The following byline is from Ron LeMay, CEO of FarmLink and managing director and co-founder, Open Air Equity Partners. Ron is also co-chair of the KC Rising Innovation and Entrepreneurship Work Group. This byline originally appeared in the Nov. 6, 2015 issue of the Kansas City Business Journal.
At today’s Kansas City Area Development Council Annual Meeting, leaders from across our region will convene to celebrate the incredible opportunity we have in front of us. While growth and optimism are evident across key sectors – including business, education, sports and the arts – my hope for the current and future leaders of Kansas City is that we measure our success compared to the higher standard of national and global competition, rather than our own past.
Like a growing number of Kansas Citians, I chose to move here, raise a family and build a career. Many have been drawn by our region’s friendly Midwestern culture, opportunities and conveniences. And while it’s an exciting time to be in Kansas City, our current underperformance in local job creation and GDP has been masked historically by the individual growth of companies, like Sprint – making Kansas City, over the last 20 years, a true “tale of two cities.” Our future depends on a collective re-commitment to broadly based innovation and entrepreneurship.
Local initiatives supporting venture capital firms, incubators, accelerators and business mentoring must be more effective at connecting entrepreneurs directly with funding and opportunity. The vision must be to create highly competitive, leading businesses. Companies that begin with an idea and grow into established businesses employing hundreds of professionals with respected brands. In our own backyard we have Garmin, Cerner, even Christopher Elbow Chocolates and Boulevard Beer, but we are not growing businesses at a rate competitive with our peers, not only those on the coasts but others in the Midwest.
After talking with more than 200 entrepreneurs and dozens of investors, I’ve seen firsthand the barriers we need to break down and the connectivity infrastructure we need to build in order to succeed.
Through efforts like KC Rising, our business community-led initiative to establish a regional economic growth strategy, we are already communicating and collaborating at a higher level. There are just a few more things to do.
First, we must dispel the belief that there’s not enough capital in Kansas City. That’s simply not true. The challenge we face is transforming attitudes and skills needed to assess investment opportunities. The underlying will and means to build are there. We need to create a new culture in Kansas City that values risk taking, celebrates failure as a condition to achieving success and reflects an attitude of fearlessness.
Second, we must connect innovators with opportunity. Innovation comes from many places, from seasoned executives to young professionals, within established companies, and across industries. Being in the business of “connectivity,” I’ve witnessed the power of creating greater transparency, communication and interaction between people, information and technology. Imagine the opportunities we’d create for Kansas City with greater connectivity. In fact, several of the ventures I’m in are focused on connecting things – the connected plane, car, home and even harvest combine. If we can connect farm equipment to bring greater insight and precision to agronomists and farmers across America, we can connect Kansas City and create innovations yet to be imagined.
Third, to drive progress we must measure it. As part of KC Rising’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship team, we will propose specific actions and accountability through measurements that clearly identify the extent of our progress on a competitive basis, including objective benchmarks. All of us use benchmarks to make decisions in our lives – JD Powers and Consumer Reports are household names. Objective benchmarks are required to hold ourselves accountable for achieving positive change at the correct pace.
Lastly, those who can invest, should. People ask me why I continue to invest, mentor and work in the start-up environment. The truth is, it’s fun. I find personal joy in building something greater than myself – working with a “clean sheet of paper” that someday my children and grandchildren, and yours, can build upon.
Creating jobs through innovation must accelerate meaningfully if the Kansas City we love today is to prosper tomorrow. Now is the time to act boldly. To be fearless and accept nothing less than competitive returns while producing enormous benefits for the community.