One of the key discussions we had the other night with incubator executives from around the state revolved around this issue: "Indiana was famously entrepreneurial a century ago...is it still today? If so, is it simply less obvious or do we need to find ways to really let it blossom?"

The dinner discussion was graciously sponsored by Ice Miller and superbly hosted by Gerry Dick. It was a great set of folks to wrestle with this issue. When you think about it, our state - a hundred years ago - was incredibly active in auto manufacturing, machined parts manufacturing, primary steel production and oil refining - among many other commercial and agricultural activities. These commerce activities were most often driven back then by the enterprise's founder and were not limited to the industrialized urban centers. Even today, vestiges of those early entrepreneurial pioneers remain with us as foreign auto manufacturers, steel mini-mills, and even metals recovery operations vie for operating locations in Indiana. But with the dramatic changes in economic drivers across the globe, does Indiana still have home-grown entrepreneurs capable of creating commerce in the emerging industries of various technologies and life sciences? I believe the answer is a resounding YES. I also believe the challenge we are increasingly facing is to smooth the way for these entrepreneurs to be successful. And that "smoothing" process involves every fiber of this state's economic fabric. From funding sources and private equity to state and local governments, we need to continue to find ways to enhance the odds of our entrepreneurs succeeding. I think the current call to action is for those most actively involved in incubation to begin looking for the commonalities in our challenges and to join forces across the state to address them with a unified voice.

John M. Hanak
Director
Purdue Technology Center of NWI