Our universities today are incredibly important resources for our society. They are also very large, multilayered organizations that are remarkably difficult and challenging to run. I spend a lot of time thinking about how universities are run and what we can do to make the University of Washington an even better place. Like you, we want to be a “best company” to work for. And like you, we recognize that now, more than ever before, the success of our organization depends entirely upon the people who are in it and how we enable those people to be successful in their work lives.

Gaining a competitive advantage today comes down to a battle of wits, with the winner being the place that can accumulate the most smart people who will generate the most innovations and the greatest ideas. At the UW, that is exactly what we need to do. Our task is pretty straightforward: to attract the best minds we possibly can find, surround them with a creative culture that allows them the freedom to do what they are passionate about doing; then give them the resources, the environment and the reward structure that enable them to perform at the highest levels.

For almost 50 years, nearly all the best universities in the world have been right here in America, and that has meant a huge advantage for the United States. But even with our great educational systems, that competitive edge is starting to erode. Other countries have figured out the need for building a highly educated workforce to compete in a knowledge economy, and they are investing heavily in higher education. The message to us is clear: other countries are coming on, and they are coming on fast.

When we consider what competitive advantages America can still leverage effectively, the answer is pretty self-evident: it is our creativity, our innovative tendencies and our capacity to understand business; it is our ability to be interdisciplinary and to have good “soft skills,” especially communication skills. This is true for companies as well as universities.

Universities are not so different from other businesses. The UW is a $3 billion-a-year business, with more than 35,000 people on its payroll. We run two hospitals, and we will do $1 billion of research this year – almost all of that money coming from outside the state of Washington, but spent here. And we do all of this with an investment of $360 million in seed money from the state of Washington. We take that $360 million and turn it into $3 billion. So, the question becomes, how do we get all that money in between? The answer: we hustle for it every day, just as you do. For the $1 billion dollars we receive annually in competitive research funding, our faculty have to go out and scramble. In fact, we have 2,000 employees with professorial titles who will not get a paycheck if they don’t get their next grant.

Indeed, universities and companies are much more alike than they are different. That likeness is good, because it means we have the opportunity to learn from one another.

I have been visiting businesses in the Northwest and elsewhere to see what is being done to recruit, retain, motivate, organize and keep people doing what needs to be done. And I have discovered what I think is an enormous advantage we have here in the Pacific Northwest. That advantage is our different way of doing business. We have people who are more creative and who love being innovative.