Speakers tell visiting graduate business students that opportunity abounds in New Orleans
Posted by Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune March 23, 2009 6:33PM
New Orleans is rich with musical talent, but lacking in successful record labels, distribution companies, recording firms, promotions outfits and publishing labels, a void that could be filled by an entrepreneur willing to take a chance on the city, a Tulane University professor told a group of visiting graduate students Monday.
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu tells students New Orleans is still "finding itself"
"The biggest hurdle (to starting a business) here is the belief that it can't be done in New Orleans," said John Elstrott, a professor of entrepreneurship and the executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship at Tulane's A.B. Freeman School of Business. "There haven't been enough role models here."
But that doesn't mean that New Orleans isn't a good place to start a business, Elstrott said. He unloaded an impressive list of companies that were either started in New Orleans or whose beginnings are closely tied to the city, including Whole Foods Market and Popeye's, as he made his pitch about opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures in the city.
Elstrott was part of a group of representatives from the city's business community invited to speak to about 50 graduate business students from universities around the country. They are in town for a workshop all week, during which time they will draft business plans to help six local companies expand.
The program, called the IDEAcorps Challenge, also aims to provide hands-on experience to the visiting graduate business students and introduce them to New Orleans in the hopes that they might consider living and working here.
Attracting young, entrepreneurial-minded people is critical to the city's success, said Tim Ryan, chancellor of the University of New Orleans and an economist. As other cities were nurturing small companies and high-growth entrepreneurial ventures, New Orleans was holding onto its traditional industries, such as the port and oil and gas that, while still important, had shrunk and sent the economy into a "long-term pattern of decline."
"Traditionally the dominating force was the large economy, so we didn't encourage entrepreneurship," Ryan said. "About 20 years ago, we realized we missed a trend."
But steps are being taken to correct those years of neglect, said Bob Brown, managing director of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region. He pointed to initiatives such as the Flood Protection Alliance, the Crime Coalition and the campaign to reform the assessors office as steps toward improving the quality of life for businesses and residents. Brown said the creation of a public-private partnership to promote economic development, whenever it materializes, will also be a boon to businesses.
"The economic development enterprise for the city of New Orleans is in a ditch," Brown said. "We are working pretty hard with a group of people to pull us out of the ditch."
One of the students asked Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu where he thought the city would be in 15 years. Landrieu said the community is still "finding itself."
"I think the jury is still out on whether New Orleans herself has decided what she wants to be," Landrieu said. "What's happening around the world is that people who want to take a chance on New Orleans haven't yet decided if it's worth the risk."
But Hurricanes Katrina and Rita made change and innovation a necessity in New Orleans, Landrieu said. As a result, there are more opportunities in the metro area than anywhere else in the country for new ventures.
"You're going to come live here because you like the emergency room more than you like brain surgery," Landrieu said. "If you want to live life in an immediate way and see the result of your intelligence hit the ground, then you'll come here."
New Orleans native Kenneth Purcells, whose company iSeatz grew from a $1 million venture to a nearly $70 million company in five years, said he moved his company back to New Orleans, after a temporary exodus to New York following Katrina, because he wanted to be a player in the area's resurgence.
"In New York, we were insignificant," Purcells said. "As an only child, I don't like being insignificant."
But operating in New Orleans has not been challenge free, Purcells told the budding entrepreneurs. It's a rare occurrence not to be met with a glazed stare at a cocktail party when he explains iSeatz. The company is a Web-based travel and entertainment booking engine and an anomaly in a city filled with capital intensive operations.
"But the knowledge-based industry here is growing," Purcells said. "There is a community that is building viable entrepreneurs. I think slowly they will pollinate the rest of the community."