Marketing key to creating jobs, Ohio's czar says

ONN-TV

Mark Kvamme, who oversees job-creation efforts for Gov. John KasichBucking a trend that has sent countless jobs overseas, Suarez Manufacturing Industries is moving production to the United States - from China.

Last month, more than 1,000 people lined up in a cold drizzle to apply for work at the new operation, which will begin assembling portable heaters this summer in a 200,000-square-foot building in North Canton, Ohio, that formerly served as a Hoover vacuum factory.

Unfortunately, 90 percent of those applicants won't land a job with Suarez - at least this time around. Although the Ohio-based company expects to hire as many as 2,500 workers in the next 18 months, just 110 positions are available now.

What's more, the new assembly jobs will pay as little as $7.50 an hour, considerably less than Hoover paid for similar work.

In some ways, what's unfolding in North Canton is a metaphor for Ohio's overall employment picture: After the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, companies are starting to hire again - but not nearly fast enough for the half-million Ohioans who remain out of work.

And many of the manufacturing jobs that have returned aren't nearly as lucrative as the union positions that disappeared when U.S. companies moved production offshore.

Mark Kvamme, the California venture capitalist who oversees job-creation efforts for Gov. John Kasich, talked about Ohio's employment landscape with Jim Heath of ONN-TV's Ohio Means Business program.

An edited excerpt:

Q: First off, how would you grade Ohio's current business climate?

A: I think it depends on the industry sector. I think, for example, that medical devices - what you have at the Cleveland Clinic, here at OSU and down at University Hospital (in Cincinnati) and other places - is very, very strong. Energy? Very, very strong. Manufacturing engineering? Very strong. Banking? Strong. Information technology? Not so strong.

Q: Why is that?

A: I think because, basically, the coasts have dominated in that area.

Q: Can we get in that game?

A: I actually think we can, because speed of light matters. You know, 60 percent of the U.S. population is within 600 miles of Ohio. Well, guess what? That's where you've got to put data centers; that's where you've got to get, you know, a lot of this application development done.

I'm actually pretty bullish we can do that.

Q: And is JobsOhio (Kasich's evolving privatized development department) the key mechanism to do that?

A: It's one of the mechanisms. Not only do we need a strong economic-development department, but also what we need is equity investors, and so one of the things I'm really focused on is working with folks in the community to bring growth-equity dollars here.

Q: My parents grew up here, and their parents grew up here, but they left Ohio in the '70s because of other opportunities on the West Coast, weather - all kinds of factors. We've watched Ohio lose congressional representation in every census for the last 50 years. How do you turn that around and get major companies interested in at least giving Ohio a look?

A: I think the key thing is that you've got to market yourself. I mean, the Midwestern mentality is, you know, very humble - and that's great. ... But you have to market yourself.

Q: Have you run into anything that's frustrated you?

A: Well, you know, (state government) is a large bureaucracy. There are a lot of things that are in statute, in law, and other things - and a lot of things you have to identify and possibly change.

But I've got to tell you, I've just very much enjoyed working with the legislature. It is a little bit different for me: I'm used to boards of six or seven. I have 132 board members (in the General Assembly), and my CEO, the governor, has 132 board members.

Q: Is the ultimate goal here to position the Buckeye State so that it's competing with the Californias and the Floridas and some of these other states that have been so dominant in the past two or three decades? Or is the first step to be a Midwest leader? Can Ohio position itself in front of Illinois?

A: If I wasn't doing this job, I'd probably start a growth-equity fund here in the Midwest - in Ohio. I think there is a huge opportunity here on multiple different levels, because of the logistics of Ohio, the universities of Ohio (and) the core industries. I mean, huge growth industries are here.

Q: Were you surprised to find that out when you got here?

A: Yes.

Q: So that's part of the problem too, right - messaging?

A: Yeah. I always think - look, I'm an old ad guy, an old marketing guy - I think, "What's the one-page Wall Street Journal ad?" Ohio means business: It's a good place to do business - great talent, great location, great logistics.

Q: You're a Californian, very successful. What sold you on Ohio - and how do you get that message out to the rest of America?

A: If I had one word: people. The people are great here. They just need to know they're great.