Change agent.

A provision in this year's state budget allowed NC. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker to create the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Inc., a public-private partnership that will assume her department's sales and marketing duties. In January she named Richard Lindenmuth, 69, its interim executive director. The CEO of ITT Corp.'s business and consumer communications group in 1981-83, he spent most of the next 30 years leading companies in transition. The one constant in his career, he says, is change. He now charged with changing economic development in North Carolina. The following has been edited for clarity and brevity.

How did you end up in the job?

Sharon Decker read an article I wrote about the rebirth of U.S. production--in which I said it's no longer cheaper to manufacture in China--and said, "Would you be interested?" I've seen where public-private partnerships have been done poorly in other states, though each did things well. This is a chance to become the state that did it correctly.

What is North Carolina's biggest challenge?

We're not attracting the companies. It's a very different world than it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Whoever invented the service economy didn't think about Whom you serve. If nobody's producing, you're not serving anybody.

Will the partnership pitch or catch?

I...