SCIENCE STRATEGIES
WITH RICHARD SELINE

Hawaii raises excitement
level for veteran developer

In a 20-year career in economic development, Richard Seline has advised cities, states, universities and the federal government how to develop and grow scientific communities.

Among his past works are the creation of life-sciences development plans for the state of Texas and the city of Philadelphia.

But he says he's never been as excited about a region's prospects as he is about Hawaii's.

"The overriding feeling here is that of being completely enamored with the various raw strengths in science and technology that are here, strengths that the mainland and the world largely don't know exist," said Seline, president of Washington, D.C.-based New Economy Strategies.

NES has been hired by the Kamehameha Schools, a major landowner in Kakaako, for guidance on how to steer development of a science-based community in the area that will complement and feed off the presence of University of Hawaii medical facilities now being built there.

Kamehameha Schools has said it envisions NES's resulting "life sciences road map" serving as a guide for the whole state in developing a vibrant technology sector centered on Kakaako.

Since April 2003, Seline and his team have been studying Kakaako's and Hawaii's prospects and plan to issue their road map next month. In an interview that touched on many of those findings, Seline said Hawaii has great strengths but a long road ahead.

Question: What do you see as the key strengths that Hawaii would be wise to develop further?

Answer: There are many. First, the global seed industry looks to Hawaii as one of the two or three critical sites for seed libraries for variety of plants.

That's because of the unique climate, the opportunity to enjoy three or four growing seasons, and the great concentration of expertise here in the fields of plant science. There are people here with huge talent and skills, at the university level, in the Department of Agriculture and private industry looking at what it will take to keep the world fed.

But you'd never know that unless you were in the scientific community or the industry.

Marine sciences in Hawaii are also exciting when you hear what's happening in deepwater discoveries. Very smart people are finding energy and protein life forms that maybe substantial sources of everything from power to nutrition.

NASA also is putting investment in deep space discoveries. Well, hey, Hawaii has clear skies and substantial telescope capabilities.

Tripler Hospital also stands out. I still do not believe people realize how important Tripler is in life sciences, especially in telemedicine, the whole question of how you deliver health care to a very distant and moving set of individuals.

Finally, there's the diverse genetic population base that lives or comes to the island. Since medicine is becoming more personalized, Hawaii is truly now in an important leadership role in addressing and linking to that.

If you know, for example, that Japanese get certain diseases more or less often than other races, you can look at what environmental factors are causing that.

You look at all these things and many others and you end up slapping your head. Wow! Now what needs to be done is come up with a way of showing people and businesses that they need to be here.

So how does Hawaii do that and why hasn't it happened yet?

The overwhelming weakness here is not recognizing that knowledge-based economies can live side-by-side and in some ways be an advantage to tourism, military and the real estate industry, the traditional "big three" in Hawaii.

When you get off a plane here, you're instantly introduced to Hawaii as a tourist destination but never as a potential business or technology center. Hawaii needs to be more positioned for that.

There are a great many scientific and technical meetings held in Hawaii but you'd never realize that there are a whole set of technologies in Hawaii that could connect in with that. The problem is that traditional parts of the economy too often view knowledge-based sectors as a potential competitor for resources.

But that's a perspective of limitation, not abundance. You don't divide up a limited pie, you grow the pie. Hawaii needs to bridge traditional assets with knowledge-based assets that could feed off each other. Everyone needs to be on the same page.

Given those strengths and weaknesses, and trends in the world biotech industry, what specific life-science sub-sectors should form the core of a Kakaako-centered biotech community?

We're still assessing that. We're about 85 percent of the way there so we're not ready to talk about it yet.

But one point about Kakaako should be made. All the building and investment in the medical school is no doubt to the great benefit of all of Hawaii. But it's created a perception that Kakaako equals life sciences and vice-versa.

That's a limiting perspective. There are other areas where great things are happening. But the seed experts won't be moving to Kakaako. The Maui Supercomputer won't, the marine science guys won't. But they may want to tap into that.

So life sciences is important but its only one of the tools to making Hawaii's portfolio successful.

How then should Kakaako be positioned?

It ought to be an innovation zone. We need to look at what scientific, technological and business aspects are likely to lead to commercialization and that ought to be proximate in Kakaako.

You can develop real estate there but you also need to think about bringing in all the people and interconnections that need to be formed in those buildings to ensure innovation; all the tools, mindsets, forums, and mechanisms by which people interact and start forming new products and companies.

That might sound like the soft side of it, but if you don't think about setting up that value chain, you end up with weeds growing in front of beautiful new buildings.

How do you create that value chain?

By attracting really smart, talented people with a range of skill sets who are creative, then stand back and watch what they do, and just get out of the way.

This kind of thing is like a positive virus. You give it the environment it needs to grow and it will grow. But how do you attract those people? That gets back to what we were talking about before, about Hawaii playing up all of its scientific strengths. You have to tell people and companies why they need to be here in Hawaii.

The shortage of top-drawer lab and research space in Hawaii is often cited as a major hurdle for building a biotech industry. What needs to happen to entice developers to build such research space?

That's the big topic of conversation. The question is how do you minimize the risk to developers so that they'll act? "If you build it, they will come" is no longer any option.

You have to show that there is a purposeful design for the area, validated all the way down line with the right science, technology and entrepreneurial and business support structures that will point to who the end-users are and show how and why they are going to be successful in Kakaako. You have to show developers there will be a viable market for their product.

How does Hawaii's capacity for innovative competitiveness stack up next to other areas you have done road maps for?

I'd rank Hawaii's capacity as very significant. But the organization of it is a work in progress, and the understanding of it by a wider audience of stakeholders such as the public, civic and political leaders is low.

However, one key finding is that there is a very strong willingness there to do what is needed to go to the next step, almost a hunger to prove that Hawaii can compete in this area and a realism that this not an easy step.

Hawaii's business climate -- i.e., high land and labor costs, the public education system, and poor infrastructure -- are often blamed for scuttling attempts at economic diversification. Can such hurdles be overcome?

Certainly. Look at Palo Alto, California. If scientific success was based solely on the cost of housing, transportation times and the cost of living there, nothing would have ever happened. There, starter homes go for $583,000, the average commute more than an hour, at least. Other aspects would not seem favorable to business. So how the hell did it become Silicon Valley?

Because they developed in a way that showed companies you've got to be there to win. High land and labor costs are just one factor. But if you have low innovative inputs, you're really sunk. It took them 40 years. But this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Previous NES road maps have called for setting up "new governance structures" to steer development. Does Hawaii need one of those?

Yes. Typically, we create a table owned by everybody and controlled by nobody.

That's hard for some to understand, but it's needed to ensure everyone knows that this is larger than the university, or Enterprise Honolulu, local companies, or the state government. That central convening role is essential. Everyone needs to grab an oar and start rowing.

Given the rapid growth of the global science and technology sector, is there an economic danger of Hawaii falling behind by not securing a piece of that growth?

The answer is yes, yes, and yes. Not only from the standpoint of the sci/tech community but in the benefits to all of society.

First and foremost, all of this has to improve the lives of all the people of Hawaii.

If not, why do it? You don't just do this for the benefit of a few investors and businesses because even they won't benefit if there is no market here for all of the discoveries they may make.

But from the business and economic side, if you don't develop science and technology, Hawaii cannot move up into the next phase of development in industry and in career development.

NES says there needs to be a balance between industry and academia to foster a viable life-sciences community. How does Hawaii stack up on that point?

Industry here is often undervalued. Some of them are bringing in just as much federal funding and patents as academic institutions.