Y2K liability
The U.S. Senate last week approved the Y2K Reform Act, along with an amendment offered by Senators Judd Gregg, R-NH and Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-MO, which would cap the amount of liability businesses would incur in the event of Y2K lawsuits against the companies. The White House had threatened to veto the original version, until the compromise was worked out that relaxes the cap somewhat for larger companies, but kept intact the cap for smaller companies, according to a spokesperson for Senator Gregg. The spokesperson said this version will meet with White House approval, thus ending what could have been a difficult stand-off between the trial lawyers and business advocacy groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
We’re pleased that Congress has approved the legislation, reducing the fear among small business advocacy groups that it would not be Y2K problems that presented the largest dilemmas for small business, but the lawsuits that could have easily devastated scores of small companies.
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Manufacturing’s future
The results of a study by the Boyd Co. of Princeton, N.J. may surprise those who for years have considered Rhode Island’s manufacturing sector to be mortally wounded. The study says that Providence is a wise place to open a metalworking factory.
According to the survey, Providence had the third-lowest operating costs of 26 areas surveyed, all but one in the United Sates. Of the 25 areas in the United States, only Greenville/Spartanburg in South Carolina had lower labor costs than Providence.
The lowest labor costs, according to the Boyd study, were in the province of New Brunswick in Canada.
While it is true that Rhode Island has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs and that the current economic development focus is centered on high technology, financial services, insurance, and telecommunications, it is also true that Rhode Island has – through legislative efforts – improved its business climate in recent years.
But what the study clearly says that there are also manufacturing opportunities here, and they should not be overlooked as Rhode Island develops its master plan for the state’s economic future.
There are still some 80,000 Rhode Islanders working in the manufacturing sector, and if the state looks at those areas where we might have the greatest strength and attractiveness – such as metalworking – then this sector of our economy may in fact have some life yet.
Collaboration
Every 200 or 300 hundred years, says Peter Drucker, the world goes through this global change, a transition that reshapes the way we do things. According to Drucker and Patrick J. Waide, president and chief executive officer of The Drucker Foundation, we are in the middle of a global transformation, a world of constant change that promises to keep us in transition for at least another decade.
It is the time, says Waide, that the three sectors – political, private, and non–profit community organizations — must collaborate to help recreate a world in which poverty and illiteracy no longer dominate.
Last week, at a luncheon in Providence, Waide quoted staggering statistics that showed the majority of the world’s inhabitants are both impoverished and illiterate.
For Waide the underlying message he delivered to a couple of hundred people at a nonprofit professional awards program was that in this ever changing world, to successfully deal with such rapid change, and to capitalize upon it we need to collaborate among like organizations and not so traditional collaborations that bring together disparate groups.
The awards presentation, in fact, was just that, a celebration of the collaboration of non-profit community groups, government and the business community to support and promote activities aimed directly at reducing poverty and improving educational standards.
Too often we are reminded of the consequences of the failure to cooperate, and less often reminded of the rewards of collaboration.
