Can the Commonwealth Maintain Its High-Tech Leadership?
Massachusetts must leverage its intellectual capital to build a sustainable competitive advantage in the new global economy.
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| Jim Champy, Co-Chair, Mass Insight’s IT Working Group |
Massachusetts has long been at the forefront of innovations in science and technology. Important 20th century advances such as radar, the Internet and nanotechnology have their roots here. Technologies from our universities and companies have helped build a Massachusetts Information Technology, Communications and Defense sector that employs 331,000 workers, and whose strength over the past year has helped offset weaknesses in other parts of our economy.
Yet this tech-heavy sector faces significant long-term challenges, according to a report to be formally released in June by Mass Insight Corp., a consulting group that helps foster partnerships among local businesses, universities and government. According to the report, Building and Sustaining a Leadership Position for Massachusetts in IT, Communications and Defense, the Commonwealth’s tech sector is experiencing declining employment and generating a shrinking share of the nation’s new high-tech start-ups.
The good news is that Massachusetts is still a pioneer in research and development. Microsoft, for example, is locating a new lab in Cambridge — Microsoft Research New England — to collaborate with leading computer scientists and social scientists in the region. This new facility, scheduled to open in July, will pursue research to improve computing experiences in an increasingly online world.
But for the state’s tech industry to remain vital, we must do more to commercialize technology developed in our colleges and universities and strengthen our already highly skilled workforce, according to the Mass Insight report, authored by McKinsey & Co. The report recommends speeding the transfer of university research into the marketplace by establishing closer links among academics, industry and investors.
The Deshpande Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, provides mentoring and other aid to help faculty and students turn promising projects into businesses. Since it was established in 2002, the center has boosted the number of start-ups launched annually at the university by 40 percent.
To develop our workforce, the report recommends that the Commonwealth create a Talent Development Bank at the University of Massachusetts. This market-oriented group would help align the curricula of the state’s public and private science and engineering schools with the needs of high-tech employers. Worcester Polytechnic Institute took this approach when it worked closely with industry to establish an undergraduate program in Robotics Engineering. The “bank” would also expand the state’s skilled labor pool by encouraging students who come to our state for higher education to remain here after graduation.
Massachusetts has the intellectual capital necessary to remain a leader in innovation and business growth. The challenge and the opportunity is for the private and public sectors to work together to leverage our assets to create a sustainable competitive advantage for our state in the new global economy.
Jim Champy is chairman of Perot Systems’ consulting practice and author of OUTSMART! How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t.
