Itasca Project Overview

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Itasca Project Overview

• Minnesota Council on Foundations

November 18, 2004
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THE ITASCA PROJECT An employer-led project to
drive regional efforts to keep the Twin Cities
economy and quality of life competitive with
other regions
Who are we? 40-plus community leaders including C
EOs, the Governor, the Mayors of Minneapolis and
St. Paul, and the President of the University
What do we do? Identify issues with high economic
and quality of life impact for the region
Become actively engaged in those priority issues
for which we believe we can Fill a civic leadersh
ip gap Apply a fresh approach and/or accelerate p
romising efforts Unite public, nonprofit and bus
iness interests behind common goals and solutions
for faster, better results
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2004 ITASCA PROJECT PRIORITIES
Help the University of MN develop processes to
make a bigger contribution to regional economic
development efforts Support and expand current
efforts to retain and grow leading employers
Support creation and implementation of a broadly
supported, comprehensive regional transportation
plan
Action Initiatives
Foundation- building Initiatives
Create a plan and mobilize business community to
improve early childhood development
Develop business perspective on addressing regio
nal economic disparities among races
Align and coordinate efforts to support and grow
small companies and nurture nascent industries
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BUILDING A STRONGER UNIVERSITY-BUSINESS
PARTNERSHIP WHY ARE WE INVOLVED?
Percentage of University RD sponsored by
industry at regions flagship research
university, 2000
Research universities are a primary economic eng
ine for successful regions. In 2001, 500 new
companies were formed in the U.S. based on
academic discovery 84 in the same state as the
institution that licensed the technology
Our peer regions lead the Twin Cities in industr
y-sponsored RD by a 21 margin
Both University of Minnesota officials and corpo
rate leaders believe much more could be done to
work cooperatively for the good of the region
Twin Cities
National average
Peer average
Note Peer regions are Atlanta, Austin,
Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orange County,
Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, and
Seattle Source Great North Alliance
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BUILDING A STRONGER UNIVERSITY-BUSINESS
PARTNERSHIP WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Teams of loaned executives from Itasca Project
participant companies and University of Minnesota
officials are working on three projects that will
fundamentally transform the way businesses and
the university interact in order to benefit the
regional economy Creating a front door to the
university to facilitate university- business
cooperation Improving commercialization of intell
ectual property Strengthening the university as a
talent magnet for the region
Task force chair Jim McNerney, 3M
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RETAINING AND GROWING LEADING EMPLOYERS WHY
ARE WE INVOLVED?
Number of Fortune 500 headquarters per 10,000
establishments
The Twin Cities is home to 15 Fortune 500 compan
y headquarters and 941 other major headquarters
an unusually strong institutional base for
economic development Our leading employers play
an enormous role in our regions economic
success Attracting talent Spinning off new comp
anies Providing high-wage, high-skill jobs Contr
ibuting to the community Economic development e
fforts typically focus on attracting new
companies to an area rather than retaining and
growing critical current companies
79 more
Twin Cities
Peer region average
Note Peer regions are Atlanta, Austin,
Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orange County,
Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, and
Seattle Source Great North Alliance
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RETAINING AND GROWING LEADING EMPLOYERS WHAT
ARE WE DOING?
Building off the MN Chambers Grow Minnesota! In
itiative, task force members are
Meeting with the CEOs of the regions largest
companies Developing recommendations for how the
business community can better support these
companies (e.g., relocation/expansion support,
networking opportunities, etc.)
Task force chair Jon Campbell, Wells Fargo
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ADVANCING A COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN
WHY ARE WE INVOLVED?
Growth in total hours of delay Millions
A robust transportation system is critical for t
he regions economic growth and quality of life
The state of Minnesota has underinvested for yea
rs in transportation due to age-old political
divisions (e.g., roads vs. transit, metro vs.
out state). As a result The metro area faces dra
matically worsening congestion
Greater MN roads need safety improvements
We have less transit choice than peer regions
We are now facing transportation investment need
s estimated to be as much as 1 billion per
year and no clear political momentum for action
1982
1992
2002
Our typical peak time traveler wastes 42 hours
per year a full work week sitting in traffic
Regions with population between 1 and 3
million Source Texas Transportation Institute,
2004 Urban Mobility Study
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ADVANCING A COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Working with all the varied transportation
interests to build broad consensus around shared
solutions. Itasca is taking flexible approach on
plan specifics to serve as mediator for between
other players Inject new thinking about reform
and efficiency opportunities into the debate. We
believe there is significant opportunity to
improve performance of our current system as part
of any new investment program Convert growing p
ublic irritation with transportation issues into
demands for legislative action. 58 of
metro residents rate transportation-related
issues as the single greatest quality-of-life
issue in the metro but few Minnesotans hold their
legislators accountable for progress
Task force co-chairs Jay Cowles, Unity Ave
Assoc.
Charlie Zelle, Jefferson Lines
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IMPROVING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT WHY ARE
WE INVOLVED?
Fewer than 50 of MN children are fully ready for
schoolPercent of kindergarteners
rated proficient
More than 80 of Minnesota children under 5 are
in regular, nonparental childcare each week, but
only 20 of MN childcare centers are rated
developmentally positive Quality early childhoo
d development programming has been proven to
significantly impact later life success (e.g.,
higher educational achievement, lower welfare and
incarceration rates) Federal Reserve analysis h
as shown that 1 invested in high-quality ECD
programs returns 8. ECD is one of the best
possible economic development investments
There is growing awareness among business leader
s of the importance of ECD but no strategy for
advancing the issue
Personal/ social
Language/literacy
Math
Arts/creativity
At-risk children in MN are 2-3 times more likely
to be unprepared for school and performance gaps
persist over time
Source MN School Readiness Assessment, 2003
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IMPROVING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT WHAT ARE
WE DOING?
Led by University of Minnesota experts, we are
working with the United Way, the MN School
Readiness Business Advisory Council, Ready 4K,
and others to develop a highly-focused strategy
for improving ECD in Minnesota
We will advance a common agenda that includes
Educating parents to make better ECD decisions
Increasing access to high-quality programs for
at-risk kids Upgrading quality of care and holdi
ng providers accountable for results
Improving overall system performance,
coordination, and governance
Task force chair Bob Bruininks, U of M
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ADDRESSING ECONOMIC DISPARITIES AMONG RACES WHY
ARE WE INVOLVED?
There is significant evidence that racial
background is strongly correlated with life
experience in Minnesota but little understanding
of the broader implications of these disparities
Inadequate prenatal care
High school completion
8th graders passing BST reading
Homeownership (differential adds)
Poverty rate
White Asian Hispanic American-Indian African-A
merican
3.2 9.8 11.2 17.4 12.4
82.5 68.3 46.7 42.8 38.5
89 60 57 57 48
1.00 (baseline) 0.47 0.51 0.32 0.27
4 19 18 23 27
Birth
Death
Years of poten-tial life lost (per 100,000
population)
Teen birth rates(per 1,000 females)
Under-employment (differential adds)
Median income
Infant mortality(per 1,000 births)
2,731 2,493 3,007 7,654 5,475
White Asian Hispanic American-Indian African-A
merican
5.2 7.0 6.8 12.0 12.7
21.7 52.4 110.2 97.3 75.4
1.00 (baseline) 1.26 1.37 1.79 1.51
56,500 47,300 39,300 34,200 29,400
Total sum of years of life lost annually by
persons who suffered premature death (before age
65) per 100,000 population
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ADDRESSING ECONOMIC DISPARITIES AMONG RACES
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Bringing facts, implications and strategic
options to light that will improve Minnesotas
overall economic standing. A team from the Bro
okings Institution is leading an effort to
develop the economic case for addressing
disparities and a framework to understand
potential strategies A team from MNSCU is lead
ing an effort to catalog and understand current
efforts to address these issues in the region and
to identify gaps and overlaps Based on the resu
lts of these efforts, the task force will develop
a perspective on what needs to be done in the
region and what roles the business community may
best play
Task force chair Mary Brainerd, Health Partners
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SUPPORTING THE GROWTH OF SMALL BUSINESS AND
CLUSTERS WHY ARE WE INVOLVED?
Young, fast-growing companies are the best sou
rce for new jobs Minnesota lags peers on many m
easures of small business growth and innovation
(e.g., venture capital funding and flow) and is
last among states in business churn (high churn
is indicative of innovation and growth)
Current efforts to support small company growth
and emerging clusters are fragmented
Sources of net U.S. job growthPercent
Startups and gazelles
All other firms
Number of firms
Share of net job growth
1992-1996 Companies growing at 20 annuall
y for the period
Source Cognetics
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SUPPORTING THE GROWTH OF SMALL BUSINESS AND
CLUSTERS WHAT ARE WE DOING?
The task force is currently Reviewing recent tren
ds among small business and emerging industries
in the Twin Cities Benchmarking our performance a
gainst our peer regions, the U.S. and globally
Evaluating potential strategies and initiatives
from other regions Next steps include Identify
ing gaps in the array of services necessary to
support growth Identifying promising strategies
that would benefit from Itasca Project leadership
and business participation
Task force chair Tom Kieffer, Agiliti