Q+A: TOM SKANCKE:

‘You can create a dream job if you want it’

Tom Skancke, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, is hopeful that Las Vegas can alter its mindset to embrace its potential, rather than defaulting to the “we can’t afford that” mentality.

Tom Skancke has been at the helm of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance for almost two years. As president and CEO of the organization, he has steered it through the latter years of the recession, started business retention programs and advanced community development priorities centered on education. “There’s a lot going on here,” Skancke says.

What is the best business advice you’ve received, and whom did it come from?

I was on an airplane many years ago, going to Washington, D.C. The gentleman in the seat next to me was a ver y successful businessman from New York City. He told me to hire smarter, younger people and as a CEO I would be a success. He was right. Never got his name, but I’ve taken his advice to heart and applied it.

If you could change one thing about Las Vegas, what would it be?

I would change the way we think about who we are and what we can be. We are not limited by what people around the world know about Las Vegas, that it’s an excellent vacation and convention destination. We are not only a global tourism destination but a global business destination, and Las Vegas is an excellent city for opening, relocating and expanding a business.

What are the biggest achievements your agency has made in recent months?

Along with bringing more than 3,000 jobs to Southern Nevada in the past year, partnering with the school district to help our education system and starting new economic development programs, I think our biggest achievement has been cultural. We’re actually beginning to see a cultural shift here, and we’ve raised serious conversations around education, workforce development and transportation infrastructure to move this region forward in global competitiveness.

Where are economic development efforts heading?

The next decade is going to be very exciting for the Las Vegas Valley. We’re seeing a significant and fundamental shift from gambling to entertainment in our tourism economy, and we’re also realizing new opportunities to foster the creation or expansion of industries that haven’t existed in Vegas before. In 10 years, we’ll be more diverse and more connected to the global economy.

What sector, industry or company do you see having the biggest impact on economic development in the valley over the next six months, and why?

I don’t have a crystal ball, so I’ll stick to what I know. We’ll see openings on the Strip, and we’ll see new progress on some Strip properties that have been stalled for years. But we’ll also see massive growth in the tech sector with companies like Switch expanding, and we’ll continue to see developments in downtown Las Vegas that capitalize on the investments that groups like the Downtown Project have already made. We’ll start realizing opportunities for a medical school at UNLV and grow our higher education research engine.

What are you reading right now?

“The New Geography of Jobs” by Enrico Moretti.

What do you do after work?

I go home, have some dinner and go into my home office and get caught up on emails from that day. I watch BBC and some news and am in bed by 8:30. I start my days at 4 a.m. every day.

Describe your management style.

I must admit my management style tends to be loose, but I believe in empowering my team to do their jobs. If you empower your team members, it gives them personal authority and their performance increases. I put people before policy, politics and process.

Where do you see yourself and the LVGEA in 10 years?

I’m not certain where I’ll be in 10 years. I believe the LVGEA will be leading our community and region in industry development. Our region has a very bright future and some amazing opportunities if we could work together as a region and not in silos.

What is your dream job, outside of your current field?

Everything I’ve done in my career has been my dream job. I owned a company for 24 years, and now I’m doing economic development in Southern Nevada. You can create a dream job if you want it.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

When someone tells me, “We can’t do that … it’s our policy.” Really?

What is something that people might not know about you?

This always shocks people: I came to Nevada in 1982 to attend UNR on a voice scholarship. I wanted to be an opera singer. Still do, but it’s too late. It is my passion.

Anything else you want to tell us?

As I travel around the world, it amazes me how many businessmen and women, high-ranking government officials and industry leaders see the potential Las Vegas has beyond tourism. Yet our community sometimes gives up on this region. We tend to go too quickly to “What’s that gonna cost?” or “It’s too expensive” or “We can’t afford that.”

I would like to offer that we change our pattern of thought and look at what the region can do to be more globally competitive. We should be looking at the rest of the world as our competition, not each other.

Tags: The Sunday
Business

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