A few jobs now

Congratulations to Mike Kazmierski and Carl Williams for a grassroots pitch that landed a few new high-end jobs in Colorado Springs. And welcome, Jabil Circuit, to Colorado Springs. This is a place where your company will almost certainly thrive.
Jabil Circuit, a large Florida-based computer technology company, recently opened a design center in northern Colorado Springs with seven employees. It plans to double its staff within a year, reports Gazette business writer Wayne Heilman, "to take advantage of a wealth of local expertise in the industry."

What, no tax break? No pay-to-play funny money? No free infrastructure? How can this be?

Jabil chose Colorado Springs the old fashioned way. It took a tip from a friend, examined the community, and decided it was a solid match. It wasn't lured by a wagonload of gifts. The company had needs, and an employee told them Colorado Springs could meet those needs. That's the gradual, sustainable, old fashioned, small-scale model of economic development and the model that ultimately works. Slow and steady wins the race.

It all began when Jabil hired Colorado Springs resident Carl Williams to join its engineering team in Florida. Williams wanted the job, but he didn't want Florida. Who would want to leave this metropolis at that base of majesty, after all? Williams convinced Jabil to let him work from home in the Springs.

Williams quickly familiarized himself with the company and realized it had trouble finding qualified engineers to fill open positions in Florida. Where some saw a problem, Williams saw opportunity. He knew that Colorado's Front Range, home to several storage technology giants, contains a wealth of engineers and technicians highly knowledgeable about digital storage. Most don't want to leave, even when unemployed.

Williams and Kazmierski, executive director of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp., began pitching Jabil headquarters on the idea of opening an operation right here. The company was enticed by the existing qualified workforce, and it agreed to give it a try.

Jabil is a global corporation with more than 85,000 employees, and 55 plants in 21 countries. It generated nearly $13 billion in revenue in fiscal 2008.

Yes, it's only seven jobs for now and it's only some 14 if all goes well within the next year. Those jobs won't save our economy. But these are good-paying, primary jobs that bring revenue to Colorado Springs from other parts of the world. These are the kinds of jobs that grow local economies.

Though it's a handful of jobs, it's the foundation of something that will likely go big in coming years. That's because Jabil undoubtedly will learn the Front Range is exactly where it should be. Culturally, it's a perfect match. It connects the right jobs with the right professionals and those professionals, people like Carl Williams, are people with roots in Colorado who do not want to leave. Nothing about this decision is based on an artificial, puppy love, quick-fix attraction.

The story of Williams and Kazmierski landing a small new operation in Colorado Springs should serve as a model of inspiration for the community. This is exactly how it should be done. It's an example of local people promoting the genuine and sustainable value of their community and solving a problem for a global corporation with great potential for expansion and growth.

Our community's success doesn't reside in luring a few big fish with the flashy appeal of shiny financial enticements. A stable economic future for Colorado Springs rests in ordinary folks selling our community's genuine assets to honest enterprises in need of sustainable workers with the right expertise. It depends on not a few big fish, but an abundant and reliable supply of little fish.

By the end of the year, Jabil might have 14 new professionals working in Colorado Springs. Big deal? Well, it is a big deal if those 14 become 140, or 1,400 in coming years. Remember, a short time ago the company had plans for no more than one employee in the Springs. Imagine just 100 other local residents successfully pitching Colorado Springs the way Williams and Kazmierski did. If that would happen, Colorado Springs would thrive.