{"id":238197,"date":"2016-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/opinion-january-2016\/"},"modified":"2016-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T08:00:00","slug":"opinion-january-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/opinion-january-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion January 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial invitado: El A\u00f1o Nuevo trae nuevas oportunidades para los ex empleados de Qualcomm<\/h3>\n

por Guillermo Moore<\/p>\n

As the New Year begins, San Diego has opportunities to continue its recent economic successes. In the most recent quarter, year over year, the unemployment rate in San Diego plummeted by 1.5 percent, with overall economic growth at 3.5 percent. Even in the face of challenging headlines, like drought, notoriously high utility expenses and the recent Qualcomm layoffs, San Diego keeps going.<\/p>\n

Why? It\u2019s the people.<\/p>\n

The most important driver of regional success is not capital or the companies or even the infrastructure or regulations \u2014 it\u2019s the talent. Firms and capital go where the talented people are. Regions that attract talented people and keep them through the occasional hiccup are historically the most successful.<\/p>\n

Last year, San Diego faced a small crisis. Qualcomm \u2014 considered by many the region\u2019s flagship tech company \u2014 laid off a significant number of very talented people. Those people are starting the New Year evaluating their options. It is imperative to San Diego that the city keeps as many of these people as possible here.<\/p>\n

Workers affected by the layoffs who want to stay in San Diego have two basic paths. Most of them will get picked up by other local companies that would be ecstatic to bring on these skilled people; but a determined minority have been dreaming of doing it on their own for years, and will decide the time is right.<\/p>\n

I have seen many successful companies start this way. Those startups make up a more important share of the economy than any one large company and 57 percent of San Diego\u2019s companies have one to four employees. Only 1 percent of the region\u2019s companies report more than 250 workers.<\/p>\n

Poco despu\u00e9s de que Texas Instruments cerrara su divisi\u00f3n m\u00f3vil de San Diego en 2008, un grupo de ingenieros reci\u00e9n despedidos lleg\u00f3 a mi oficina. Dado que algunos de ellos hab\u00edan sido despedidos al mismo tiempo, pudieron formar r\u00e1pidamente un equipo completo que ya se conoc\u00eda. Ellos\u00a0launched a new business called IPG<\/a>y comenz\u00f3 a desarrollar conjuntos de chips para estaciones base celulares.<\/p>\n

It worked beautifully. Within three years, larger companies were clamoring to bring them in, paying not only to hire the team, but also to purchase the intellectual property that they had developed.<\/p>\n

The team ended up doing better over those three years than they would have if they\u2019d just kept their jobs at Texas Instruments. Plus, they didn\u2019t have to relocate, pull their kids out of school or find their spouses new jobs. They did it right here in San Diego, and they\u2019re still here today.<\/p>\n

San Diego provides an excellent ecosystem for keeping talent local. The local community colleges and UC San Diego Extension provide training opportunities that can translate exceptional talent from one domain to another. The service corps of retired executives provides both classes and one-on-one mentoring for those new CEOs. Anybody who is looking to embark on a new business has a great opportunity to do so here.<\/p>\n

This is a chance for the rest of us to help as well. Now is the time for:<\/p>\n