Catalyzing the innovation economy

In recent years, Ohio has taken an aggressive approach to kickstarting its economy. Efforts to attract investments in high-growth sectors such as healthcare and technology have yielded billions of dollars of venture capital, and the creation of comprehensive innovation acceleration strategies have helped keep that economic momentum going.

During a recent Fast Company panel discussion, Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor, Jon Husted, and Kevin Chambers, managing director of the state’s private economic-development corporation, JobsOhio, discussed how the state is creating a business climate that champions economic development. The two are at the forefront of the state’s flurry of innovative activity and collective commitment to transform Ohio into the premier Midwestern destination for entrepreneurial innovation. Here are four key takeaways from their conversation.

    1. Build an entrepreneurial ecosystem in booming sectors.

To propel innovation, states must attract and retain high-growth businesses in the most competitive sectors. To accomplish that, JobsOhio developed an economic development strategy based around three pillars: research and development-center grants, Innovation Districts, and capital growth investments. “Together, those can help companies get their foothold to grow, bring the research teams in, leverage the STEM talent, and take those new ideas to market,” Chambers said.

These endeavors have helped Ohio land the largest economic development project in the state’s history. In early 2022, semiconductor giant Intel announced plans to invest more than $20 billion to build a new chipmaking campus in the Columbus area. The company’s decision to develop this project in Ohio was due to factors including the state’s strong manufacturing pedigree and highly skilled workforce.

“It’s hard to express how big these projects are going to be in building computer chips, which support 300 subsectors of the global economy,” Husted said. “Ohio is going to be leading the way on this front.”

    2. People are at the center of innovation.

Innovation hinges on not only attracting and retaining businesses, but also developing and recruiting the talent to support those businesses. The state has tripled its number of STEM graduates by launching incentives such as funding for high schools that graduate students with skills in areas including cybersecurity or robotics and scholarships to entice high schoolers to pursue STEM degrees. “We want those graduates to stay in Ohio and attract others from outside the state to come here,” Chambers explained.

As Husted points out, equipping as many Ohioans as possible with coveted skillsets benefits the state. “We want every high school graduate to graduate career-ready, so that they can immediately go in and join the workforce and support what’s going on in our economy,” he said. “We want to leave nobody behind, and we want them to have the talent that’s most in demand.”

    3. Amplify existing hubs to accelerate growth.

JobsOhio has leaned into the state’s top research institutions, universities, and private corporations to further bolster innovation. The organization has invested $300 million to bring these players together through three Innovation Districts in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. The hubs are anchored by prominent institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Ohio State University.

“These Innovation Districts were chosen because they have leading global and national healthcare institutions,” Chambers said. “They have the urban infrastructure to support [the] attraction of research and technology organizations.”

JobsOhio estimates the hubs will stimulate 60,000 new jobs and more than $9 billion of economic impact, with much of that related to cutting-edge healthcare. “We’re attracting billions of dollars of new research in pediatric cancer, gene and cell therapy, and virology,” Husted added.

    4. Eliminate friction.

State policies can either accelerate or slow innovation. Husted partly credits Ohio’s economic success to its commitment to fostering a supportive environment for companies to do business. In addition to his duties as second-in-command of the state, he also leads InnovateOhio, which works to streamline state government. Making business production more seamless is among its priorities.

An example of this is The Ohio IP Promise, an initiative with Ohio universities that simplifies the path to commercializing intellectual property. For instance, negotiating the terms to commercialize IP used to be a particularly burdensome and bureaucratic process for universities. Now, schools have a more streamlined path to turning their research and inventions into marketable ideas. “It’s turned a lot of our IP into commercialized uses and entrepreneurial ventures at a faster rate than we were doing it before,” Husted said.

These innovation-inducing policies, paired with the state’s affordable cost of living and low taxes, make Ohio ideal for business. “People are moving here from all over the world, and we’re excited about what the next 10 years has to offer,” Husted said.