Innovation in business in South Carolina is important.
Companies offering new inventions and new services often create technology-based jobs that have higher wages and are more resistant to economic fluctuations, Nancy Conwell told the Rotary Club of Aiken on Monday at Newberry Hall.
She is a manager in the Business Services Division of the S.C. Department of Commerce, and innovation is her focus.
The establishment of an Innovation Index is helping Conwell and her associates identify South Carolina’s strengths and weaknesses.
It also allows them to keep track, over time, of the state’s efforts to encourage ventures that offer “something that really revolutionizes the way business is conducted or how a product is made,” Conwell said.
Examples of innovative companies are Amazon, Uber and Airbnb.
Since 2017, the amount of capital investment in innovative South Carolina businesses “has gone up” 27.5 times, Conwell reported.
But the increase, in her opinion, isn’t enough.
“We need more venture capital. We need a lot more,” Conwell said. “There are a lot of angel investors here, and there are a lot of venture capitalists here. They [often] leave the state to invest. How do we keep them here? How do we make them aware of what is going on? Well, one way is we’re beating the bushes trying to find out what’s here and what’s going on.”
As of 2021, South Carolina ranked 20th nationally based on the in-migration of college-educated adults.
“We need to do a better job of keeping them here with more opportunities,” Conwell said.
But she described South Carolina’s rank of 13th “in percent of high-tech industry establishments [in] 2021” as impressive.
Compared to the states with the largest cities on the East Coast and West Coast, South Carolina “is holding its own,” she said. “It’s a good spot to be in.”
The amount of money South Carolina has received in federal grants from the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs has risen, Conwell also reported.
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