Commentary: Business Plan 2.0 takes Oregon beyond basics

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Dec 3, 2007 by Steve Pratt

Today at the Oregon Convention Center, business and political leaders from around the state will kick off the next five years of the Oregon Business Plan at the sixth Oregon Leadership Summit.

We've accomplished a lot since the plan was launched in 2002. But now what? Today, we still face many of the same challenges we faced five years ago. At today's summit, we'll specifically address what we as policymakers and business people can do to sustain our gains and create ways for current and emerging industry clusters to compete and profit locally, regionally and globally.

At last year's summit, author and Harvard business professor Michael Porter urged us to tap into Oregon's long-standing commitment to environmental preservation and distinguish the state as a unique player in the global marketplace. Porter warned, however, that leveraging the state's green reputation into distinct competitive advantages worldwide would present significant challenges for several years to come. To succeed, he said, we would need to attract talent to the state, improve efficiencies and export products and services that reflect our environmental values.

This strategy of distinguishing Oregon as a place where environmental and economic vitality go hand in hand - where Oregon businesses supply the world with ideas, products and services that address major environmental challenges - really plays out in three ways for our traded-sector industry clusters:

* It provides ways for Oregon's natural resource industries to gain more market share and staying power around the globe as people, businesses and regulations trend toward enterprises with smaller environmental footprints.

* It provides opportunities for innovative clusters in manufacturing, electronics software, health care and apparel to continue attracting talented men and women to Oregon - to work leaner and more efficiently, to get ahead of the curve on potential regulation, and to tap new markets with products and services that help solve major environmental problems.

* And this "lean and green" strategy helps Oregon become even more of a hotbed for emerging clusters in green building and design, multiple forms of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental technology and services.

For this strategy to succeed, political and business leaders must commit to the "four P" competitiveness agenda the Oregon Business Plan laid out five years ago. Regardless of whether we make drill- bits or megabytes, solar panels or circuit panels, our top priorities are the same as they were five years ago:

* People: Oregon needs educated, talented and healthy employees.

* Pioneering innovation: Oregon must create and sustain a hothouse culture of pioneering innovation.

* Productivity: Oregon needs business costs and regulations that are truly sustainable and a statewide infrastructure that sparks rather than impedes productivity.

* Place: We need to be smart, committed custodians of Oregon as a wonderful place to live, work and raise families.

These are the priorities of the Oregon Business Plan 2.0.

There's a lot each of us can do as leaders of our organizations to improve our productivity, our innovation, our efficiency and our environmental stewardship.

We can start by adopting basic lean principles, which many hard manufacturers have already integrated into how they innovate, produce and distribute products. We need to create and sustain a lean culture that dramatically reduces waste, saves costs and actively involves our employees in literally every level of continuous improvement.

We also need to view sustainability as a sound business strategy, not just a public relations opportunity. And we need to link green and lean together. They are integral to each other and can't successfully be achieved one without the other. Here in Oregon, sustainability is part of our DNA. It's a commitment that ensures a minimal environmental impact from start to finish - beginning with the extraction of raw materials and ending with recycling, waste treatment and the reintroduction of recovered materials into the production cycle and economic system.

Through innovative product design, close control of production processes and continuous improvement of material reuse and recycling, we need to incorporate environmentally conscious planning into all processes - to the benefit of employees and the communities where we operate.

Explosive economic and demographic growth around the world puts tremendous strain on limited resources and the environment - but pressure usually creates opportunities. Moving forward, Oregon businesses that survive and prosper in today's global marketplace will be those that do so in lean and sustainable ways. Since the Oregon Business Plan was first adopted, our economy has enjoyed a relatively strong five-year run. Our job now is to make sure we're on the right path for the next five years. I'm convinced that lean and green is the right path.