Promoting the state

Jack L. Fischer
Wisconsin Commerce Secretary
Age:  54
Hometown: Appleton
Family: Married with three children.
Education: Fischer received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Experience: Fischer was president and CEO of the Fischer Group Companies when he was tapped for the secretary's job. The companies focus on the development of retail malls, offices and residential house development alternatives. Fischer is also past president of JP-Marathon Inc. and Interglobia Inc., a development company. He retired from Marathon after 22 years as an officer.
About  the agency: The Commerce Department oversees the state's economic development programs along with responsibilities that range from regulating petroleum products and storage tank systems to providing housing assistance to low- and moderate-income households. It has almost 400 employees and an annual budget of more than $200 million.

Q: How has your private sector experience prepared you for this job?

A: I guess if I look back over my 30 years, I've been involved in a lot of economic development opportunities. I was involved with the Chamber of Commerce for approximately 10 years and was vice chairman of economic development for them in the Fox Cities. Also worked with a great group of people that promoted the state of Wisconsin, and a number of agendas and initiatives that through that process gave me broad exposure in the economic development arena.

In addition to that as a private consultant, working with a lot of national and international firms in a repetitious fashion, it gave me the opportunity to sit with them and understand what their business vision was, what were their strategies, what were they trying to accomplish.

And as they looked at where they should locate, where should they expand, what elements of their business were robust that they wanted to look at long-term planning.

The nice thing about it in the profession that I served, is our consulting role was as an active participant . So, we were involved in strategy sessions.

We were involved in a certain amount of the placement decisions. We helped to analyze and evaluate multiple locations. We worked on all the site criteria evaluation.

We had the opportunity to really get actively involved in helping our customers and our clients understand what were good decisions for their business. That is one piece of my 30 years of experience that adds a nice dimension to complement this whole economic development initiative to help understand, "What do private businesses look for?"

Q: What convinced you to leave the private sector to join the department? Had you ever thought of working in state government before? Did the governor's people approach you, or had you expressed any interest in the job in the past?

A: My background with the governor goes back some five years. The governor asked me to serve on the Wisconsin International Trade Council. Because of my experience with a lot of international opportunities and working with an international company, the governor asked me to participate in that role and I have. That is how I guess I became very acquainted with the governor.

Through that time, we've been able to stay closely in touch with a lot of these initiatives. For me, it was the right place at the right time to try to give something back to a state that's been so good to me and my family. As part of that process, the match with my experience, along with the governor's initiatives, were kind of a complement. That's what brought it together.

Q: What's your vision for the agency?

A: The vision really comes from Gov. Doyle. He has a strong, strong economic vision for the state of Wisconsin.

I'm here to reinforce that, to make our existing businesses and manufacturers as strong as we can, to complement them, to continue with the resources that are out there that the governor has established.

You think about all the different initiatives that have been developed, some very unique and very innovative. A big part of what we're going to do is to continue to focus on becoming very engaged with outreach. We're going to make sure people in this state and internationally know about Wisconsin.

We're going to reinforce the whole export piece, the manufacturing, all of the private sectors that we've been able to identify that we really have complementary strengths in like the biosciences area. The governor has got some great renewable energy initiatives that we're talking about that he's been able to bring in some tremendous leadership on.

But we don't want to forget the really strong, staunch manufacturing play that the governor has supported time and time again for these manufacturers.

Q: Considering your extensive background of working with international companies, do you think you were attractive for this job in part because you might be able to help expand those boundaries with where we're looking as a state to go overseas?

A: I bring maybe another dimension of international connection, but the governor is really a strong believer in a very focused international collaboration. That is reinforced by our outreach, it's reinforced by the relationships that continue to develop through our business development leaders. It's reinforced by our trips abroad. The governor is leading those initiatives in every respect. I only hope to complement and reinforce that, and to keep it a very, very high focus for the state of Wisconsin.

Q: Under the Doyle administration, the agency has taken the approach that it's best to focus on existing Wisconsin companies for state aid to help grow jobs rather than trying to attract outside firms. Do you want to continue that, or do you think there are areas to grow to attract other business to Wisconsin?

A. We are going to continue to work hard to attract out-of-state businesses. There's no question that it's important to pay attention to your retention needs in the state. But we have to complement those existing businesses.

We are going to have a very focused initiative, as directed by the governor, to reach out to listen and to say, "Give us a chance. See the great things we have in Wisconsin." When you see the individuals who come and spend time to listen to our story, the results are very, very strong.

Q: Can the state really have that big of an impact on job growth, or is it best for government to simply get out of the way and allow the market to work?

A: We need to complement it. It takes all of us. It takes a combination of tools.

The governor has worked really hard to put a lot of tools into play that really make a difference for businesses to make a decision to come to Wisconsin. His leadership has been outstanding in that area.

You think about angel funds. You think about the initiatives in all these bioscience areas. We have today a robust and growing group of people who are willing to look at investing in the state of Wisconsin, both homegrown and other outside parties, and why? Because we're really taking a leadership role in a lot of these business areas.

You look at the complement - that whole bioscience area is one - the tax initiatives that the governor has put together to allow us to support those angel groups is very impressive.

My personal participation in the past in some of these areas has really brought it to the understanding and the forefront that these things make a difference. That's why these business come here, stay here, grow here, have the entrepreneurial spirit to be here because there's great leadership coming from these programs under a number of Gov. Doyle's initiatives.

Q: Wisconsin always seems to be fighting that tax hell status and there seem to always be complaints from the business community about that tax status. To you, what are the real challenges for businesses in Wisconsin, and what can the state do to help overcome them?

A: The state has a number of initiatives that are really exciting, the connection between education and economic development.

You see these complementary initiatives taking place all across the state at our university levels. You have the technical college participation, as well as the university level participation, being driven by a number of these economic development focused pieces that are in play that the governor has led.

It's taking a broad-based collaboration to deal with all these initiatives that business people look at and the decisions that they make.

By having great political leadership, by putting tools in place, by having these tax programs that are led by the governor and supported by many folks, and then having the private sector piece with their innovation, their thought process, their drive, the labor force that's so strong in this state all come together to make Wisconsin pretty special. And that doesn't even address the whole quality of life initiative, which is sometimes very tough to measure but so real.

There are many instances in my past where my friends and colleagues, who talk about things like we need to attract talent to Wisconsin, go out, search and bring these wonderful people in. The first few months they get acclimated. The second few months they begin to love the place. The second year they become so fond of Wisconsin, its people, its heritage, its activities that they finally say, "We're not leaving this place. We want to grow. We want to make it happen." As a part of that, there have been a number of folks that have been willing to step forward that have talked about why Wisconsin.

Q: How does a guy who's got architecture in his background end up working on siting the largest Motorola plant outside of the United States in Brazil? How did that transition go in your professional life?

A: My professional life was one as a partner and principal with a large practice. That large practice had a connection through our international consulting consortium, we were part of a very large international company, and because of the relationships and networking globally, you're given the opportunity to cross state lines, cross regional lines and look at how many of these companies want to be served globally. Our work process, and our whole history as a large consulting firm, was to provide services locally and globally. That was a part of our expertise.

Q: After college, did you work in architecture? Did you design anything? Did you get hooked up in consulting right way?

A: I started very young through college and as a consultant, as an architect working with my own firm, with partners, expanding that, and working through ultimately what was a growing company. I had the opportunity to work with many great people that helped us to expand that. Yes, I was involved in many design teams with many, many, many qualified individuals. Some of our larger jobs would have 20 to 25 people engaged in that work process and even much, much larger teams.

Q: But you had your own firm in college?

A: Yes. I was working the school paper in college and having a good time. I'm kind of fascinated by someone who's got a consulting group working with him in college.

I started more on the design/construction area. I started very small and very humble and had the great fortune to grow that over time by adding quality people and providing a quality service. My original work started out in the residential area.

Q: Was that consulting firm the one you were with all those years? Did you do different consulting firms?

A: This really isn't about me. One of the things that I would just like to ask is that what's really important to me is that this is all about economic growth for the state of Wisconsin. It's a passion that the governor has. It's a passion that I complement. I really want to work hard to engage the public and private sector tools, resources to let people know that the state of Wisconsin is an outstanding place to have a business. Everything that we do to reinforce that is important.

The governor's collaboration, working on all these different business outreach, dealing with the property tax issues, dealing with the sales and use tax, dealing with the individual activities that are going on, all these programs and initiatives that match up to make it a great place to grow our business and have new business locate is what we're about. I do appreciate your question, but what really is really important for us is to reinforce all the great things that the state of Wisconsin has to offer, and it is many.

If people out there give us a chance, come listen, come listen to our story. Listen to our leadership, look at our political leadership, talk to the other CEOs of the state. If they look at all these wonderful, focused programs that we have going on, they will want to be here, they'll want to be a part of it, and they'll want to stay here. That's what this is really about for me.