Madison's hot growth stock

Ted Beck

State government and the presence of a world-class university often overshadow the facts of business life here.

When we try to clarify Madison's potential in terms of business, we tend to overlook what's already here. We jump to our desire to achieve preeminence in the biotech sector, which is something that I believe we will achieve in the future.

But, for right now, we should not overlook the fact that we already have a major economic force working for us: education. It is a huge part of the local economy. It is a defining characteristic of the city of Madison.

For years, the university has, without fanfare, developed exceptional strengths in professional training for engineering, medical sciences and business, to name a few. People continually return to this city seeking expertise, knowledge and training. They spend money and establish temporary or permanent homes. Hotels, restaurants, stores, sporting and cultural events are all heavily patronized by people coming here to learn.

It's so obvious that we sometimes forget that education and training are important products of Madison's economy. The good news is that these enterprises ? ours and many others on and off the UW-Madison campus ? are already here and don't require huge risks or large infusions of investment capital.

As we provide education for the people seeking to better themselves and improve the effectiveness of their organizations, we are also giving them a chance to look around and experience Madison.

So it also seems obvious that this hidden strength may solve one of our other often-discussed problems: brain drain. As we know, many of our students conclude that they'd like to stay here. Some can't because there aren't the jobs or the financial opportunities. If we focus on enhancing our position as an educational hub, we will be able to develop more opportunities for people who come to school here to stay here.

Our supply of education as a product is so large, in fact, that it is also one of our greatest exports.

Who doesn't know a Ph.D., entrepreneur or scientist who has set up shop here as a consultant? These people provide services to clients around the world but choose to live here.

How do we leverage Madison's reputation as an educational hub? For one thing, we should exploit what we have available to us.

Many of our executive education visitors tell us how much they appreciate the layout of our city, in that the footprint of the university is intermingled with that of the Downtown business and arts communities. This is a unique advantage not enjoyed by many other cities.

So what are the downsides? I am hard-pressed to think of a business that we could attract here that would better fit into the social fabric of Madison. Is there any industry more environmentally friendly than continuing education? It uses existing resources and does not stress our infrastructure. It attracts the kind of people we'd like to invite to stay, and will help Madison grow into what we want it to be in the future.

But we've been far too modest about our abilities in education.

We need to make sure more people are aware of Madison as a destination, an educational hub. We have yet to build this into the strategy of the city and of the university.

We should not ignore one of our inherent strengths. We need, instead, to use it to help the city realize its plan for intelligent business development and growth.

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