Originally Published MX November/December
2001
BUSINESS PLANNING & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Boston’s Research Universities Fuel Growth
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According to a
recent report on the Massachusetts medical technology industry, the state’s
concentration of medtech firms is matched or eclipsed by only three other places:
the Chicago area, Minnesota, and California (though its size makes comparison
seem unfair). The glut of world-class academic institutions (MIT, Harvard, and
several other Ivy League schools within short driving distance) and their attendant
teaching hospitals, combined with ample pools of venture and institutional investor
capital (the latter in no small part from the cluster of major insurance companies
in New England), make the Boston area a natural for medtech development.
As
the region’s older manufacturing base continues to decline, medtech and
other new industries are becoming even more important. This fact has not been
lost on state officials. In a recent speech, Joseph D. Alviani, president of
the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), an economic development organization
created by state officials, noted that "the Massachusetts economy is fundamentally
different today than it was as late as a decade ago."
According to MTC’s most recent report card, issued early this year, the
region leads the nation in federally supported R&D spending per capita,
and is among the leaders in venture capital investment per capita, and initial
public offering investment. In addition, Massachusetts continues to lead the
nation in patents per capita. Patent activity is most active in the region’s
healthcare and transportation/aerospace sectors.
Yet there are signs that the area is straining against some tough limits to
its growth. Although the region’s prestigious centers of higher education
continue to resupply Greater Boston’s workforce with fresh graduates, the
effort is not enough.
"The largest growth in jobs and the largest increase in wages are in our
technology-based industries (biomedicine, software, telecommunications, e-commerce,
and Internet companies)," says Alviani. "And these are the companies
where today nearly 1 in 10 jobs goes unfilled . . . because the companies cannot
find the skilled workers. And, it’s not just scientists and engineers they’re
looking for, but also skilled technicians and production workers who understand
new manufacturing processes."
Alviani and others say that this worker shortage is the region’s most serious
impediment to future growth, not just in medtech but in all sectors of the New
Economy. "What if we built a New Economy and no one came?" the MTC
report card wonders.
Copyright ©2001 MX
