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Verfasser: Gunar
Datum: Sonntag, den 7. März 2004, um 17:52 Uhr
Betrifft: Hochqualifizierte Mitarbeiter wollen nicht nach Utah

Salt Lake Tribune
7.3.2004

Is politics as usual scaring off business?

By Lesley Mitchell and Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune

    After a decade in Utah, Evelyn Rodriguez left Salt Lake City last year to find work in Silicon Valley.
    Now a marketing consultant in San Jose, Calif., Rodriguez finds herself explaining her former home to associates who share a common perception of Utah as a haven for polygamist cults and puritanical politics.
    "You get the typical jokes -- you’ve heard them all -- people totally bashing Utah. I end up defending Utah. It isn’t nearly as bad as the image it has," Rodriguez says.
    How outsiders view Utah weighed heavily on state economic developers throughout the 2004 Legislature, which ended Wednesday. A tiny list of business-friendly measures got lost in a glut of ideologically charged "message bills" and lengthy debates over whether the United States should withdraw from the United Nations, whether varying degrees of rape should be applied to abortion law and how restaurants should be allowed to serve pitchers of beer.
    Business leaders worry that any positive news generated by bills that allocated $5.2 million to the Industrial Assistance Fund and offered tax exemptions to Utah’s film industry were overshadowed by political posturing on the Hill.
    Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, and other Democrats chastised their conservative colleagues, alleging that two unnamed companies were so shocked by the state’s "strange social-cultural environment" they decided against expanding in Utah.
    Conservative legislators are "not just embarrassing the state, they’re hurting our economy," Allen said.
    Republican leaders portrayed the Democrats’ complaints as political gamesmanship, but the concern that the Legislature helps create a mean-spirited, close-minded image for the state is echoed by business leaders.
    This year’s political posturing "didn’t help us at all, and in some cases, it may cause harm," says Fraser Bullock, a venture capitalist who also was the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s chief operating officer.
    Companies relocate primarily for economic reasons, Bullock says, but an image of political extremism, "could make a potential CEO team think twice about its decision.
    "There are more productive ways to send out those messages," he says.
    The 2004 legislative session only brought into sharp relief a perception problem that has haunted Utah since its founding. Despite the state’s educated work force, healthy lifestyle and varied recreation options, media images continue to emphasize the state’s seemingly unending news of the weird.
    The problem was publicly debated in 2001, when then Iomega Corp. Chief Executive Bruce Albertson lambasted the state’s leaders for hobbling economic growth through "absurd" liquor laws.
    Later that year, former AlphaGraphics CEO Michael Witte, at a gathering of economic developers, called Utah a "tough sell."
    "Otherwise educated, liberal, open-minded people still look at the Utah environment and think that you guys are from Mars. I’m not kidding," said Witte, who had moved the print-shop chain’s headquarters from Tucson, Ariz., to Salt Lake City.
    In 2002, Utah pulled off one of the most successful Olympics ever, and the state was lavishly praised for its beautiful scenery and friendly people. But state officials worry the image boost Utah received has faded rapidly.
    "The state’s image is still one of mountains and Mormons," says Dean Reeder, director of the Utah Division of Travel Development. "I’m not saying that it’s bad or good. It is what it is."
    Two researchers have studied how Utah is perceived by out-of-state decision makers. What they found is troubling.
    Aric Krause, dean of the Westminster College School of Business, had student researchers survey 50 technology companies nationwide to ascertain their impressions of Utah as a place to locate a facility. Utah scored well on some tangible issues, he says, including proximity to a good university and access to venture capital.
    But the state scored poorly on less tangible qualities, including the ability to attract and retain highly educated, innovative workers. Technological innovation is driven by exceptional people with cutting-edge ideas and tech leaders fear that kind of talent is hard to lure to Utah.
    Unfortunately for recruiters, technologists in other states tend to see Utah as a "no beer, polygamous, crazy place," Krause says. "That’s the perception that we have to deal with. True or not, perception is reality."
    Al James, an assistant lecturer in economic geography at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, collected perceptions about Utah from representatives of more than 100 software companies with operations in Utah from September 1999 to January 2003 for a study funded by Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council. He says Utah often is viewed by out-of-state business people as "too repressive and homogeneous."
    Some find The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ stance against homosexuality troublesome and question the overall culture’s support of women’s rights, James says.
    Restrictive liquor laws and anti-smoking policies "sustain an ultraconservative image of Mormon Utah that discourages many potential job applicants from out of state," he says.
    James says nearly three-quarters of the companies he studied for his report said they had difficulty attracting qualified people to Utah.
    Such findings do not surprise Jeff Gochnour, director of Utah’s Division of Business and Economic Development. "People recognize Utah is a beautiful place," he says. "They just aren’t convinced it’s a great place to work and raise a family." Many business leaders fear negative perceptions are created and sustained year after year by a handful of lawmakers who do not represent Utahns as a whole. Should Utah’s culture be judged, for instance, by Rep. Stephen Clark’s attempt to draw a distinction during an abortion debate between what he labeled "violent rape" and what he deems as a lesser case in which a woman "goes out and gets drunk, passes out and gets raped?"
    Kate Reddy, co-owner of McKinnon-Mulherin, a Salt Lake City-based provider of training and documentation services, maintains Utah is a great place to operate a business and sees lawmakers wasting time on message bills as an image-tarnishing embarrassment. "The Legislature could be a turnoff not only to women, but to anyone working here."
    The impact of odd things that happen in Utah may be magnified because people in other states already think of Utah as "a small town heavily influenced by the LDS Church," says Jim Wright, a recruiter with Prince, Perelson & Associates in Salt Lake City.
    Wright, who moved to Utah from New York City eight years ago, finds it difficult to get some people to form their own opinions.
    "If you can just get people to visit Utah, and see these things, they often are more receptive to moving here."
    Craig Bullock, executive vice president of human resources for mortgage servicing company Fairbanks Capital Corp., came to Utah from Grand Rapids, Mich., about a year ago. A visit sold him on Utah and Park City, where he now lives.
    "Utah shows very well," Bullock says. "A lot of people, who haven’t been to the area, come out and like what they see."
    Jeff Weber of MyFamily.com in Provo knows well about the challenges of recruiting workers to Utah. The company, which employs more than 700 in Utah, has had to fill a variety of positions from outside the state.
    Though plenty of people do not like Utah, Weber is not convinced Utah’s image problems, while different from other states, are any worse.
    Ultimately, if Utah economic developers are going to try to spruce up the state’s "brand," they will need the help and consensus of all community leaders -- even lawmakers, says Scott Davis, managing partner for San Francisco brand-management company Prophet.
    "When a brand has an incredibly entrenched image, changing it can be very difficult," he says.
    Utah’s leaders must start by conducting extensive research on how the state is perceived then decide how they want it to be perceived. Then everyone -- the Legislature included -- is going to have to consistently reinforce that image.
    "You are all going to have to all come together and pound on this message of what the state is supposed to be," Davis says. "If you have anyone out there doing their own thing, coming up with different points of view, it just won’t work. You need to have your act together or you will fail."

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