Hey Minnesotans…time to take big, calculated risks. To use a baseball metaphor we need to forget about bunting to get to one base and instead start swingin’ for the fences.

Budget shortfalls are slamming many states like Minnesota due to revenue shortfalls and a reduction in federal money. Fortunately there are some states where the tax base and regulatory climate is one that is attracting business. Undoubtedly these states also enjoy other variables that make companies want to startup within them, or move to, and capitalize upon that business climate.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released their second report of its kind, “Enterprising States: Recovery and Renewal for the 21st Century” (PDF) and Minnesota is not high on most lists in this report. The report has four primary sections with pretty solid measures for each:

Top Growth Performers		Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Top Export States		Top Taxes & Regulation States
Workforce & Training		Infrastructure

The worrisome aspect is that Minnesota doesn’t rank highly in anything but median family income and educational attainment. While both are good, the former is likely due to the high concentrations of people working for out-State companies and the latter since education is such a priority in our State. Due to the current budget crisis and slash-n-burn mentality by most politicians, quality of education will likely erode quickly.

The executive summary had some troubling things to say that are probably obvious on the surface:

“In the past, states could look to Washington for assistance. Now, whatever the intentions or real achievements of the stimulus package, future increases in federal spending seem likely to be meager at best. This presents a new, and perhaps unprecedented, challenge for the states. With Washington effectively forced to the sidelines, states will now have to address fundamental economic issues relating to growth and employment on their own. Most will have to do so without significantly increasing their own spending.”

No kidding.

…  [Read More…]

Always on the hunt for resources we can share with our Minnov8 readership, I thought I’d offer you something I received via email today from a PR firm for the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, a global intellectual property firm. While good, whoever sent this out doesn’t “get” the fact that we’re in a new world of content delivery, sharing and consumption.

I found the content very intriguing and that’s why it’s being shared with you. From articles on how patents are used in hot markets for competitive advantage to one on stock buybacks to the big one on getting ready for the recovery, they’re short but intriguing enough to spark interest in knowing more.

While that content within this Spring/Summer issue of their “magazine” (PDF) is good, as we all know design and user interface makes content either easy to consume or presents barriers to its use.

I’m embarrassed FOR them that it’s a TECH publication that is a PDF, and not a very well executed one at that! Not only is this less accessible than alternatives (like good HTML) but they go from single pages to a “spread” layout that, on their PDF page 22, has three pages and ONE OF THEM IS BLANK! You’d be doing a lot of pinchin’ and zoomin’ if reading on an iPad or “+” to make it bigger if in a browser on a PC.

So while the content is kinda, sorta worth the effort to consume, it could be so much better. Thinking that their website might offer up a better experience and easier access to this content, I went there. They bounce from white to black pages, navigation that isn’t consistent and, for example, under “Resources” I selected the search “Publications” and couldn’t find this magazine. I found myself shaking my head and chuckling over how their website was worse as I searched “MoFo Tech” in the searchbox, and found, a bunch of magazine covers linked to PDFs just like this issue.

My intent with this post is not to rain on Morrison & Foerster’s parade, but rather point out a fabulous resource and to share the lesson I took from my experience reading this publication: Any of us who have tremendous content value to deliver—like MoFo definitely does as a major IP law firm—but don’t focus on making it as easy as possible for our audience, completely miss the entire value proposition and its potential impact. Whether you’re delivering a how-to video for your company, an email newsletter, or (God forbid) a newsletter in a not-very-well-executed PDF, make damn sure you make your viewer/readers experience a good one.