Elastic Thought

Time to call a spade a spade (Part 2)

St. Louis is in bad shape.  And it's getting worse.  How do we start to turn this ship around?  I like the idea of withdrawing from the Midwest and looking more like a pro-business city like Atlanta or Dallas.  Boosting small business since most new jobs are are generated by new and small companies.

I like making our economy more dynamic and pushing the entrepreneurship factor up a notch instead of being complacent with the status quo.  But those have all been proposed before.  I will support those until the days I'm forced out of St. Louis, but I've got one more theory to add to the conversation:

Let's stop pretending and tell the region and the country that we are in trouble.  Let's publicize it.  Let's swallow our pride and ask for help.

But in a smart way.

What do i mean by that?  Well, let's look at Detroit for example. Mayor Bing has asked local businesses to invest and help with the recovery.  There are recovery centers being set up.  Small business is generating a recovery right alongside the auto industry.  CNN Money has a special site and says "It's a city in crisis--but with potential for a big comeback.  Despite an ailing auto industry and the highest jobless rate in the nation, Detroiters are determined to make their hometown thrive once again."  There are entrepreneurial businesses that are taking advantage of a depressed economy and finding good, inexpensive facilities and a reinvigorated skilled work force to help them out.

In short, Detroit was not afraid to show its problems to the country, and the country responded.  There is a pride in the city, but also in those not native to the city that are bringing their companies there.  They know they are getting a good deal for their business, but also feel a pride in helping the recovery of one of America's great cities.

So… St. Louis may not be as desolate as the bleak pictures we've seen of Detroit, but we're moving in that direction.  Why can't we take the same approach?  St. Louis was a phenomenal city in the middle of America and, like Detroit, has the potential for a huge comeback.  But with an attitude of "we're fine, thank you, now move on," we're never going to get the response Detroit got.

We need a focus on St. Louis.  We need a dynamic leadership that doesn't continue to paint a rosy picture of St. Louis as a great place for families.  We need a recovery effort.  We need people from around the country feeling that they can bring their businesses and entrepreneurial spirit to a region that needs it and they can feel good about the move.  We can't afford to keep sweeping the problems under the rug and putting on the stiff upper lip.  It's time to ask for help.

There are St. Louisans who are determined to make their hometown thrive once again.  Use us.  But don't hedge our efforts and water them down with counter statement on how St. Louis is doing just fine.  We're not.  (And we CAN be pro-business AND pro-family-friendly, but that's another blog post).

So to my friend graduating from college in May and moving back to St. Louis: thank you.  I hope more people follow your lead. And  I hope MICDS (and other schools) add something to their curriculum:  train and educate the best and the brightest St. Louis has to offer AND instill in them early a pride in St. Louis and instill in them a sense of duty to come back and fix this city.

And to Mayor Slay, whoever replaces Dick Fleming at the RCGA, Civic Progress, SBA, or anyone out there that is in a position to change this thing around:  I'm here to help.

Time to call a spade a spade (Part 1)

St. Louis is in bad shape.  And it's getting worse.  I don't think that is news to anyone.  At least here in St. Louis.  We're notorious for complaining about the city to each other.  There is a defeatist type mentality at networking events and elsewhere that permeates just below the surface.  That's not to say everyone does.  I've had plenty of conversations with people who want to change that.  But they all run out of steam at some point.

But when we talk to other people from other cities, we put on a stiff upper lip and talk about how great our city is.  The zoo, the great place to raise a family, the "low" cost of living (in some places), etc.  In short… we're doing fine, thank you for asking, now move along.  I guess call it a pride thing.

So what happens?  People do move right along.  They see us as an insulated little city that seems to do fine amongst ourselves.  And I see this in so many other areas of business as well.  We take bad news and craft it into good news somehow so as not to worry anyone.  We put up a facade that masks the problem.  Only to let the problem grow.  Remember the Mac vs. PC ad with the PR lady?  "By downgrading, he means upgrading to a more familiar stable platform."

We've seen articles in the Post Dispatch for a long time about how our region's economy has barely grown in over ten years including one just this morning.  But a recent conversation I had with a college senior really hit home to me how deep this problem really goes.  It was a simple statement at the time:

"None of my graduating class from high school have any plans for coming back to St. Louis after college."

What made it so profound for me, why i milled on it a lot overnight and wanted to write this blog post the next morning was that the school was MICDS.  For those that don't know MICDS (you're probably outside of St. Louis reading this if you don't), but it is one of the premier college prep schools in the city.  Highly renowned, and the majority of the more prominent and influential families send their kids there.

Why is this important?  Well, let's break down one of St. Louis' biggest problems: creating, attracting, and retaining skilled workers.  We know that manufacturing has taken a hit in St. Louis, but so has the professional and business services category (law firms, architects, ad agencies, and more) falling 14% just last year.  Your first line of defense on retaining workers is keeping the ones you educate here to stay here.  And considering a lot of MICDS families are partners in those professional and business services firms, owners of businesses in St. Louis, and generally working in areas that help St. Louis as an economic base, you'd think their kids would come back after college, use those connections here in St. Louis and build from that.

And in the past, they have.  A lot of our business leaders today went to that school.  But when the majority of the most recent graduating classes vows to not come back, something is wrong. Now, think about the other smart, talented, skilled kids graduating from other schools that don't have as many connections as the MICDS graduates.  Think they have a chance in hell?  Those graduates make a decision around a year before graduating college: a) family is important to me, so I will severely limit my career potential to go home and live a comfortable life in St. Louis, or b) pursue their career to the fullest in another city with the thought they may one day come back to family in St. Louis after they have "made it."

BUT….

Here is what made the conversation with that senior so enlightening and led me to think of a new strategy.  This statement he made was in the middle of explaining why HE was coming back to St. Louis (the only in his circle of friends).  In short, he felt he owed it to the city he grew up in.  He felt a duty, a calling (not to get too cheesy here), but at his young age, he understood the seriousness of the situation and wanted to do something about it.  His plan is simple right now: to stop being a statistic and to lead by example.  But I know in further talks with him, he'll do more.  And I'm glad he is (and will).  I'm going to do everything I can do to help him.

AND…

He gave me an idea I want to throw out here to see if it might help turn the tide here in St. Louis.  Well, an idea I'll do in another blog post.  This one is getting a bit long.