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Government is most able to provide services and adequately care for people in need when the business community is strong and robust.

Vibrant, competitive, successful companies of all sizes drive growth of the gross domestic product (GDP). The role of business in an open market system is to compete in such a way that the GDP grows and meaningful wealth is created in all of its various financial and social definitions – for shareholders, employees, customers and society as a whole.

The Iowa Business Council seeks progress in the drive for new products, better systems and stronger commerce while engaging a visionary, pragmatic and humanistic perspective in how that is accomplished. Evolving product and energy resource limitations, unpredictable market forces and increasingly strident regulatory policies – from employee benefits to environmental guidelines – provide an opportune moment to suggest economic and workforce development strategies that employ predictability and sustainability as critical components.

Iowa cannot cope with today’s problems by tenaciously clinging to yesterday’s political and social structures. Iowa must develop dynamic strategies that:

• deliver a preschool-through-college education system that drives excellence in academic achievement and student wellness, utilizes the latest technology, promotes ethics, seeks system efficiencies and encourages professional development;

• pursue industry clusters with companies that lead in ideas, innovation and market reach to which investors and new consumers are attracted; and

• attract attention to Iowa as a destination for hard-working, creative-thinking, problem-solving, tech-savvy employees.

Policy-makers must always consider whether a legislative or regulatory proposal results in promoting a strong and vigorous business climate that’s attractive to a skilled and diverse work force.

Today it’s usually not a matter of whether a company will engage in desirable activities such as research and development. Rather, the question is almost always where that R&D will occur.

Whereas communities used to compete with the town in the next county or one state over, an unavoidable fact of globalization is that now they contend with China, India, Poland, Costa Rica and anywhere else in the world that has invested in career training, global communications and shipping technology.

Iowa’s challenge is creating and maintaining unique, attractive incentives and benefits that give it an advantage in a marketplace where even the most traditional corporation can hire workers almost anywhere in the world. This notion is essential to long-term business survival, lifelong career growth and a sustained flow of tax revenue for the needs of government.

Tom Aller is chair of the Iowa Business Council and president of Interstate Power and Light Co.