NWSCDC

It starts here.

On N. 30^th and West Roosevelt Ave on Milwaukee’s North Side.

Today.

We are building an industry here on the North Side. The technical term is an industry cluster. We are starting with DRS, whose office we are located in, and will run south through the length of the entire 30^th St. Industrial Corridor. The vehicle for moving new business formation ahead while retaining the founding members of the cluster is WERC---the Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium.

WERC is made up major companies in Milwaukee including WE Energies, DRS, Johnson Controls, Rockwell Automation, Eaton and a few more. They have teamed with the engineering departments at UW-Milwaukee, UW-Madison, Marquette University, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. WERC has three mandates: research industry-wide problems that hold the energy sector behind, spin off new companies, and help to replace an aging workforce. That’s where we come in!

I have a beautiful view out of my window facing south. I can see the old Tower Automotive site, N. 27^th St., over to the train trestle that crosses West Capitol Drive. I see the future: the industrial future of Milwaukee. It’s actually not that hard. Anyone can do it. Just look at my window.

Several times in Milwaukee’s history people came here to start businesses that created an industry. Beer is obvious. Did Frederick Miller come from Germany to build a brewing industry? Probably not. But that’s what happened. Same with Mr. A.O. Smith, Mr. Ladish, Mr. Allen and Mr. Bradley, Mr. Allis and Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Harnischfeger, Mr. Pelton, Mr. Cudahy, and so on.

None of them did. But some envisioned what could be. Henry Maier looked out toward Lake Michigan standing on the proposed Summerfest site and then went to work building the Menomonie Valley. We are doing the same thing.

Seem bizarre or Pollyannaish? Maybe a little, but think about it for a minute.

If you are at war, and have 20% of your troops in reserve, but you see you are losing, what do you do? Not train, and then deploy your troops? Only if you want to lose the war.

We are at war. Against California, Texas, the South and Southwest, China, the EU, India and emerging economies in Latin America. The US is falling behind the rest of the world in most areas important to economic growth. States and regions of the country are so competitive (and economically freaked out) that they won’t cry if companies migrate from Milwaukee to other parts of the country. This is kind of an old story, in some ways. When companies began to, or threatened to leave Wisconsin, they left for Illinois. Or South Carolina. Today, much work is being done in Latin America, when it becomes too expensive to stay in Asia, on so on.

We need to fight to preserve every advantage we have. That’s what we are doing with water. We can and should do the same with energy and controls companies.

Two things need to happen to successfully fight an economic war. We need to keep our major companies here in Wisconsin, help them to innovate, and spin off companies so that we can grow. Second, and with more difficulty, we have to use every able bodied adult in order to become “net producers” rather than “net consumers” of goods and services.

The economic argument is being fought politically over the airwaves during the campaign. I think we can de-politicize economic development and forge a consensus in Wisconsin of what we can do to win. We can do that. I am confident that can happen over time.

The human resources war is being fought in the streets and in the classrooms of MPS. We are losing that battle. If twenty percent of our workforce cannot participate in any meaningful way to Wisconsin’s economy, we cannot stay competitive. It’s just that simple.

So that brings us back to WERC. It’s our best chance to build new companies that will fuel our community’s growth and potential survival. Imagine you are Frederick Miller, circa 1855. You have the resources, the talent and experience to build the first brewery that will in 100 years become the largest and most famous region for brewing and selling beer in the world. That’s a great place to start, and I will keep enjoying the view!