Virgin on Business: Contemplating Utah

In its faraway corner of the American map, Washington tends to look at the other 49 members of our national federation with varying degrees of puzzlement, wonderment, envy and dismissal.

California qualifies for multiple emotions. Washington regards itself as a high-tech rival to California, which amuses the latter (when it notices at all, a larger version of the relationship between Seattle and Tacoma).

In the other direction, Washington regards Alaska as an economic and political suburb of the Evergreen State, much to the annoyance of the Last Frontier.

New York is where you go for Wall Streets money. The Other Washington is where you go for the taxpayers money.

Then there are all those other states that occasionally rise to get our attention. South Carolina, for example, provoked a mixture of contempt and fear when Boeing decided to open an assembly plant there. How could there be anything worthwhile in the South? What if Boeing moves everything there?

Lately, another state, one closer but only slightly more prominent in Washingtons collective consciousness, is commanding notice because of what it means to our states business and economic future.

We need to pay attention to Utah.

That message was evident when Boeing (them again) announced earlier this year the purchase of a building in West Jordan, Utah, to fabricate horizontal stabilizer components for the 787-9. That facility is only 20 miles from Boeings fabrication and assembly plant in Salt Lake City.

Its not just that these Boeing facilities operate beyond its traditional home territory for commercial aerospace in the Puget Sound region. Also of noteand possible concernis that these facilities work with composites, the material of the future and an industry sector that everyone, Washington especially, wants a large chunk of.

Utah is one of those states building a composites presence, and doing so with Washington companies. Janicki Industries, the Sedro-Woolley-based maker of composite parts, assembly and tooling, has a 100,000-square-foot composites manufacturing facility inyou guessed itUtah. Its current project is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The trade is not one way. When the University of Washington needed a new president in 2011, it hired the University of Utahs Michael Young, in part for his track record of encouraging the commercialization of technology developed at the school, an area in which the UW wants to bolster its efforts and results. And Seattle and Salt Lake have some shared high-tech history; Novell was a competitor and combatant to Microsoft before later being acquired by Attachmate.

So its not as though Utah is completely Terra Incognita to us. We know of the similarities between the two states, such as national-park-worthy landscapes, as well as some of the differences. Salt Lake City is home to an influential worldwide religious movement. Seattle? Definitely not. Salt Lake hosted a Winter Olympics (albeit with some messy history leading up to the games). Seattle decided not to attempt it.

The difference in business climate between the two states was a topic for discussion at last Novembers Association of Washington Business manufacturing summit in Seattle. Lisa Janicki, CFO for Janicki Industries, mentioned the compressed timeline for getting the companys Utah facility operatingproperty search launched in late January, signing documents in March, starting construction in June, moving in the following February.

Janicki used the adjectives efficient, streamlined and helpful to describe Utahs approach to economic development. They were just really ready for us, she says, adding that helpful isnt the adjective she would use for Washington. Streamlined and efficient made repeated appearances in her description of Utahs workforce training system, which she says seemed to be much more coordinated than Washingtons. It was amazing, she says, what a machine Utah has created as far as putting people into industries that the Legislature wants to develop.

These are words to contemplate and be motivated by as those responsible for guiding economic development in Washington devise strategies and deploy resources for building, recruiting and retaining job-generating firms, industries, technologies and entrepreneurs. Washington does have a remarkable record of creating those businesses. But this isnt the only place where that can happen.

BILL VIRGIN , whiis founder and owner of Northwest Newsletter Group, which publishes Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News.