Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 17, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 25 OTHER VOICES The path to economic growth in CT By R. Michael Goman W e've recently seen the work of something called the Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth, a taskforce consisting of 14 CEOs who worked on identifying and coming up with solutions to the structural problems facing state government. Good idea, good folks and good be- ginning, but there's much more work to be done. In a previous column, I advocated for engaging the people who are running companies in Connecticut, dealing with regulations and making payroll every week, in a dialogue about how to make it easier for them to expand and operate their businesses in Connecticut. The idea is to convene groups of operating leaders from each industry sector and get them to talk to our public officials about what it would take for them to invest more capital here in Connecticut. And by talking to them, I don't mean an occa- sional conference where a few public officials present the government initiatives that are available, or a conference where 150 people from an industry get together to network. What I'd like to try is a broad series of small, industry-specific working meetings, held in a series of working conference rooms. If these meetings are to be productive, we have to start by building a rapport, which, if we do this right, will build trust and respect between business managers and pub- lic officials. Most importantly, we need to get all sides of the discussion believing that they can help each other and thereby help the state. We need to get to the point where the industry people can- didly talk to our public officials about what can be done to make it more at- tractive for people in their industry to invest in Connecticut. Ideally, our public officials will leave each meeting with a task list of work- able ideas for changing the current pat- terns that we seem to be locked into. There are several important points for this to work. First, we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need to try some ideas without fear- ing that they might not work exactly as planned. Allowing that to happen would simply continue the current paralysis. Second, we have to be focused on making many small changes. Big ideas are great but take much more time and resources to implement, and they tend to attract resistance. In comparison, the small ones are quick and easy to make, and they rapidly add up to real change. A series of small but rapidly implemented changes also sends an important mes- sage, signaling movement in the right direction. Third, the hope is that small chang- es can be made at the rule-making and processing level. The objective isn't to subvert the law or intent of the legislature. Instead, this assumes that simple changes can be made that will make it easier, faster and less costly for business people to follow regulations. An added benefit is that our regula- tors will learn a lot from these discus- sions. This increased knowledge will position them to better help those industries that want to grow. We want our regulators to see that they can play an important role in helping our busi- nesses add jobs and pay more taxes. We'll be going in the right direction if we convene a dozen or more of these working groups, representing a broad cross-section of operating leadership from financial services, insurance, aerospace, shipbuilding, high-tech and clean manufacturing, advanced genomics, health sciences, health care and bio-medical companies, and focus the participants on working together to simplify, reduce or eliminate unnec- essary, redundant or duplicative rules and regulations. Investment capital, like water or electricity, follows the path of least resistance. We can reduce our resis- tance by simplifying our regulatory environment. R. Michael Goman is a principal of Goman + York Property Advisors LLC, an East Hartford-based real estate advisor. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULT: Does your company use social media to recruit for open positions? NEXT WEEK'S POLL: Is the state investing enough money in the University of Connecticut? To vote, go online to hartfordbusiness.com BIZ BOOKS Steps to become a 'do it yourself ' mogul By Jim Pawlak "You Are A Mogul: How to Do the Impossible, Do It Yourself & Do It Now" by Tiffany Pham (Simon & Schuster, $27). Mogul (n.) — an important or powerful person. At 27, Pham devel- oped onmogul.com, an award-winning platform for women worldwide to share their accomplishments, their concerns, exchange information and access knowledge. She's a mogul who believes women should be "bold and daring and should pursue positions of influence and impact." Here's her advice: Define what you want and why you want it. Create an "I'm going to stand out" storyline that outlines how from beginning to end. With quiet confi- dence, you must take actions that sell your story every day. Be flexible, too. Your story involves others. Their actions have an impact on your story — but not its goal. Flex- ibility also involves evaluating paths that present themselves over time. Look for "accelerators" that develop skill sets, s-t-r-e-t- c-h outside the comfort zone and relationships that connect new dots. Do more than what's expected in your job description. Look at the organizational picture; use interactions with your team and those in other areas that intersect your job/de- partment to identify additional ways to contribute. Volunteer to take on projects. "Develop your hustler mentality." When colleagues and management see you as someone who distinguishes between activity and progress and gets jobs done, you become a go-to resource. As such, more opportunities will come your way. Key takeaway: "It doesn't matter how you start, where you start or why you start. All that matters is that you start." You don't want to play regret's game: "Woulda, coulda, shoulda." Live your story by making things happen. 53.6% No 46.4% Yes R. Michael Goman Jim Pawlak Book Review

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