Make work: triad leaders profess faith in life after death for manufacturing.

• Position: FEATURE

The economy of the Triad--famous for making textiles, apparel, furniture and cigarettes--is changing. As production moves overseas, the 12-county region's manufacturing sector dwindles--jobs decreased 10.4% from mid-2002 to mid-2004--and its focus shifts from traditional industries to new ones created by research and development. Senior Editor Arthur O. Murray discussed this trend with Sue Cole, regional CEO of U.S. Trust in Greensboro and past chairman of North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry, the state chamber of commerce; Richard Dean, president of Wake Forest University Health Services in Winston-Salem; Charlie Greene, president of furniture maker Classic Gallery Group in High Point; James Renick, chancellor of North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro; and Penny Whiteheart, senior vice president of the Piedmont Triad Partnership economic-development agency.

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What's higher education's role in this?

Renick: If we're seriously concerned about economic development and the viability of our community, we've got to leverage the intellectual capital that occurs on our campuses and relate more closely to our community, particularly the business community.

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How does that relate to creating business?

Dean: There's a cliche that after 40, people don't invent in science. So really, it's the post-doctorate fellows--the young thought-provoking people who are challenging the dogma they were taught--who are creating knowledge. You need to have something going on that brings young people together. They demand certain services, and that leads to the self-perpetuating growth of entertainment and activities. The pathway that we're going down will allow us to not create a new Triad but reinvigorate the persona that was the Triad in the remote past.

Explain that.

Dean: Using Winston-Salem as indicative of the Piedmont Triad, the life cycle of commerce here became profoundly successful through the entrepreneurialism of people like R.J. Reynolds. So we have had in our remote past a profound level of entrepreneurialism by young people. But as part of the cycle, the companies become so profoundly successful that eventually the leadership cannot allow too much more entrepreneurialism because it will undermine the establishment.

Cole: Those entrepreneurs who became very, very successful and created these very large firms in the Piedmont Triad ended up downsizing due to problems or combining with other companies or whatever. It really resulted in the company not being loyal to the employee. So young people see that maybe working for a big company is not what they want to do. I think they have become more entrepreneurial, and that is a good thing.

Renick: The question is, how do we engage young creative people in the process? Our community still says that if you're 45 or older, you maybe get a shot. But anybody under 45 really is not running much around here. And that sends the message to 20-somethings that 'I've got to wait 20 more years.' How do we work to include them in the mainstream so they're excited about entrepreneurial activity, business and industry? That is going to be increasingly important. Until we break down those barriers, I think, that's going to be an Achilles' heel.

Is the Triad still in a down cycle?

Dean: We're on the upswing. The depth to which one falls is how long it takes to have the population--the critical mass of the...