I met with a senior executive in Durham this morning to discuss how the stressed national economy could affect our normally resilient regional economy. Highlights of our discussion:

- the RTP of 2060 will, of course, be entirely different than the 50 year old RTP of today. And the RTP of the near future is not guaranteed to remain as relevant or exemplary as it is today due to the ease with which capital, commodity goods and labor are priced around our globe. Co-location is not the advantage that it once was.

- as reported by the local press on the 11 August 2010, there is an opportunity for the three major universities in the RTP to employ new technologies to help to commercialize their research efforts. And to be successful, such an effort will require a level of inter-university cooperation and business skills that are not usually the strength of academic institutions.

- the customary channels of regional economic development are affected by the
reduction in funding for state and local governments and entities. There will be fewer scouts and promoters for new business. Like their counterparts in the commercial world, customer retention and finely tuned customer identification will be areas of keen focus.

- more spending? less long term debt? no one is certain what is the answer or even the proper mix of solutions as the nation’s economy and integrated global economy travel in uncharted waters. Those well educated and well established seem able to ride out the stormy weather. Those entering or re-entering the job market or in industries not essential to a functioning economy are in a long line of pessimistic hopefuls.

- the curve of economic recovery, like that of General Motors (soon to IPO) could have been V shaped (good to bottom to good) had banks been forced to fully declare their financial positions in 2008; instead, we cut-off the bottom of the V by salvaging essentially dead banks, turning the V into a hoped-for U. At present course and with the public’s exclamatory distaste for more debt, the U recovery may be taking the form of an L (good to bottom without return to good in focus).

- new problems must be solved with fresh thinking and the willingness to experiment and to practice.

What app will look like when iPad available.

Those closed eyes! Thanks to Ernie Hood for filming the interview.

Participated, and fortunate to do so, in the annual Fuqua Business School’s High Tech Conference on Wednesday and attended, gladly to do so, the Summit on Nano Technology and the Environment, program here on Thursday. My guess is that even though the Fuqua School and the Bio Tech Center, host of the Summit, are separated by 8 miles of distance, their purposes and perspectives keeps them miles apart. Yet, each expressed an interest in meeting more of the other. A recurring theme of the nano conference presentations was not to let the capabilities of the science get too far ahead of the ‘public’s acceptance’ of this science. Lessons from the hysteria of genetically altered crops, aka Franken-science, remain vivid.

Forty percent of the Fuqua MBA program comprises international students and ones who are ambitious, accomplished and clever as well courteous and purposeful. Deflating for me is that 90% of the Hi Tech Club comprises international students. I guess that my fellow Americans who join the Retail, Finance and Energy Clubs at Fuqua don’t feel comfortable in the HT Club, or worse, maybe don’t feel that technology will have much bearing in their future roles. Cannot be true! Even though the average age of an MBA candidate is 30, meaning that they have plenty of work experience, they are eager for tips and secrets and leads for employment. Is there a science to the adult, working world? Which made me ponder the notion of a Masters of Business Administration. Do we need business administrators? Can leadership be taught ’cause this is what we need. Is not the essence of leadership selfless service or sacrifice? Here’s a B-school promo: come to XXX for $120k in real cost and learn to sacrifice or help others to perform better. I’d like to change the name of the degree to Masters of Business Innovation or is this too close to Tom Wolfe’s masters of the universe image in The Bonfire of the Vanities?

At lunch, I asked if the business school curriculum taught business development or sales. ‘Not really’ was the table’s reply. What business is there to administer if there is no top-line or revenue?! Reminds me of my transition from the Naval Academy to the fleet or real Navy. At Annapolis, we learned a lot about ship design and missile intercept solutions. Didn’t get too much insight into how to manage a division of 15 to 18 sailors, most older, some smarter and all more worldly than me. This was my first assignment as I didn’t do much ship driving or any missile firing until much later. OK- it’s not news now that the adult world’s concept of management and organizational behavior is about as fragile and outmoded as, well, as is our banking system.

Governor Hunt welcomed attendees. Did you know that he was governor twice, twice = 16 years.

The highlight of the Nano Summit was the presentation by Dr. Joe DeSimone, reknown chemist and entrepreneur. Yes, Virginia, one can be both. He spoke adeptly about his vision for nano technology and even though he pitched his latest venture, Liquidia, his presentation was interesting, informative, well substantiated (meaning his charts aided his talk; his talk did not furnish color commentary for the charts as we too, too often suffer). Dr. Joe knows how to make a business of science and has a keen sense of the science of business. I learned more about the potential of nano technology in his 20 minutes than I’ve in 3 years of trying to read the occasional article on this topic.

My conclusion from these two days is that there is enormous opportunity for those with an aptitude, if not the scholarship, to discuss the business value of technology. How can we shorten the distance between our RTP business schools and our RTP scientists?

My job is to think about and to discuss the potential of newer Internet tools to better connect businesses to their constituents. It’s a tough sell to persuade business school educated executives that the likes of Facebook and Twitter are making a permanent difference. The only rock that I am able to cling to is the example of Apple’s iTunes as it didn’t sell a song ten years ago and now rules the music distribution business without much complaint by its own customers. I find the resistance to this trend of facilitating people to people connections to be as curious as I find the eruption of confidence in the stock market over the past three or four months with a 50% improvement in the market’s performance. Maybe we over-corrected and are just getting to the level of proper adjustment since the collapse in 9/08?! My personal evidence of the sluggish state of things is the merchants with whom I speak in our RTP: one hotel near RTP is down more than 50% in room-nights over the past year and the barber says that the back-to school-cuts for women and college girls is no where near usual levels. And the dollar for travelers is at a one year low. The flights may be inexpensive to Europe, the coffee and accommodations will not be upon arrival. Pessimistic nature accounted, I’d prefer a sober assessment of our financial plight and a call for true common sacrifice – a plan with goals and measurements such as taxing gasoline so that we may wean ourselves of foreign oil dependency.

One bright spot is that I find people willing and eager to congregate. Mr. Sugar fulfilled his ambition of a Long Table dinner comprised of loosely connected attendees (word spread by Twitter). The table wasn’t long and the food was cooked elsewhere and we’ll have to see if the community wants to perpetuate this notion. I enjoyed telling my story of the Stolen Oldsmobile for my 10th birthday (King’s birthday) and hearing the tale of the unplanned attendance by Julie Child at an Atlanta, Georgia dinner party. Last night, our RTP hosted one its periodic Techie Tuesdays, an effort to connect the workers who labor behind the pine tree buffers. Both good efforts in an important moment where trust and confidence, if not inspiration, is eagerly, if not desperately, sought.

Techie Tuesday on left; Inaugural Long Table on the right.