Cincinnati company seen as peek at economic future

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Posted 8:04AM on Monday, April 15, 2002

CINCINNATI - On the fourth floor of a stone building not far from the heart of downtown is a cutting edge operation where workers earn $80,000 a year while developing software designed to help businesses. Intelliseek Inc.'s software allows companies to conduct sophisticated searches of the Internet, Intranets and Extranets, and databases that typically most businesses do not even know exist. The information can help with market research, track competitors and respond to rumors. Intelliseek is the kind of company that Gov. Bob Taft envisions for Ohio's future. As the state moves from a manufacturing base, Taft wants to increase research and development over the next decade to create a new high-tech industry and high-paying jobs. To reach that goal, business people say, the state must overcome an image that it lacks the progressive thinkers, capital and workers. "The perception of Ohio outside of Ohio is something Ohioans have the responsibility to fix because it is far from accurate," said Mohendra Vora, Intelliseek's president and chief executive. Taft in February released plans for his 10-year, $1.6 billion "Third Frontier Project." Other states have been engaged in similar work for years, including North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania recently announced a $100 million program financed with tobacco settlement money to develop biotechnology business. As part of the initiative, the state took out full-page advertisements in nine newspapers where it touted Pennsylvania as "the ideal spot for life-sciences companies and careers to grow." "It's acknowledgment of where the economy is going. The basic truth is that Americans have to work smarter because nobody will pay them to do basic commodity manufacturing at the wages they expect," said Bruce Johnson, director of the Ohio Department of Development. Technology related jobs are growing about 8 percent in Ohio, slower than the United States overall, mainly because more technology jobs in the state are tied to a mature manufacturing sector. Taft's plan calls for committing $500 million for research and development, $500 million for new research centers, $500 million to recruit top researchers and bring products to market and $100 million to back high-growth industries. "We're going to sell it based on a vision for Ohio of high-paying jobs, breakthrough research and making Ohio a leader in the high-tech economy," he said. Taft has said the money could end up helping business, universities and workers in such areas as polymers, information technology, fuel cells, biomedical research, nanotechnology, high-technology manufacturing and advanced farming. Joy Padgett, director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia, said leaders in rural communities are concerned the money will go to big-city businesses and universities. "I have no doubt that we'll have access to the dollars as much as anybody, but we have to have a plan," she said. When Vora tells people that he has created several, highly profitable high technology companies in Ohio, they tell him, "What, in Ohio? You get people to do that? You get people to understand that?" Ohio is viewed as a conservative, manufacturing state. That perception can be to Ohio's advantage as the Third Frontier plan develops, he said. Besides Intelliseek, the state points to numerous examples of companies that fit its vision, including: Altronic Inc., a Youngstown area producer of ignition systems for spark-ignited natural gas engines; Plastic Technologies Inc. near Toledo; and biomedical companies Enable Medical Corp. and AtriCure Inc. near Cincinnati. "I see medical technology as being the real growth engine for the future, not just for Ohio, but the entire United States," said Mike Hooven, chairman and chief executive of Enable and AtriCure, both in West Chester. "People tend to think of manufacturing and technology as different. It's not," said Tom Brady, president and chief executive of Plastic Technologies. Brady's company designs and develops plastic packaging for customers such as Coca-Cola Co., making plastic bottles easier to grab or improving the product by making it last longer. Technology can improve manufacturing equipment and ultimately improve products. Such growth would lead to the need for highly educated, well-paid workers, Brady said. "We ought not to go after things that are remnants of the past," he said. Executives say the jobs of tomorrow do not require everyone have a doctorate in computer science or some other high-tech field. "The type of person we're looking for wants to really learn and grow and thrive and come up with new ideas," Hooven said. Vora, whose company employs about 100 people, said he needs high school graduates to people with doctorates. "You have to help wherever," said Peggy Edwards, 43, a high school graduate and Vora's executive assistant. "You learn what you need to learn." For Malik Spencer, working for Intelliseek means he does not have to go to the Silicon Valley to do the work he loves as a software engineer. The Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati graduate can be near his family and friends and remain involved in the community. "Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur," he said. End Advance