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www.HartfordBusiness.com • June 17, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 21 OTHER VOICES Lamont, Democrats avoid major harm By Roy Occhiogrosso "F irst, do no harm." It's the famed Hippocratic Oath that medical students know well as they pursue a career in medicine. But just about everyone else knows what it means as well, including elected officials. While it might be a low bar to set for a legislative session, those of us who've served in or watched government operate over the years know there have been times when governors and legis- latures in fact did do a lot of harm. So let's start there: Did Gov. Ned Lamont and state lawmakers do any real harm this session? Thankfully, they did not. Let's remember, the potential for disaster was there when the session convened in January. You had a new governor and many new lawmak- ers with no government experience, a looming budget deficit in excess of $3 billion, and some big, thorny issues on the table, including tolls, recreational mari- juana, and several gaming-related issues. It's fair to say the new administra- tion got off to a rocky start. Then, in the weeks following Lamont's budget speech in mid-February, things got kind of quiet at the state Capitol. Although a lot was happening behind closed doors, not much was happening publicly, other than the governor getting knocked around quite a bit, especially on tolls. And it didn't seem like any real progress was being made on any of the big issues. And then the inevitable happened: government observers began judging the new administration to be a fail- ure. Words like "struggling," "direc- tionless," and "confused" started ap- pearing in news stories and columns. As is often the case in political cam- paigns, when early polls lead people to prematurely predict outcomes, people began to predict what the final result would be when the dust settled on the 2019 legislative session. And most of those predictions weren't good. But then the administration began to claw its way back. Having inadver- tently lowered expectations, Lamont and Democrats in the legislature began to put points on the board. Bills started to move, compromises on some big issues began to be realized, and no major disasters occurred. So, where did we end up? First and foremost, give Lamont and Democrats in the legislature credit: They produced a balanced budget on time, and averted any major tax increases. It's far from a perfect budget, but it holds the line on spending, doesn't raid the rainy day fund, spares cities and towns any major cuts in funding, and makes some important investments in local education. Does it solve our No. 1 long-term problem? No, it doesn't. Our massive, unfunded liabilities are still there, and they're going to continue to hold us back until we figure out a smart, permanent solution. There were some other important wins on issues that many Democrats and Lamont campaigned on, including the minimum wage and paid family leave. On a host of other important issues that didn't get as much attention, there were also some wins. Those with men- tal-health and substance-abuse issues, first responders suffering from PTSD, members of the LGBTQ community, community college students — good things happened for all of them. Who lost? The small business com- munity, people who own mansions, those who believe the teaching of climate change should be mandated in schools, pro-choice advocates and those who be- lieve that religious exemptions from vac- cines have caused a public health crisis. All of these groups took some kind of hit. What about the other big issues? Well, first, there were no major losses. Tolls were put off for later, as was recreation- al marijuana and gaming. For those who thought the adminis- tration and legislature needed to ad- dress those issues — myself included — it's fair to say we probably all agree that punting them to a special session, or to next year, was a better way to go than to see them get voted down. If any of them had come up and been voted down, it might've been the end of the road for a while. As Sun Tzu once said, "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight." Roy Occhiogrosso is the managing director of Global Strategy Group in Hartford, a public relations and research firm. He also served as a senior advisor to former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Roy Occhiogrosso HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULT: Will the proposed UTC-Raytheon merger mean long-term job losses in Connecticut? BIZ BOOKS Why startups fail By Jim Pawlak "The Ultimate Start- Up Guide: Marketing Lessons, War Stories and Hard-Won Advice … " by Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent (Career Press, $16.99). The authors, who've experienced B2B success and failure, learned easy-way and hard- way lessons from their experience and that of angel investors and venture capitalists. They start by highlighting reasons that startups fail, and rightly so — if you can avoid missteps at the beginning, you'll increase the odds of success. The top reasons startups fail: "No market need" — New or improved doesn't mean the market will embrace it. If you haven't done your homework on the "why it's needed," you won't be able to convince prospects to buy your product/ service. "Need" deals with more than us- ability. Buyers must make a business case that addresses affordability and smooth integration with existing operations. "Running out of money" — Plans never go as planned. Budgets should include the costs of slippage in de- sign, production and delivery. Slip- page can be finan- cially disastrous as windows of opportunity open and close quickly, especially with seasonal items. "Expanding market focus too quickly" — This deals with loss of focus on the initial market "whether driven by early sales feedback or engineering desire." Ef- forts to "improve (save?)" the product de- volve into trying to be "a lot of different things to a lot of different markets." Lack of focus creates operational and financial havoc; see "Running out of money" above. "A founder that doesn't listen" — Many founders act like dictators by refusing to listen to what employee and market feedback tells them. Despite reality, they stick with their vision. The result: Em- ployees bail and the business fails. If you can address the "failure" is- sues detailed in the first few chapters, the "run your business" advice in the remaining chapters will increase the odds of long-term success. 22% No 78% Yes READER COMMENTS: "Long-term job losses for CT are due to a whole host of issues regardless of this new merger. Most of them will stem from the inability to change course from the same old playbook." Jim Pawlak Book Review