Minnesota Exports: - Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association

Manufacturers are poised for growth. Minnesota’smanufacturing sector continues to be an area of strengthduring the extended economic recovery. After a slump in thesummer, September picked up again such that 2012 will closeon a solid note of growth. According to Enterprise Minnesota’s2012 State of Manufacturing, 82 percent of Minnesota’smanufacturing executives feel confident about the financialfuture of their company, quite consistent with 2011 surveyresults. 8 The challenge will be to find the skilled workers tosupport the growth.The skills gap is growing. A global economy calls for aglobally competitive skilled workforce. And no state has a higherdemand than Minnesota. “But the skill levels of Minnesotansare not keeping pace with the demands of employers,” accordingto the Governor’s 2012 Workforce Development Council. Thiscommittee published the following further statistics: 9Minnesota: Drilling DownIt’s impossible to overstate the importance of manufacturingto Minnesota’s economy. Indeed, the manufacturing sectorcontinues to be its backbone, accounting for 15 percent of all wagesand 13 percent of the jobs. In total, manufacturing representsone in seven jobs and has the largest total payroll of any businesssector, according to Minnesota’s Department of Employment andEconomic Development (DEED) 2012 statistics. 6Minnesota was built by manufacturers. Greatmanufacturing companies were founded here: 3M in 1902,Two Harbors, Minn.; Toro in 1914, and Medtronic in 1949,both in Minneapolis, Minn.; Polaris 1954 and Arctic Cat in1961, Roseau/Thief River Falls, Minn., area. We have over 8,000other examples of tooling companies, fabricators and stampers,precision contract manufacturers, equipment manufacturers,mold shops, foundries, all calling Minnesota home.According to 2012 DEED statistics, 17 Minnesotamanufacturing companies are among the largest in the countryby revenue, including 3M, Toro and Medtronic. That said, mostMinnesota manufacturers choose to remain small, having beenfounded by tradesmen who grew a business out of their love fora craft and, ultimately, passed that love down to their children.Minnesota has seen the development of a critical massof medical device firms. And yet, “as competition grows morefierce nationwide, Minnesota is losing its momentum to otherstates,” according to a 2010 Humphrey Institute report on thiscluster. 7 Steps must be taken and priorities set to preserve andgrow this cluster. The combined efforts of LifeScience Alley andBioBusiness Alliance are leading the way in these efforts.Seventy percent of Minnesota jobs will require someeducation beyond high school by 2018, yet only 40percent of working-age adults in Minnesota hold apostsecondary degree.Nearly two million working-age Minnesotans lack acredential beyond a high school diploma.Furthermore, educational attainment levels are expectedto decline in coming years—an unprecedented trend.Why? Consider a growing demand for higher skills,changing technology, retiring baby boomers, fewer youngpeople entering the manufacturing arena, and a current jobcandidate pool that is—in a word—unprepared. The growingskills gap will constrain Minnesota's economic growth,increase unemployment, and limit opportunities for bothbusinesses and individuals."Our manufacturing economy is very strong," BobKill, Enterprise Minnesota president and CEO, said in a2012 MinnPost interview. But, he cautioned, "We know ofcompanies that have turned away business because they justcan't find the workers." 10Let us prepare for the upcoming introductions to greatleaders by reminding ourselves that, first and foremost, thesecompanies—and their leaders—are an integral part of a largercommunity system. Oliver Sheldon, an early 20th centuryleader well known for his philosophy of management, saw themission, goals, and methods to achieve objectives as firmlyrooted in the needs of society. The concept of the enterpriseas part of the community fundamentally is economic: it hasa social dimension in it that integrates the interests of societyLEADERSHIP INSIGHTS SERIES | INTRODUCTION