"What can I do to create great economic energy, to bring new customers...?"

Some final noes from The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup. In an earlier post I especially liked this quote: "The investments should follow rare entrepreneurs versus worldwide oversupply of innovation. Put another way, it's far better to invest in entrepreneurial people than in great ideas."

Here is some excerpts from a recent Forbes interview with Jim Clifton (emphasis added):

"How does a leader create more jobs than the competition?"

"By creating more customers. Almost no one knows this. Keep in mind that no business is trying to create jobs. They are all working all day and every weekend to create new customers. New customers are the real goal of a nation. Because jobs always follow customers. Too few leaders have this figured out... "

"Innovation is not scarce. Entrepreneurship is scarce. We are spending billions and wasting years of conversations on innovation and it isn’t paying off. Great business people are more valuable and rarer than great ideas."

"America has about six million active businesses. Ninety-nine percent of them are small businesses. An incalculably huge mistake leaders are making now is spending time, money, strategies, and especially policies for those who need “help” getting a job. A useful way to look at any citizen is this, “Can she herself create jobs or does she need a job created for her?” We are spending all our time on the cart and doing little or nothing on the horse."

"It is wrong thinking to imagine that Washington has solutions. Job creation is a city problem. There is great variation in job creation by city in the United States. San Francisco and the greater Valley keep pumping away while Detroit isn’t. Austin’s cart works while Albany’s doesn’t. Cities need to look inwardly and say, “What can I do to create great economic energy, to bring new customers for all existing companies and start-ups?"

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Create more customers... Bring new customers to your region... Rebuild regional economies. Sounds like a plan to me.



Good Forbes article featuring Jim Clifton and The Coming Job War. Interview with Dan Schawbel

Overview of book at Gallup Business Journal