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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWe’re intrigued by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s appointment of Brad Chambers, the founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based development firm Buckingham Cos., as the state’s new commerce secretary and head of the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
Chambers comes to the job with a different mindset—one that is focused as much on entrepreneurship and talent as it is on big companies and incentive deals—than many of state’s past job creation leaders.
That’s not a criticism. We celebrate as much as the next Hoosier when the IEDC announces that a company plans to bring hundreds—sometimes thousands—of jobs to the state. And we’ve been fans of the IEDC’s efforts to bolster direct foreign investment and international trade.
But it’s time, maybe past time, to consider whether incentivizing companies to move to Indiana is the best way to boost Indiana’s per-capita wages and overall prosperity. The question seems especially important given that the pandemic seems to have changed (although it’s not clear how permanently) the way workers view their jobs and companies view their staff.
More companies are allowing at least some of their employees to work from anywhere—which means those firms can recruit from anywhere and hire people who never plan to live in Indiana at all. “We’re completely freed up now from a talent-acquisition perspective to get the best talent in the seat, irrespective of location,” KAR Global’s chief innovation officer, Tom Fisher, told IBJ in May.
That puts workers in the driver’s seat, at least to some degree. And while there’s some speculation that could help Indiana, given the state’s low cost of living, we’re not quite so optimistic. The state must do everything it can to be attractive to workers who suddenly have choices—and that might mean finding ways to incentivize employees, rather than just employers, to be here.
That’s important for population growth as well as tax revenue. But it’s also key because some of those employees will become entrepreneurs. They’ll have big ideas and tire of working for someone else and decide to launch a new company.
We want those big thinkers to launch their ventures here in Indiana, which leads us to another point about the incoming commerce secretary. He told IBJ Publisher Nate Feltman in an interview at IBJ.com that it’s time for Indiana to “water those seeds of entrepreneurship.”
“The governor,” Chambers said, “is supportive of creating a stronger, unified entrepreneurial ecosystem in the state, in making us a nationally recognized landing place for entrepreneurs.”
To a large degree, Indiana already is that place, but Chambers said the state must do a better job telling that story, making people aware that this is a good place to do business.
But it’s most likely a founder will start a business in the place where he or she already is living, which brings us back to the need for the IEDC to focus on talent attraction as much as it focuses on attracting companies. We think Chambers is a good choice to move Indiana in that direction and urge Holcomb and others to support his efforts.•
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