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Florida's Toughest Job
On the surface, he seems to be running one of those typical booster outfits common to all governments, from tiny villages to Washington. In a press release, Enterprise Florida says its mission is "to maintain a business friendly climate conducive to the creation and retention of jobs."
Yawn!
That's pretty much what the old Department of Commerce used to do. Charles Dusseau, the last Commerce secretary, was a very effective bureaucrat, but he realized that his department didn't have the stature or clout to do what was needed to make Florida more competitive with other states. Like many of Florida's business people, Dusseau saw that the state's sun 'n' fun waterslide economy was falling dangerously behind in producing well-paying jobs, and that reversing the trend was beyond the power of any state bureaucracy. So Dusseau spent most of his time in the thankless chore of closing down Commerce to make way for its more aggressive successor organization, Enterprise Florida, the private-public partnership that was finally launched in the waning hours of the last session of the Legislature.
Enter 57-year-old John Anderson, an executive with a mild manner and a voice so muted that his words often are barely audible. But he arrived with glowing bona fides and bipartisan praise, including strong support from once and future gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush.
Before coming to Enterprise Florida, Anderson had another tough job as president of Dade County's Beacon Council, the fractious business development agency that is fighting a losing battle to keep Dade's industries from being lured away by Broward and Palm Beach counties.
He had been the state of Washington's top economic development official, then moved on to Oregon only to be hired away again by Washington. The reason, says an aide, was that in both jobs, he attracted high-tech firms to the states - Japanese microchip makers to Oregon and a $2 billion semiconductor contract with RCA and Sharp for Washington. Then he moved on to Texas in the same economic development role.
I asked David Bruce, who followed Anderson from the Beacon Council to become his vice president of marketing at Enterprise Florida, why these accomplishments never came up during a long interview with the writers of our cover story. In fact, they didn't even surface during the hoopla accompanying his appointment. "I've known John for six years," said Bruce, "and he doesn't talk a lot about his previous accomplishments. He is committed to a group effort." That modus operandi was evident at Enterprise Florida's first economic summit held in Tampa at the end of September.
Anderson worked the room unobtrusively, making sure the bipartisan character of Enterprise Florida was carefully nurtured so that there seemed to be consensus among normal adversaries. Noting this, Lieutenant Governor Buddy MacKay said: "It's possible for me to be proud of it and for (Republican senator) John Grant to be proud of it."
That sort of detente must be fostered if the Enterprise Florida experiment - which other states are watching closely - is to succeed. But for it to succeed, this political/business alliance must produce a veritable revolution in the way Florida operates - a revolution that must overcome the state's structural inertia that constantly resists progress whether it be in education or tax reform.
And that's why I think John Anderson has the toughest job in Florida. His job is not simply promoting the image of Florida as a good place to do business, but it is working to be sure it becomes just that. For, as Allen Lastinger, the Barnett Banks president who is vice chairman of Enterprise Florida and one of the leading reasons that it even exists today, warned enthusiastic summiteers: "If we begin to market the state before fixing those problems, we run the risk of highlighting our problems." As his comment suggests, Anderson must deal with two related challenges: the outside perception of Florida and the reality of Florida. Those are subjects that have interested me since I arrived here, and recently when I visited my son's college in New England I asked some of his fellow students what immediately came to mind when I said Florida. "Beaches," "old," "football," "heat," "swamps," "tourists," "palm trees," "alligators" were typical of the responses. Mind you, these are seniors who enter the job market in a few months. It's safe to say from their perceptions of Florida that they won't be coming down here looking for jobs. Again, one of Anderson's challenges is to create a job market that not only attracts bright college graduates from outside the state, but gives opportunities to the vast numbers who graduate from Florida's colleges each year and increasingly have to find well-paying jobs elsewhere.
Clearly, Florida needs an image makeover. But as Lastinger warns, it can't be done with smoke and mirrors. Somehow, Anderson has to figure out how to coordinate efforts to improve the state's education system and its business environment as he markets the state to high-tech companies such as microchip manufacturers, which Enterprise Florida has identified as targets. And then there's the issue of Florida's inadequate tax structure, which can't support Florida as it is, let alone as it would be. If there's a tougher job in Florida than John Anderson's, I haven't come across it yet.
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
