SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

“The Japanese use the library
function and technology together
to accomplish business and
organizational goals.”
James Matarazzo, consultant, Boston, MA
tage of the worldwide University of Wisconsin
alumni network to develop markets.
Even though it is unconventional, why
does this approach make sense? It plays to
Wisconsin’s strengths: smart work force, quality
products, honest relationships, great University
and good government.
It accepts the
fact that in a global marketplace
knowledge is
easily transportable,
important for us in the
Midwest.
There are barriers,
not the least of which is
that this is a new way
to think about economic development. There
are issues of proprietary information, state
policy, logistics and accounting. The potential
is clear, however, because of the clear global
focus on an image of the new knowledge-age
economy as envisioned by Peter Drucker and
others.
Also, there are spin-off opportunities.
There could be a more organized partner city
program or special cooperative efforts with
other world class universities. Some of the foreign
customers may want to come to Wisconsin
for continuing education, tourism or job
training.
For the public employee, this strategy
means an increased emphasis on lifelong learning
and the need to be connected to the information
superhighway. The reward for advising
others on how to clean the environment, protect
public health or teach children goes beyond
a paycheck. The work values the public
employee for her or his knowledge capacity (see
Goal #20).
For the University,
it means finding ways
to integrate and reward
faculty participation in
the process and being
on call to meet customer
needs (see Goal
#13).
For state government,
it will require looking at the benefits and
risks of creating a privately managed buffer
between the state employee and the private sector.
It will mean looking for ways to encourage
knowledge sectors of the economy. It will mean
being comfortable with a high-tech, customerdriven
consortium which will organize and market
Wisconsin knowledge.
The firm will use a variety of electronic,
fiber optic, digitized and wireless channels to
gain access to the knowledge information it
needs and distribute it to customers (see Goal
#12). In the end, Wisconsin can become a recognized
participant not only in the world
economy, but in the world community.
Actions
9.1
Sell intellectual capital
in the knowledge
economy.
9.2
Aggressively tap
Wisconsin’s Knowledge
Capacity for state use.
Leona Fitzmaurice,
Bioissues, Madison
“To transfer their
research to the
marketplace, university
researchers must
become entrepreneurial
or align with organizations
already engaged in
entrepreneurial efforts.”
Ralph Stayer,
Johnsonville Foods,
Kohler
“Government’s role is to
promote the free trade
of knowledge.”
R E S U L T S
The knowledge
economy will:
1 Impact citizens by improving the
national and international market for
Wisconsin knowledge.
2 Change the contribution of
government to economic
development by focusing on the
role of government as investor and
promoter of knowledge.
3 Improve the equality of contributions
that all sectors of Wisconsin
can make to the knowledge
capital of the state: not a
monopoly, but a consortium.
4 Change the contribution of the
state university system as a
source of knowledge to a source
of human capital network for the
private and public sector.
5 Change the view of state employees
from regulators of the economy to
contributors and participants, as
good government becomes a
marketable commodity.
6 Remove government as a barrier to
the growth of new environmentally
safe products of Wisconsin industry.
CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY 29