Editor’s note: This oped is by state Sen. Susan Bartlett, a candidate for governor and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
When you run for higher office, or any office for that matter, part of the campaign promise is, “I’ll work for better, more, green, whatever … jobs.” Well, who could be opposed to that idea?
The real question is, what will the next governor do to actually help make that promise a reality? What’s the vision or the plan to make this happen? Fair question, here’s my vision and my answer.
First, I don’t believe that government creates jobs. I believe that government can help create an environment that is supportive; making sure we have good telecommunications infrastructure, supporting job training programs and certainly helping with access to capital.
I have always believed that jobs are created locally and that for Vermont to flourish we should support our regional economic development groups and our regional planning commissions. These are the folks who know what is working in their areas, they know who needs help, and how to match the needs of local business with the available resources in the state for their part of Vermont.
That’s part one of the Bartlett administration economic development plan.
I have a new idea for how we can really grow jobs and business in Vermont. I believe that the next great opportunity for economic development for Vermont and our country is growing businesses by being good at the “processes” of innovation and intellectual property. We need to grow our strength and for years our strength has been innovation.
The first patent in the United States was held by a Vermonter, Samuel Hopkins. It was in 1790 on a method of making potash as an industrial chemical for making soap, glass, fertilizers and gunpowder. Today, believe it or not, Vermont has the highest per capita number of patents in America!
Innovation and entrepreneurs have always been a part of Vermont, but so far we have failed to acknowledge them as the true job creators they could become, mainly because we have failed to see these as processes we can get good at. Just like quality processes have helped improve quality, we can grow our strengths in Innovation and Intellectual Property. Now is the time to create a culture of innovation and intellectual property that will capitalize on our strength.
Now is the time to encourage innovation in Vermont and to help our companies develop and maintain a global advantage by using intellectual property to protect those innovative ideas.
When many of us think of innovation and intellectual property, we think of high tech, very complicated ideas. The world of innovation is much more. It’s the design patents on the maple leaf shaped bottle we see so much maple syrup sold in, it’s the K-Cup plastic single-serve coffee container, and it’s the way you make that fantastic downhill sled, the Mad River Rocket.
Innovation is all around us and it should be our next great business success story. Everyone is talking about green jobs, but to create new companies or grow existing ones, it’s about getting good at innovation processes. These processes help us map out strategies, understand where the new opportunities are, figure out how to extract and capture new ideas, and it’s about the process for developing and strengthening resultant patents and trade secrets. This will allow small Vermont companies to grow into large Vermont companies.
Patents allow tremendous leverage to a business if they are created and leveraged correctly. This leverage consists of enforcement or the fear of enforcement, giving the Vermont patent holding companies the ability to stop imitators. A small company would have a government right to stop even the largest companies from copying the creative work of Vermonters.
Patents will allow Vermont businesses to obtain licensing revenues, since most companies can’t capture the entire market itself. Small companies become much more valuable because they own their technology. This makes small companies much more attractive to investors.
Bottom line: innovation backed by intellectual property raises the value of small companies tremendously, which will create good paying Vermont jobs.
As governor I will establish a statewide office of Innovation and Intellectual Property. This would be very unique as states go and Vermont can be a leader in this approach.
We already have many companies and experts in Vermont to help us. This office would coordinate the various pieces of our business support organizations that currently exist and identify what is working, what is needed and where it is needed. This office would educate regional economic development groups about the potential of intellectual property and would help find the correct funding instruments for Vermont companies.
The Office of Innovation and Intellectual Property would hold daylong conferences around the state to bring together companies and individuals interested in leveraging their companies further through becoming expert in innovation and intellectual property. Even basic education would be a tremendous jumpstart to Vermont companies. This would be a chance for networking, meeting sources of funding, providing consulting on obtaining patents and why it’s important. We would begin to grow the culture of innovation and intellectual property.
We need to lead our state into the new economy, where 70% of the value of most companies are in it’s intangible assets and intellectual capital and intellectual property.
The office would identify funding sources to help companies get strategic intellectual properties and use these to grow their revenues and jobs they offer. The office would coordinate connections between companies to help with cross-company innovation in fields like green energy. The office would reach outside of Vermont to bring in partners, more capital and resources.
Back in the 1950s innovation backed by technology was key to the amazing growth of Silicon Valley. I believe that the next great success will be innovation backed by intellectual property. I believe that Vermont can lead the way.
We are already funding the Vermont Center of Emerging Technologies with money for seed capital to help small, innovative ideas turn into success stories. We will need to develop more of these dollars through public and private cooperation to truly grow the culture of innovation.
We need to establish business incubators around the state that focus on specific areas of innovation such as medical devices, renewable energy, energy efficiency, value-added foods and cleaning up the environment. The Office of Innovation and Intellectual Property would make certain that there is close collaboration between these incubators.
We have to work with our colleges to use their resources to change the business culture. Our young people need to see that Vermont can and will become the leader of new ideas and the exciting new business opportunities of tomorrow. They will help create the new jobs of the future. Our goal should be to import young people, not export our young people.
We have a wonderful opportunity to change the business culture in Vermont. We can grow our existing businesses and help Vermonters start new businesses. We can create jobs and generate prosperity. We can show our creativity through new ideas that can start new businesses, grow or reshape existing ones and engage all Vermonters to participate.
This isn’t just about high tech, it’s everything from making new soap products, marketing online, marketing infomercials, recycling trash, producing baby formulas, wind turbines, exercise equipment, ice cream and teddy bears!
We must become better at supporting innovation and intellectual property. That is the job that state government can and will help with in the Bartlett administration.
