SEP 17, 2013 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Myles Shaver
President JIM KOSMO rang the meeting to order a few minutes early on this day, with a full agenda at hand.
New/renewed Rotarian BILL KANSAS was at the piano, as JERRY FALETTI led the assembly in America the Beautiful. CAROL BUFTON offered an invocation on behalf of the club, and new member TOM HEIM facilitated the introduction of six visiting Rotarians from British Columbia, New York, Georgia, and South Dakota, as well as five guests of Rotarians including a prospective new member.
The Rotarians from Canada were thanked for their service as greeters; the wine and cheese reception at Master Framers was promoted; and Roger presented three friendship flags from our guests who will be honored at the reception.
Rose Queen CARLA HAUGE reminded everyone to get their orders in ASAP – and if you don’t have orders to place, go out and get them! One third of our good works comes from the rose sale, one third from the holiday party silent auction, and one third from cash contributions to the foundation.
Our newest member JASON RHODE, from Harris Companies, was introduced by his sponsor ED COLEMAN. All present reflected silently that the average age of our club members just went down, which never hurts.
President Jim then introduced our most recent Centennial Scholar, PAJNUCCI VUE, who gave a short presentation on her first year at Stanford University. She had many adventures, including an alternative spring break giving service in California, a few days this summer at Camp Kesema serving children of cancer victims, and an extended period in Quito, Ecuador working with street children. We can certainly be proud of this outstanding Camp RYLA grad!
We sang to eight Rotarians present for their birthday greetings, including DICK STOCKWELL who will celebrate his sixtieth year as a member of Club 10 next March!
CHUCK WHITAKER introduced our speaker for the week: Dr. Myles Shaver, who our guests were delighted to learn was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Dr. Shaver is a professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.
He spoke about the perception of many people in other parts of the country that Minnesota is akin to Siberia. When he reminds them that we have an incredible business climate in this state, they then think of our state as Siberia with a lot of good businesses . . . but they are not sure why.
What is the reason we have this business climate, historically, whether temperature has anything to do with it or not? Is it adversity building character? Ethnic heritage and characteristics? Natural resources?
As we examine the longer period, our business climate has been strong for more than 100 years. In recent years we have had 19 or 20 of the Fortune 500 companies nationwide. Minnesota ranked eighth in the US with this count – but if you look at per capita population statistics, we were number one in the Nation in 2011. Scaled by the size of our economy, we are far and away the number one state in the Union, with 19 Fortune 500 companies!
In 1955 there were 11 such companies here – and only three of those eleven are still here, but we showed net growth. (Wisconsin and Iowa actually had net losses.) In that period, however, we added 40 Fortune 500 companies – and turnover netted a growth of nine companies.
We also have 16 Minnesota companies on the Forbes Private 100 – including number one Cargill. This places us in the top ten of states, and adjusted for population or economy – we are either number two or number three in the Nation. We also have seven major employers in this state that are not headquartered here, but that employ nearly 40,000 people between them in the state.
We have also had a disproportionate number of company headquarters and corporate officers here for 100 years.
Why?
Why do we tend to grow the companies that start here, and keep them here, versus other states that are mostly losing or gaining companies through relocation?
Dr. Shaver left us hanging. He acknowledged that as an academic, he was not ready to present his final findings and evidence. He hinted that one contributor was likely to be a spirit of entrepreneurship inherent in Minnesota. We don’t just do things the way others say it should be done.
At this point the audience weighed in with their insights – the summary of input was that our concern for community, arts, and quality of life – the basics for sustainability of a strong community – are the foundations of strong employers, employees, and companies.
Dr. Shaver agreed, and shared that our companies also appear to rank higher than the national average with regard to ethical and corporate 
values-based decision-making. Doing it the right way is also part of a culture of sustainability.
Maybe the Four Way Test is more valuable than we know!
John Andrews, Scribe