Technical Employee Training
The Alarming Exodus of
America’s Best and Brightest

America’s lack of investment in technical employee training is leading to a mass exodus of our best and brightest.

In this terrifically insightful book, Flight Capital by David Heenan, we learn from multiple present-day examples what America is doing wrong and what other foreign countries are doing right to attract our key talent.

Warren Bennis, University Professor of Southern California, stated that Flight Capital is ”Brilliantly original and perilously timely. Every American who cares about our future, especially government and business leaders, should have it on their must read list.”

What is clearly a massive mis-step is America’s lack of technical employee training. Heenan warns that the next global war will soon be fought over human capital. Not the sort of war that depends on guns or bombs. Rather, the sort of war that will be fought by our CEO’s and politicians over how to educate and retain the most talented people in our workforce.

Today, the United States continues to benefit greatly by being a super-magnet for some of the most inventive and ambitious people in the world. These people stimulate our economy through their inventions that help to create wealth by making business more efficient and by increasing productivity.

However, due to the glaring lack of technical employee training in our high schools, fewer of our own are going on to college to compete for the global jobs of tomorrow.

The United States, more and more, is attempting to live off of its transplanted foreigners.

Beginning in the 1990’s, you could hear a giant sucking sound as some of our most talented “American educated students” were lured by other countries who are working feverishly to improve the state of their economy and raise the standard of living for their citizens.

You only need to review the statistics of how many of America’s call centers and service centers are now routed to India.

Take note of how many manufacturing jobs are now moved outside America’s borders. It’s common knowledge that the Chinese will soon become the leading economy in the world – IF America doesn’t soon begin to implement some bold change – including but not limited to more quality technical employee training in our schools.

Clearly, corporate America can no longer be lulled into thinking it is somehow immune to Indian, Chinese or other foreign competition. By some estimates there are more IT engineers in Bangalore (150,000), India’s self proclaimed Silicon Valley, than in its California counterpart (130,000).

Flight Capital is a wonderfully written book that identifies real solutions to how we can stop American’s brain drain.

In the final chapter “Confronting the Future”, Heenan suggests multiple pieces of the solution equation. Most notably, he calls for the United States to REFORM, REALLY REFORM our public educational system. He states clearly the necessity for America to begin investing more in technical employee training. Heenan also make it clear to us that we need to work with the new global economy, not against it.

Clearly, if this exodus of America’s best and brightest continues; if our schools miss this opportunity to reinvest in technical employee training for America’s youth; if we fail to change in order to grow – the economic strength of our country will be in jeopardy.

Heenan, while pointing out the concerns, does a terrific job of providing real solutions. He offers a dozen actions the US can take to meet these challenges head on.

Timely and compelling, Flight Capital is a wake-up call for everyone who cares about America’s future place within the global community.

David Heenan is a leading expert on globalization and author of Flight Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America’s Best and Brightest (Davies-Black, $24.95). His career in business and academia has taken him from Citigroup and Jardine Matheson to the B-schools at Wharton and Columbia.

Today he serves as a trustee for the Estate of James Campbell, one of the nation’s largest landowners with assets of more than $2 billion.

For more information, please visit David Heenan’s Web site, www.flight-capital.com.

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