 Chairs. Tables. Desks. One by one, pieces of office furniture were being unloaded from a truck and taken inside a nondescript, government-issue building in downtown Columbia. But, don’t let the standard outward appearance of this building fool you. This is the place ideas grow; ideas that are being nurtured and turned into businesses with the potential to have a great impact on South Carolina’s economic future. This is the home of the University of South Carolina Columbia Technology Incubator.
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Hanging over Michael Moody’s desk is a massive picture that nearly covers the entirety of his office’s northern wall. It is a photograph of one of the thousands of war vehicles that have rolled off the assembly lines in the warehouses located just behind the chief executive’s office.
Barack Obama’s victory and the Democrats’ stronger ranks in Congress might lead some to believe that there will be sweeping changes in the way business relates to government. But there’s another factor that might well hamper the change the new president seeks: the economic crisis.
Would you fly to Bangkok, Thailand, for a colonoscopy? Or would you travel to Costa Rica for hernia surgery? That’s what 62-year-old Ben Schreiner from Camden did. Now retired, the former Bank of America executive had surgery to repair an inguinal hernia in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.
It’s not often that veteran business professors and corporate buyers describe their first meeting with the owner of a startup company with words like “impressive,” “already competitive,” “excellent product” and “sharp.” Especially when the founder and president of the company is just 23 years old.
A drive on any S.C. highway is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, there are plenty of sport utility vehicles and semitrucks guzzling gas and belching out boatloads of carbon emissions. On the other, less-conspicuous hand, there are businesses large and small implementing sustainable practices that protect the environment while increasing their bottom line.
