Time to step up, business.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Colorado businesses need to boost spending to improve state's economy

READ BOB DIDDLEBOCK'S FEATURE STORY THIS MONTH ON business reinvestment in technology--there is none, page 26--or several stories in the Wall Street Journal in early January, and it might dawn on you as it has dawned on me:

If Colorado business wants to goose the state's economic recovery into a higher gear, then Colorado business is going to have to start spending some of its own money on reinvesting in itself.

Two chief financial officers of top Colorado companies, both of which won ColoradoBiz company-of-the-year honors in August, Array BioPharma and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, gave an interesting presentation to an Association for Corporate Growth chapter luncheon last month.

The topic was taking your company public, and both Mike Carruthers of Array and Jim McCloskey of Red Robin told horror stories about dropping stock prices during the time each was making IPO pitches to investment bankers around the country.

McCloskey also seemed to touch a collective nerve among the 300 or so corporate lawyers, merger-and-acquisition advisers and investment bankers in attendance. He said Denver's numbers of late--and later he explained he meant Red Robin's same-store sales figures--were lagging even the minimalist growth showing up in other parts of the country: California, the rest of the Pacific Coast, the Midwest and the East Coast.

He said those Red Robin Colorado sales were flat to slightly negative compared with a year ago.

His remarks and the numbers, although they represent only one measure, do offer solid evidence of what...