Economic development dance: Trying to get business — without stealing businesses

Christine Bome, the vice president of public affairs of the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, was very clear about what MaRS is.

• It is Canada’s largest innovation hub, with a 1.5 million square feet of space, focused mainly on medical and related sciences (that’s where MaRS comes from).
• It is a hub that aims to convene startups in Canada that have unique tech-based intellectual property and connect them to customers and capital.

Bome also was very clear about MaRS is not — a feeder system of companies for states in the U.S.

“We don’t want companies to leave Ontario,” she said. “We try to make it as sticky as possible.”

That’s why she said MaRS was a little hesitant about hosting a delegation of New Jersey economic development officials this week during the New Jersey-Canada Economic Mission trip sponsored by Choose New Jersey.

“I said very clearly when they asked us to host, ‘If you’re looking to take our companies out of Canada, we’re not in,’” she said. “We have a talent stream here in Ontario and Toronto that keeps people here, and we want our companies to stay here.”

That being said, Bome knows the U.S. has what Canadian companies need most: more customers.

Finding a balance — a way to grow business interests in both New Jersey and Canada — is a dance both sides have been doing all trip.

Murphy, speaking at an event at JLabs — Johnson & Johnson’s top innovation center in Canada, which hosted the event at MaRS — addressed the situation head-on.

He said New Jersey can be an attractive option for companies — but that it is not looking take jobs away from anywhere. Murphy described the process this way:

“When you make a decision that you want to expand outside of your home base — in other words, you made that decision, I didn’t make it for you — we want you to come to Jersey, period, full stop,” he said.

Wes Mathews, the CEO of Choose New Jersey, said there is a certain sensitivity that comes on mission trips — or any discussion with companies.

“We don’t hard-sell anybody, that’s not our ethos and never has been,” he said. “We just feel we have a really good product to sell in terms of New Jersey, and pick our partners based on that.”

Mathews said the governor’s previous mission trips — to Germany, Ireland, Israel, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan — prove the point.

“If you look at the countries we’ve been to in the Murphy administration, we’ve chosen places because either they’re already invested in our state in a major way, or we think they’re interested in ramping up that engagement in the next decade,” he said.

The approach is working in Canada.

Bome and MaRS ended up bringing numerous companies to the event Monday morning — and came away impressed, she said.

“The fact that they took the effort to come here means a lot,” she said. “And it was very encouraging to see that they welcome Canadian companies and that they want to help them connect to capital and customers.

“The discussion always is, ‘What is that partnership going to look like?’”

Bome said she was impressed that Choose New Jersey and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority came with details.

“What I found really interesting is that New Jersey is willing to provide them with market intelligence — tell them what the customer base looks like — as well as information on the tax credits, angel tax credits and connection to venture capitalists,” she said. “All those things are positive.”

And necessary, because …

“There’s an interest in expanding their footprints outside of Canada, because Canada is a very small market,” Bome said. “We know they need customers.”

Don’t be confused. MaRS is not necessarily going to pitch New Jersey to its companies, Bome said.

“As an innovation hub, we’ll follow up to make sure it makes sense and to make sure that all of our companies have information needed to make a decision,” she said.

“We don’t really push companies anywhere. We push companies to take advantage of opportunities wherever they might exist. We have a fairly robust database of information, and this will add to it.”

Mathews said he’s eager to talk to any company, anywhere, at any time. And he said he’ll let the other party drive the conversation.

“We’re not asking companies to relocate their operation from X country to New Jersey or Y state to New Jersey,” he said.

That being said …

“If they want to do that — that’s a different conversation that we’re happy to have. But we never begin a conversation talking about that.”

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