Howard County businesses and residents have benefited from our prime location at the heart of the Baltimore-Washington Corridor ,and we’ve earned a reputation as one of the best places in the nation to live — and to do business. The county’s accolades come for many reasons: Our highly-ranked public education system and quality of life are usually at the top of the list.
Now, my team and I are focusing on taking Howard County to the next level, as we leverage our resources to become an economic powerhouse for the next century. The way I see it, Howard County can and must become the center of a regional “innovation economy.” We need to create an environment where ideas are spun out of laboratories, universities, and yes, even by your county government. And when they emerge, they must take root and thrive right here in Central Maryland.
To do that, we must foster a culture of entrepreneurism. Entrepreneurs are the heroes of the business community, and we should celebrate the culture by making it easy for them to develop ideas and bring them to market.
In that way, idea creation will lead to job creation.
The Right Leadership
We recently took a big step in that direction with the formation of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE).
The MCE is dedicated to strengthening economic development opportunities throughout Maryland by fostering innovation at the local level. It will encompass the business incubator (formerly the NeoTech Incubator), the Business Resource Center, the Howard Technology Council and the Catalyst Loan Fund.
The programs offered at the MCE will be provided in partnership with other Howard County and state-based resources, including research institutions that will facilitate the commercialization of technologies to help spur innovation and create new businesses.
Running the center will be Executive Director Julie Lenzer Kirk, who has taught at UMBC and is the co-founder of the Path Forward Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit that develops and delivers innovative programs to expand economic opportunity for women through entrepreneurship.
She was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record in 2005 and 2008. She is also a member of the National Center for Women and Information Technology’s Entrepreneurial Alliance and currently chairs the D.C. Chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization.
I’m proud that she agreed to head this effort. The right leadership will be critical in its success.
The creation of the center is one of the first projects of the new head of the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA), Laura Neuman. If you haven’t had the chance to meet her yet, I encourage you to do so. She is full of energy and ideas, and has just the right set of skills to help us develop and execute our vision.
A self-made entrepreneur who knows the ins-and-outs of venture capital and technology, she’s built companies from the ground up and doesn’t take no for an answer. She has tremendous drive and enthusiasm, and is not your typical economic development chief.
We have spent a lot of time recently thinking about the future of Howard County. She accompanied me not long ago when I led an economic development mission to Palo Alto, Calif.
The four-day trip was a project of the HCEDA, in partnership with the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. We met many Silicon Valley business leaders who talked about the strengths of the cybersecurity industry in Central Maryland, and who were envious of our advantages. I returned from the trip with renewed enthusiasm for our strengths and our potential. We are in a premier location between New York and Washington, we have a highly educated workforce and we are poised for the next big step.
I’m already planning our next such visit, and hope to gain new ideas from the Research Triangle in North Carolina or from the technology hub in the Boston region, where many of the world’s leading tech companies, as well as some of the best colleges and universities in the United States, are located.
Beyond the Federal Government
There are plenty of good reasons to build an “innovation economy.” This past year has shown us that we must diversify our focus and should be wary of relying too heavily on investments created by the federal government.
To be sure, the resources given to the U.S. Cyber Command and other Fort Meade-related institutions are tremendous assets. But because of gridlock in Washington, Wall Street has begun to look at reliance on federal government employment and spending as something of a liability, and we need to pay attention to the cautionary flags.
In the past year, I had the privilege of traveling the state as the president of the Maryland Association of Counties, the statewide organization that advocates for county governments in the state capital and is considered one of the most influential organizations of its kind in Annapolis.
When I visited places like Flintstone or Easton, I was struck not only by the diversity and beauty of Maryland, but of just how many advantages we have built together in Howard County. Time and again, local and state officials in those places would ask me how they could position themselves for growth and opportunity just as we have done here.
You and I can be rightfully proud of the business climate in Howard County. The unemployment rate here is the lowest in Maryland and well below the national average, and by many indicators — retail sales and home sales, to name two — our local economy is performing well.
What’s Next
Still, there are areas that need improvement. We want to see the banking climate improve; we want businesses to be able to access the financing they need. That is why we established the Howard County Catalyst Loan Program to assist in the creation and growth of successful small emerging businesses located in the county.
The coming year holds great promise and great challenges. I anticipate major progress toward redevelopment in Downtown Columbia and improvements as we complete our 10-year General Plan process, which will boost economic development.
My pledge for 2012 is to continue making sure Howard County remains the most desirable location in Maryland to live and to do business, and to work tirelessly to make it the birthplace of tomorrow’s next great ideas.
Ken Ulman is county executive of Howard County,
