Phoenix Ranked 29th For High Tech by Biz Journals

Opened up the May 29th issue of the Phoenix Business Journal after traveling almost the entire month of June and it was just loaded full of stuff that I have strong contrary opinions about. Perhaps I’m just tired and onery today and I should let it go, but I can’t. So I will confront them piece by piece in a series of posts. I will put in bold the items direct from the article and in plain text my response/criticisms..

Let’s break down the first piece “Valley tech industry No. 29 among 100 U.S. metro areas”

The study lists Tucson 18th and Phoenix 29th

I think you have to be kidding. I would love to see the data they are using to produce these rankings. This is not a knock on Tucson, I think they have a ton of potential and a solid foundation, but I do not think they are 11 places ahead of Phoenix.

During the past year, Science Foundation Arizona teamed with industry leaders to launch the Aerospace Institute and the Solar Institute.

Launching institutes only helps those launching them stroke their ego, they are largely ineffective in “instituting” real change. Less saying, more doing please.

Arizona’s leaders have shown recently they understand the state’s future depends on investing in our technology base.

I can’t even hold a straight face on this one. All that can escape my lips are expletivies and I’m trying to cut down on those for pieces that I hope a larger audience might be interested in. WTF have they done that shows they understand any form of economics much less ones that deal with increasing technology?

But only 7.5% of the area’s residents have master’s degrees or doctorates, placing Phoenix well below San Jose, at 17 percent, or even Tucson at 10.2 percent

Is this an advertising pitch for our universities? They seem to indicate that because 4 of the top 5 “ranked” cities are in the top 5 in masters/phd’s that this is the reason for their success. This is just faulty logic. There are plenty of people that have masters/phd that fail in high tech and lots of people that do not have masters/phd that have success in high tech.

We are not aggressive enough in supporting corporate relocation, and need to take a longer view on the sustaining benefits resulting from an increase in corporate headquarters.

I agree with the increase in benefits of having corporate headquarters. However recruiting outside corporations is NOT the answer. It is extremely expensive and short sighted. We rarely are able to recruit the headquarters and instead end up with some operational arm instead. Think “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” If we really want a SUSTAINABLE technology economy we need to invest in people starting tech companies. Growing and not recruiting future head quarters is where we need to be.

The technology industries that create goods, engage in trade and create higher-than-average paying jobs are the underpinning for the state’s entire economy.

I would love this to be true, but right now it’s just not. Technology is light years behind land development and tourism with regards to how it’s viewed as an economy in Arizona. This needs to change if we want to avoid being crushed every time real estate takes a dip.

More criticisms coming soon…

Comments (3)

francine hardaway says:

June 30, 2009 at 11:31 am

Welcome back with your strident voice that echoes my own:-) Let’s give some thought to who from state government we MUST invite to the Entrepreneurship conference to enlighten,
Russ Maloney says:

July 5, 2009 at 2:19 pm

Derek, I agree with you that spurring entrepreneurship is vital to the Valley’s economy – but am a bit confused by your criticism of the article’s attention to our deficit in residents with master’s/doctorate degrees.

When painted with a broad brush, of course you’re right – some PHDs will fail, and some with a mere high school diploma will succeed. However, the correlation between educational achievement and higher wages, industrial progression, cultural depth and yes, even entrepreneurial success, across a given population is there and has been studied, documented and accepted for a very long time.

Let’s say that an entrepreneur with only a bachelor’s degree starts a new tech company. He/she has the drive and the smarts to gain a foothold and start momentum. However, the long term success of that company is eventually going to hinge on getting people on the payroll with graduate-or-higher credentials – whether they’re mechanical/chemical/software engineers, MBAs, lawyers, accountants…the list goes on. And unless that new business owner plans on hiring them from their houses in Seattle, the business will benefit from having the widest breadth of awesome students right here in our backyard.
Derek Neighbors says:

July 7, 2009 at 9:30 pm

A couple of things.

1. I did not mean to imply educated people are not necessary. Just that I think it is very difficult to say that early stage start-ups are more successful if they have people with masters/phd’s start them. I am only addressing the initial creation of companies not the “growth” of said companies.

2. I think that bringing people from outside Phoenix that are educated is a perfectly sane way to grow an economy. The current problem is we are not even starting the companies.