create a new regional model." Richard Paullin, Chief Operating Officer of the Illinois Global Partnership, launching a forum in Chicago to highlight best practices for technology commercialization and new business creation.

"We look forward to seeing Ohio reclaim some of the gaming revenue that is lost to our neighboring states." Joe Roman, President and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership in announcing his organization's support of statewide gambling. (I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. By this logic, we ought to be building more amusement parks to recapture the money Clevelanders spend at Disneyworld. You can see my views here. Senator Voinovich, former mayor of Cleveland, is a leading opponent to gambling in Ohio. Based on my experience analyzing the impact of casinos in Louisiana, Senator Voinovich has got it right. Read more.)

posted by Ed Morrison |

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