OHIO'S EDGE:
New Momentum for the Next Millennium

As the '90s draw to a close, Ohio's considerable facility-location momentum promises to keep rolling along. New government leaders plan to continue, and build upon, the state's proven formula for success.

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Strong arms and keen minds are what built Ohio, and the home state for this century's inventors of the light bulb and manned flight certainly hasn't lost its knack for innovation nor its industrial muscle at the approach of a new millennium. But what gives Ohio its true next-century edge is sheer momentum.

"A sound economic development strategy combined with strong personal support from George Voinovich (Ohio's former governor who now is the state's newest senator) and the state legislature enabled Ohio to develop innovative programs to meet our customers' needs and propel Ohio's business climate to the top of the economic development ranks," said Ohio Dept. of Development Director Joe Robertson.

"Another key to Ohio's economic development success has been our ability to work in partnership with the many local and regional economic development organizations throughout the state. Through this cohesive effort, Ohio has become known as one of the nation's top corporate locations," Robertson said. "We are now poised to enter the next century as a leader in economic development."

The state that so quickly unbuckled itself from the Rust Belt woes of the 1980s to set new records for attracting business starts and expansions in the 1990s is not about to slow down. "Ohio can't sit back and rest on its laurels," says Don Jakeway, a former director of the Ohio Dept. of Development who now heads the Toledo-Northwest Ohio Regional Growth Partnership. "We need to continue to make good business decisions."

Those good business decisions have included the kind of business-minded incentives and regulatory relief that proved a powerful calling card when combined with the state's inherent industrial know-how, internationally known research smarts and U.S. heartland access to the world's richest marketplace. "We have made such a quantum leap. We weren't on anybody's radar screen in 1990," Jakeway says. Today, the state is on every economic radar screen.

Ohio has enjoyed No. 1 or No. 2 status among U.S. states in recent years when it comes to manufacturing locations and expansions, and remains No. 1 among the states for foreign manufacturing investment. Ohio has effectively reversed a manufacturing exodus that earned the Great Lakes states their Rust Belt image, and transformed its still-largest economic sector into a next-century competitive edge.

"Ohio has come a long way since the mid-1980s. Much of our industry closed up and went away, but so much of what has rusted away has been replaced with newer, more efficient, more automated or simply different types of industry," says James Coons, senior economist and vice president for Ohio's Huntington National Bank. "That has made Ohio and the Great Lakes economy more resilient and competitive."

Keeping up the momentum also means adding more mind power to Ohio's industrial muscle. The state's Thomas Edison Program, named for the Ohio-born inventor of the light bulb, is inventing new ways for manufacturers to become more productive. Ohio already boasts top college completion rates, "and there's a tendency for graduates to stay in Ohio when they're finished," Coons says. That makes for a smart work force already in place for companies demanding more skilled labor.