At a recent power breakfast event hosted by Business Report, three speakers discussed the potential of our city and state as well as the need for vision and leadership as we work as a team. The speakers included Congressman Garret Graves, Dr. John Kirwan, executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Kenny Nguyen, a 29-year-old entrepreneur.
Nguyen was the first person under the age of 30 we’ve had as a power breakfast speaker—and, yes, we should have invited one sooner. What’s also true is that Nguyen was one of the youngest people in a room of 500 business and elected leaders, writes Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister in his new opinion piece.
But why was that the case if an almost universally accepted Capital Region goal is to retain and recruit more young talent? How many times have we been told that these young professionals are critical to competing economically with other cities?
In 2003, during the first canvas trip organized by BRAC, with some 130 leaders traveling to Austin, we heard a lot about how young people came and then chose to remain in a city that 25 years earlier looked an awful lot like Baton Rouge, McCollister writes. They were eager and creative and didn’t hear “but that’s not the way we’ve always done it.”
Austin’s mayor told us on that trip 17 years ago that the one thing we should take home with us was this: “Find out what it takes to attract that 25-year-old entrepreneur to your community and build on that.” How did we do? Austin is now ranked No. 1 for new business startups. Baton Rouge isn’t on the list.
Last week, McCollister asked how many of the current BRAC board of more than 50 are under the age of 40. The number is now five. That’s a step forward from what it was in 2003, which was zero. But is it enough?
Nguyen is an entrepreneur and was recognized as a “30 under 30” by Forbes in his field of marketing. He was named Business Report’s 2019 Young Businessperson of the Year and went to LSU and started his business when he was 20. He is bullish on Baton Rouge and his peers. He stressed that to establish Baton Rouge as a creative headquarters in the South, we need to keep our talent from leaving. Nguyen had a challenge for all to engage, develop and hear the young people in their respective companies and throughout our community. “If you don’t elevate the people you have, they’re going to find somewhere else to jump,” he says.
How are we doing in 2020, and are we willing to think differently, take risks and change? We can’t wait 17 more years—and our young talent won’t wait.
Read McCollister’s full column, in which he expands on the importance of adding younger voices to Baton Rouge’s leadership. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
