innovate arkansas

Per capita income is an excellent economic measurement. Currently Arkansas is approximately 78 percent of the national average.

Accelerate Arkansas' goal is to move Arkansas' per capita income to the national average by 2020. This would create approximately $2.4 billion of additional tax revenue - per year.

Accelerate Arkansas' focus is to move the state's per capita income primarily by the creation of a knowledge-based economy. This kind of economy is described as creating jobs where our citizens are paid for what they know rather than, as they have been historically, by what they could physically do. We applaud the Arkansas Economic Development Commission's success in recruiting industry to Arkansas; we clearly need both recruiting and knowledge-based job creation for a healthy future.

What this boils down to is maximizing the innovative thinking coming out of our research universities, our existing businesses and anyone else in the state who has a great idea that has commercial possibilities. The challenge is to get the "commercializable" idea through an intense process from a fledgling business on to a healthy business employing more and more of our citizens, young and old.

Accelerate Arkansas' strategic plan includes five core strategies:

• Support job-creating research;
• Develop risk capital that is available for all stages of the business cycle, especially the funding gap;
• Encourage entrepreneurship and accelerated new enterprise development;
• Increase the education level of Arkansas in science, technology, engineering and math ("STEM"); and
• Sustain existing industry through advancing technology and competitiveness.

Over the past four years, Accelerate Arkansas has put forth legislative recommendations about building this framework for moving ideas into businesses. Our Governor and our Legislature have been very supportive, and many of the recommendations are starting to get underway:

• Innovate Arkansas, an Accelerate Arkansas concept based on best practices and embraced by Winrock International, will focus on fast-track commercialization of innovation;
• Taskforce for the 21st Century, appointed by the governor to look at the efficiencies of the three state agencies focused on economic development;
• Arkansas Research Alliance, which will focus on maximizing job-creating research coming from our state research universities; and
• Risk Capital Matching Fund, which is working to provide needed risk capital at all stages of the business start up process.

Other key Accelerate Arkansas core strategies have attracted great collaboration:

• STEM education is being prioritized by the STEM Coalition, the Arkansas Department of Education's "Smart Core" curriculum, Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math & Science, the EAST Initiative and others;
• Entrepreneurship is enjoying widespread interest. For instance, the seventh annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Awards luncheon is coming up April 17, and entrepreneurship competition is being embraced by two-year colleges and even middle schools.

One of the great things about Arkansas is that it is a manageable size, and you can meet and get to know the decision makers in your state. Over a short period of time, you can make a difference. This is happening with Accelerate Arkansas' effort to move the state, the Legislature, research universities and the general public to a wider understanding and embrace of an exciting future - a future that will capture the imagination of our youth and keep them in the state, plus move the state toward parity with the nation's per capita income.

I am optimistic about our progress, but every other state is having the very same discussion, so we have no time to lose. We need to be unrelenting in our efforts to get this knowledge-based framework completed and then aggressively use it to move Arkansas forward.

(Jerry Adams, who recently retired from Acxiom Corp., is chairman of Accelerate Arkansas and president and CEO of the Arkansas Research Alliance. E-mail him at jba513@yahoo.com.)