Ohio's success as the nation's top automotive supplier is due in large part to the individual success of companies like Honda of America Manufacturing (Honda).
Recently, Honda celebrated two major Ohio milestones. The first being the ten-millionth car produced at the company's Marysville, Ohio plant. And the second is the celebration of the company's 25-year anniversary making auto engines in Anna, Ohio. Honda's major milestones not only highlight the company's impact on Ohio's automotive industry, but also its impact on economic development, employment and housing growth within the state.
Honda now employs more than 4,400 workers and is credited with business, retail and housing growth in the Marysville area. In the last five years alone, Marysville retailers have added more than 700,000 square feet of retail space in light of growing demand. The benefits extend beyond the local economy; Honda employs 13,500 Ohioans and contracted for $5.5 billion in auto parts in 2009 from 160 auto parts suppliers.
Ohio's network of auto suppliers represents all facets of motor vehicle production. In fact, motor vehicle manufactures produce 15 percent of the state's total economic output.
Ohio is home to some of the best and brightest talent in the automotive industry, and continues to provide the necessary tools to allow both businesses and individuals the opportunity to pursue both their professional and personal aspirations without having to sacrifice one for the other. Ohio truly is the state of Perfect Balance.
On Tuesday Ohio was approved for $400 million in funding from the federal Race to the Top school reform grant program. This was the maximum amount Ohio requested.
Race to the Top is a $787 billion federal stimulus package that rewards states promising education reforms designed to improve outcomes and boost high-school retention rates and college preparedness.
This was the second-round of funding awarded for Race to the Top - only Delaware and Tennessee received funding in the first-round.
“Our students deserve every opportunity to succeed in and beyond the classroom, and I believe the creative and forward-thinking initiatives outlined in our winning application provide just that,” said Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. “Ohio has shown its commitment to encouraging innovation by passing successful economic development initiatives like Ohio Third Frontier, and this award builds on our job creation strategy by helping prepare the next generation of Ohio entrepreneurs and innovators.”
The Race to the Top application was submitted by the Ohio Department of Education in June. Ohio was selected as a finalist in late July and a team from Ohio presented to the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month.
Ohio has 538 school districts and individual schools representing about 1 million children who agreed to participate in Race to the Top programs. At least $200 million is heading directly to participating schools.
From K-12 schools that challenge and inspire students to be imaginative and analytical in their thinking, to post secondary institutions that develop hard-working, highly skilled graduates -- Ohio is continually ensuring that employers have a competitive advantage in the 21st century global marketplace.
For more information about Race to the Top and Ohio's commitment to education, click here.
As president and chief executive officer of Anderson-DuBose, a logistics company specializing in food service distribution, Warren Anderson has found that Ohio’s central location and world-class transportation infrastructure reduce operating expenses and provide greater opportunities to reach new milestones in growth and prosperity.
Lower transportation cost isn’t the only business advantage Warren has found in Ohio. Pro-commerce policies implemented by the Ohio Department of Development have paved the way to new expansion through low-interest loans and grants.
"The state has made it very attractive to retain the business here, to the point where this is where our home base is going to remain,” Warren shared in an interview with me.
Warren has also found a personal advantage to running a successful business in Ohio. The same interstate system that speeds his trucks to their destinations also speeds him home to family and the pastimes he enjoys most – boating – on nearby Lake Erie, attending his children’s sporting and ballet events and catching a Cleveland Cavaliers game.
Colorado biomedical company, Lanx Inc., has chosen Ohio as the location to launch its Lumbar Motion Monitor Commercialization project. The company, which chose Ohio over other Midwest states, said the state's biomedical industry and support from programs like Ohio Third Frontier were key to the decision.
"Ohio is an attractive location for the Lanx Diagnostic division because of its existing strengths in the biomedical industry and resources such as Ohio Third Frontier and TechColumbus," said Stuart Born, Director, Lanx Diagnostic. "These benefits coupled with the close proximity to our collaborators, allow us to further develop an important innovative new tool that will essentially help surgeons and other clinicians further optimize patient care."
According to the 2009 "Making an Impact" report conducted by SRI, Ohio Third Frontier's strategies for investing in Ohio's high-tech clusters contain all the elements associated with global best practices in technology cluster development, and indicate that these investments are already generating positive economic outcomes for Ohio's economy in terms of growth in technology sector employment, output and wages. Since its inception, the Ohio Third Frontier has created, capitalized or attracted more than 600 companies, has created nearly 55,000 direct and indirect jobs and helped create $6.6 billion in economic impact in Ohio, a 9:1 return on investment.
Click here to read more about why Lanx chose Ohio.
My dear friend Jackie Bassett, founder & CEO of BT Industrials, recently wrote an interesting piece for us on Ohio's innovative history. Following is her story. Thanks, Jackie!
The Ohio brand promise is the state of perfect balance, a place where professional and personal success can be achieved without sacrificing one for the other. Based on our research, it is also a state that offers the perfect balance between creativity and practicality, which has enabled Ohioans to change the world in extraordinary ways.
It’s well known that Ohio’s economy is built upon a legacy of strength in manufacturing and innovation. So it’s no surprise that 61 companies on Fortune’s 1000 list are headquartered in the state. But does the world know how many Inductees into the National Inventor’s Hall Of Fame were either born in, educated in, built their companies in or discovered their inventions in Ohio? Do you? There are more than 30!
Every one of them leveraged that perfect balance between creativity and practicality to make the world a better place for everyone. There is no shortage of historical, practical evidence of exactly how.
By revolutionizing entire industries: Charles Martin Hall had just graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, when he invented his method of manufacturing pure aluminum that proved so commercially successful it reduced the cost of aluminum from $1,200 per kilogram down to 18 cents a pound turning - scarcity into abundance.
Harold McMaster grew up on a tenant farm in northwest Ohio and went on to become a Research Physicist – inventing tempered glass and founding four companies. His breakthrough exponentially advanced solar manufacturing efficiency, as it allowed his company, SCI (Solar Cell Inc.) to coat one solar panel every 30 seconds at a time when SCI’s closest competitor BP Solar, a subsidiary of the oil giant British Petroleum, required six hours.
By improving our quality of life and saving millions of lives: Granville Woods an African-American from Columbus, Ohio merged his passion for electricity and railways and invented railway telegraphy, a communication system that that dramatically cut down accidents and collisions between trains, improving the safety of the railroad system. The third rail used in many of today’s subway systems was his creation. Many of his inventions also served to advanced the use of electricity and were later acquired by Westinghouse and GE bringing, as GE’s corporate brand message says, many “good things to life.”
Garrett Morgan of Cincinnati established himself as a businessman with his sewing machine repair business. But one of his greatest innovation successes was when he, and a team of volunteers, personally donned the safety hood and smoke protector he invented (after learning of a previous fire), and rescued 32 men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. The device was then further developed into a gas mask used internationally to save millions of lives.
By raising the standard of living around the world: Thomas Fogarty, born in Cincinnati, invented the lifesaving Embolectomy Catheter while a scrub tech at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. It significantly improved the quality of medical care and revolutionized the practice of vascular surgery. Dr Fogarty has been quoted as looking at things and just naturally thinking, “Okay, how can I make this better?'’ and then applying those answers toward advancing the practice of minimally invasive surgery.
Paul Lauterbur of Sidney, Ohio made the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) practical. It’s widespread use established magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the diagnostic tool that would revolutionize radiology. Today the availability of MRI technology spares millions of patients around the world from further suffering from unnecessary and highly invasive exploratory surgery. The 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Paul C Lauterbur (along with Peter Mansfield) as well as the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology.
By forever changing, for the better, how we live our lives: Dawon Kahng was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the United States so he could attend The Ohio State University earning both his master’s and doctorate degrees in Physics. He developed the process that allowed electricity to reliably penetrate and conduct electricity to silicon wafers. Until his breakthrough discovery, this capability had only been theorized. His invention was the first operative silicon MOS transistor, a semiconductor that is the basic element in most of today's electronic equipment, and the floating gate memory cell, the foundation for many forms of semiconductor memory devices.
Irwin Lachman came to The Ohio State University to pursue a ceramic engineering degree and went on to co-invent the substrate used in virtually all Catalytic converters, reducing polluting emissions from the combustion process by 95%. His invention is credited with reducing automotive pollutants by more than 3 billion tons worldwide. Every automotive manufacturer in the world now uses ceramic substrate technology.
By growing the Ohio economy and creating millions of jobs: Charles Brush was a self-made man from Wickliffe, Ohio whose inventive genius of the electric arc light system helped commercialize electricity, illuminating streets around the world. The Brush Electric Company ultimately formed what is now the General Electric Company, a hallmark of our global economy.
Lester Pelton of Vermillion, Ohio invented a water wheel, which delivered more than 90 percent efficiency as opposed to other water wheels that were at best 40 percent efficient. This water wheel has been recognized as the beginning of hydroelectric power development and it is still used throughout the world today.
Harvey Firestone of Akron Ohio took $20,000 worth of assets and grew his tire sales and manufacturing business, Firestone Tire and Rubber, into the multibillion-dollar global company that it is today, creating millions of jobs.
About the Author: Jackie Bassett is Founder & CEO of BT Industrials, a strategic management and technology consultancy. She is also author of “Drawing On Brilliance”, a rescued collection of original patent lithographs designed to inspire the creative genius in everyone.
Recently, Honda celebrated two major Ohio milestones. The first being the ten-millionth car produced at the company's Marysville, Ohio plant. And the second is the celebration of the company's 25-year anniversary making auto engines in Anna, Ohio. Honda's major milestones not only highlight the company's impact on Ohio's automotive industry, but also its impact on economic development, employment and housing growth within the state.
Race to the Top is a $787 billion federal stimulus package that rewards states promising education reforms designed to improve outcomes and boost high-school retention rates and college preparedness.