Moore Women in Business: Leadership in Business and Government
Darla Moore
Darla Moore—Ideas
and Action
Darla Moore, Vice President
of Rainwater, Inc., and for whom the Moore School of Business is named, is founder and chair of the
Palmetto Institute, a nonprofit think tank aimed at bolstering per capita income in South Carolina.
She is the consummate example of women in leadership. Having achieved success in business—she was
the first woman to be profiled on the cover of Fortune magazine and was named to the “List of the
Top 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business”—she has turned her attention to the economic
well-being of South Carolina’s citizens, (the article below is exemplary). Moore was commencement
speaker and received an honorary doctorate at the University of South Carolina’s Dec. 18, 2006,
commencement ceremony at the Colonial Center in Columbia, where she was praised as a “ respected
entrepreneur and vigorous advocate for South Carolina.” She recently received the “ Business Person
of the Year Award” from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, and in May was inducted into the
S.C. Business Hall of Fame.
This is an excerpt from New Carolina Manifestos , “a series of writings and conversations to create new energy, new ideas, new action and new jobs in South Carolina,” sponsored by New Carolina: South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness. Darla Moore’s was the first in the series.
Many voices, both in the public and private sectors, speak in terms of the need for South Carolina to be competitive. If nothing else, the Palmetto Institute and the Council on Competitiveness, now known as New Carolina, have helped to focus the conversation about the economic well-being of South Carolina on “competitiveness in the global economy,” “raising the per capita income,” and “developing industry clusters to support more innovative and efficient ways to build our economy.” We now have a competitiveness agenda for the business community; the Governor and the Legislature discuss issues in terms of being more competitive as well as using a variety of metrics we have offered to gauge improvement. All of this is encouraging, but I still wonder whether or not we really understand what it takes to be competitive.
While I don’t have all the answers, I can commend many of the excellent points made just last December in a report of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a special arm of the National Center on Education and the Economy. In that report entitled Tough Choices or Tough Times, two trends were highlighted in an effort to focus us more accurately on the challenges America now faces. First, new technology has made the world so much smaller. Because of the computer and the volume of work we do that ends up in a digitized form, it is easy to transmit instantly over the Internet to any place in the world of work involving engineering or architectural drawings, x-rays, and a whole list of other work-related activities. What that means is employers right here in South Carolina have access to a worldwide workforce of people who do not have to live and work in our state.
The second trend relates to how companies now operate. According to the report, a century ago the United States led the world in the process of “vertical integration” where corporations did all of the work from mining the raw materials to the final retail sale to the consumer. Today, the United States leads the world in the break-up of the vertically integrated corporation. Corporate analysts determine who can best do each step in the process, not only at the lowest cost but also at the level of quality demanded. The corporation then contracts with the best providers of each of these steps in the process and keeps only those functions it can do best. It is what we have come to call “outsourcing.” Unfortunately, corporations that do not take this approach will not be competitive and eventually will be put out of business. Moreover, it is not just workers in other countries —as technologies continue to develop, more and more computer-driven equipment and robots are being developed to take over even more jobs.
This is the environment we face and, unfortunately, we face it at a time when the quality of our workforce is being challenged. Again, according to the report Tough Choices or Tough Times, while the United States could previously claim having the best educated workforce in the world, this is not true today. Over the last 30 years, country after country has surpassed us in the percentage of individuals entering the workforce with the equivalent of a high school diploma. Even more disturbing, 30 years ago 30 percent of the world’s population of college students was in the United States. Today, only 14 percent are in the U.S. and the number continues to decline.
Our challenge is to create an economy not only supported by a skilled workforce, but one that is driven by innovative, creative companies adding value to products and services in order to capture a premium in the world market. That is why in addition to the economic performance indicators, we must also track innovation output indicators.
This new economy is difficult to grasp, especially in a state that has developed its workforce to produce specific products for companies in the most efficient, cost-effective method possible. And, with the strong work ethic of our citizens and a technical education system with an excellent ability to train specific workers for specific jobs, we have been very successful. Unfortunately, as the world becomes more competitive, competitors in foreign countries with lower labor costs will copy any jobs described as routine or repetitive. No longer will just producing a shirt, regardless of how inexpensively or efficiently, be enough. We now must find ways, for example, to produce the same shirt with fabrics that protect or medicate us. We have to find ways to produce agriculture products not just as commodities but also for new usages in energy and medicine. The list goes on and on from high technology to basic jobs.
That is why the Palmetto Institute, along with other organizations, commissioned Professor
Michael Porter’s group to develop for South Carolina a long-term economic strategy based upon the
global economy. That is why New Carolina is working so hard to build industry clusters that help
South Carolina recruit, expand and create more innovative businesses. That is why the Palmetto
Institute has worked with the South Carolina Commerce Department to help improve the state’s
approach to workforce training. That is why the research universities have been asked to take a
greater role in creating new entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses. That is why the
technical education colleges are committing to programs to help them improve individual student
achievements and the overall workforce quality. That is why the Education and Economic Development
Act was passed to help guide and encourage students to expand their opportunities for better jobs
and careers. And, that is why there is a competitive agenda today to recommend legislative
initiatives to give South Carolina the tools necessary to become more competitive. This isn’t about
being popular! These changes are absolutely necessary to be more competitive, and if we cannot
become more competitive, we cannot offer a more prosperous life for ourselves and, more important,
for our children. It is that simple.
Darla Moore, Vice President
of Rainwater, Inc., and for whom the Moore School of Business is named, is founder and chair of the
Palmetto Institute, a nonprofit think tank aimed at bolstering per capita income in South Carolina.
She is the consummate example of women in leadership. Having achieved success in business—she was
the first woman to be profiled on the cover of Fortune magazine and was named to the “List of the
Top 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business”—she has turned her attention to the economic
well-being of South Carolina’s citizens, (the article below is exemplary). Moore was commencement
speaker and received an honorary doctorate at the University of South Carolina’s Dec. 18, 2006,
commencement ceremony at the Colonial Center in Columbia, where she was praised as a “ respected
entrepreneur and vigorous advocate for South Carolina.” She recently received the “ Business Person
of the Year Award” from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, and in May was inducted into the
S.C. Business Hall of Fame.
This is an excerpt from New Carolina Manifestos , “a series of writings and conversations to create new energy, new ideas, new action and new jobs in South Carolina,” sponsored by New Carolina: South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness. Darla Moore’s was the first in the series.
Many voices, both in the public and private sectors, speak in terms of the need for South Carolina to be competitive. If nothing else, the Palmetto Institute and the Council on Competitiveness, now known as New Carolina, have helped to focus the conversation about the economic well-being of South Carolina on “competitiveness in the global economy,” “raising the per capita income,” and “developing industry clusters to support more innovative and efficient ways to build our economy.” We now have a competitiveness agenda for the business community; the Governor and the Legislature discuss issues in terms of being more competitive as well as using a variety of metrics we have offered to gauge improvement. All of this is encouraging, but I still wonder whether or not we really understand what it takes to be competitive.
While I don’t have all the answers, I can commend many of the excellent points made just last December in a report of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a special arm of the National Center on Education and the Economy. In that report entitled Tough Choices or Tough Times, two trends were highlighted in an effort to focus us more accurately on the challenges America now faces. First, new technology has made the world so much smaller. Because of the computer and the volume of work we do that ends up in a digitized form, it is easy to transmit instantly over the Internet to any place in the world of work involving engineering or architectural drawings, x-rays, and a whole list of other work-related activities. What that means is employers right here in South Carolina have access to a worldwide workforce of people who do not have to live and work in our state.
The second trend relates to how companies now operate. According to the report, a century ago the United States led the world in the process of “vertical integration” where corporations did all of the work from mining the raw materials to the final retail sale to the consumer. Today, the United States leads the world in the break-up of the vertically integrated corporation. Corporate analysts determine who can best do each step in the process, not only at the lowest cost but also at the level of quality demanded. The corporation then contracts with the best providers of each of these steps in the process and keeps only those functions it can do best. It is what we have come to call “outsourcing.” Unfortunately, corporations that do not take this approach will not be competitive and eventually will be put out of business. Moreover, it is not just workers in other countries —as technologies continue to develop, more and more computer-driven equipment and robots are being developed to take over even more jobs.
This is the environment we face and, unfortunately, we face it at a time when the quality of our workforce is being challenged. Again, according to the report Tough Choices or Tough Times, while the United States could previously claim having the best educated workforce in the world, this is not true today. Over the last 30 years, country after country has surpassed us in the percentage of individuals entering the workforce with the equivalent of a high school diploma. Even more disturbing, 30 years ago 30 percent of the world’s population of college students was in the United States. Today, only 14 percent are in the U.S. and the number continues to decline.
Our challenge is to create an economy not only supported by a skilled workforce, but one that is driven by innovative, creative companies adding value to products and services in order to capture a premium in the world market. That is why in addition to the economic performance indicators, we must also track innovation output indicators.
This new economy is difficult to grasp, especially in a state that has developed its workforce to produce specific products for companies in the most efficient, cost-effective method possible. And, with the strong work ethic of our citizens and a technical education system with an excellent ability to train specific workers for specific jobs, we have been very successful. Unfortunately, as the world becomes more competitive, competitors in foreign countries with lower labor costs will copy any jobs described as routine or repetitive. No longer will just producing a shirt, regardless of how inexpensively or efficiently, be enough. We now must find ways, for example, to produce the same shirt with fabrics that protect or medicate us. We have to find ways to produce agriculture products not just as commodities but also for new usages in energy and medicine. The list goes on and on from high technology to basic jobs.
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Darla Moore (left) with Dr. Robert E. Markland, associate dean of administration, at
the University of South Carolina's winter commencement excercises on Dec. 18, 2006. Ms. Moore gave
the commencement address and was awarded an honorary doctorate in business administration at the
ceremony.
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To bring you full circle, success depends on a virtuous cycle which begins with supply—supply of a highly skilled and ready workforce, supply of cutting-edge innovations, supply of worthy opportunities for venture capital investment, and the environment to patent new creations and seed fast-growth companies.
Therefore, the next time an issue arises regarding whether or not we need to continue working toward changes to be more competitive, think about the worker in China making a dollar an hour and wanting desperately to take a South Carolina worker’s job away so he or she can work extra hours. This example will help us all remember what being competitive really means and why we have to continue to work toward that goal.