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Transcript
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00:15
Ravi Kumar S.
Hello everyone, my name is Ravi Kumar, I’m President at Infosys. Welcome to the Trailblazer series. So, I have with me Luke Bronin, the Mayor of Hartford. You know what fascinated me about Luke Bronnin is his diverse background. You know we spoke about Z skills in one of our past videos. I think he’s a true reflection of what Z skills are. Started with the US Navy Reserve, went to Yale, went to Oxford, and came back to Yale for a law degree. He was posted in Afghanistan, in India, then he went to the Hartford Group, worked at the Hartford Group. Worked with the Obama administration and the Treasury Department, then came back to the state of Hartford. Worked for the Governor, as a General Counsel and then as a mayor of Hartford. Wow! Which role did you like the most?
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01:14
Mayor Luke Bronin
I don’t know, they’ve all been kind of all-consuming ones, but I love my current job and I feel like we’re making some exciting progress here. So, but I always joke that this job that I’m in right now, it feels like dog years. I feel like I get seven years older for every one minute.
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01:28
Ravi Kumar S.
And, this is probably the most impactful one as well?
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01:31
Mayor Luke Bronin
I think that’s right.
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01:32
Ravi Kumar S.
I mean how much impact it can have on the society.
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01:35
Mayor Luke Bronin
至少，您知道，您很幸运有机会在第一个奥巴马任期内就可以在财政部工作，这是在金融危机之后，并从事许多后危机后工作进行改革，然后制定了许多国际工作，以打击非法金融，反洗钱，努力使更强大，更透明，较弱，脆弱，金融体系和令人着迷的工作。而且，正如您所说，我有机会在州一级工作。您知道，这也很好，我们必须进行一些重大的立法变更，但是在地方一级工作，以及成为市长，使您能够产生影响并尝试的影响to build a coalition and build a consensus from moving a city in a new direction and it’s a lot of fun.
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02:24
Ravi Kumar S.
我实际上是在与像您这样的公共服务主管交谈。政府在公民的前20年有联系，他们在过去20年的公民中被连线，政府周围的所有基础设施都在围绕它。但是，重大变革和转变发生在中部和许多政府，许多公共服务主管并没有为此纽带。告诉我们一些您对这一变化以及政府在中间应该做什么的感觉，这就是变化的所在。
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03:00
Mayor Luke Bronin
Yeah, I think that observation is right. I’m not sure there’s anybody who’s really doing that right, any states, any countries, you know, I think there are a lot of places that are getting better at building those partnerships between educational institutions and employers and building sort of customized programs that create pipelines for work but really getting good at lifelong learning and at helping individuals with those transitions in their own lives as transformations in the economy occur. It’s something that I think we as a country and as a world are still getting our arms around and, you know, clearly there are enormous changes that are accelerating as automation accelerates, as there are, you know, digital led transformations in industry after industry. Even if you’re staying in the same industry, that industry is changing around you. So, even if you’re in a job right now, you still have to be focused on how you prepare and lay the foundation in your own life and with your own skills for the changes that are coming and again, you know, I think that the beginnings of that work are happening in the conversations that we have and that lots of others have with educational institutions and with companies. The other thing I would say is that a lot of companies, I think over the last few decades, kind of got out of the business of training. They relied on others externally; educational institutions or others to do the training for them and I think more and more of those companies are finding the need to get back into the business of doing that training, doing that lifelong learning at the company themselves and my sense is that, that’s something that Infosys is taking very seriously.
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04:40
Ravi Kumar S.
您知道，看着您所暗示的终身学习 - 这是像我们这样的大型企业，学术机构和政府的共同责任。我们所有人都在进行转变和终身学习是一个连续的责任。您认为政府在那里的作用是什么？它是在编排这些生态系统，还是看到政府的作用要高得多？
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05:10
Mayor Luke Bronin
I don’t really know the answer yet, but I think, you know, if you look at the traditional programs like student loan programs, which are mostly geared towards conventional degrees and they’re important. Even those have fallen short because, you know, most students coming out are burdened with a tremendous amount of debt but those more traditional programs are, I think, missing their middle link. There’s not as much assistance and support and partnership for somebody who wants to go through and not get a BA or not get a Masters but get that training opportunity that’s going to open up a new door and that maybe something that we need to take a look at as well.
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05:45
Ravi Kumar S.
明白了。当然,事实上,哈特福德是一个great example of recruiting new corporations to come to Hartford and getting the businesses and the academic institutions to come and help on that recruitment and you were a pioneer in that. When we came to Hartford the reason why we ended up here is because this ecosystem really vouched for what the value proposition of Hartford is. Tell us a little bit about that. I have not seen many states doing that, many cities doing that.
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06:19
Mayor Luke Bronin
我认为这是关键,你知道的,我很高兴那t we were able to get you here and this is key to our ability to grow the way we want to grow. You know, Hartford as a community has a tremendously strong corporate base, I mean we have world-class companies and insurance in advanced manufacturing and healthcare. I think for a little too long the partnership between city, state, and business community had atrophied, that it had fallen apart and a lot of our companies thought of themselves as companies that happened to have been founded here a hundred years ago but weren’t necessarily engaged in the project of remaking and reimagining the city around them and I think one of the things we’ve done over the last few years is really rebuild that partnership and work together to think how we can position Hartford to be at the leading edge of the next industrial and economic revolutions and that kind of partnership in recruitment is a key part of it. But, also just in building the innovation ecosystem, you know, over the last couple of years, we went from being a city where there really was no defined innovation ecosystem to speak of, to be in a place where our insurance companies are partnering together with startup boot camp and running the insurtech accelerator bringing startups from around the world here. You have great manufacturing companies like Stanley, Black & Decker that have moved their innovation team here and are building and are running now advanced manufacturing accelerator. That’s also bringing companies from around the world now. We’re doing the same thing, soon on digital health and then you have a lot of homegrown groups like Upward Hartford and others that are doing similar work to bring startups and others from around the country but also to create that community of creators and makers and entrepreneurs and I think at the end of the day, that’s what really makes a difference but what’s a little bit unique about Hartford is that it’s happening in a place that’s small enough, that the opportunity to meet and to engage with and to partner with decision-makers at really big companies is available in a way that it just isn’t in a place like New York. This is what is happening all in downtown Hartford? It’s happening throughout Hartford but, you know, a lot of it is concentrated, you know, right in just a few square blocks in Hartford and Infosys is a big part of it. I mean, I think you know Infosys coming here, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think it was partly a recognition of that growing ecosystem and from my perspective, it was also hugely important acceleration of that work.
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08:50
Ravi Kumar S.
绝对，我知道所有这些初创公司现在都集中在您正在建立的Insurtech生态系统上。是否有资本和其他支持政府启用的初创公司的基础设施的支持，尤其是作为城市市长？
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09:08
Mayor Luke Bronin
So, I’m trying to use my convening role, we as a city are trying to use our convening role to do that, you know, I think this is one of the things that we have to do better than a lot of venture capital is focused on three main geographies, you know, they’re in New York, they’re out in California and Silicon Valley and they’re in Boston and I think they sometimes miss the opportunities in places like Hartford where you’ve got world-class startups but most importantly you’ve got world-class startups that are already working hand-in-hand with their customers and with their major, you know, incumbent partners and so working together to figure out how we help get the venture capital out there to pay more attention to what’s happening here is kind of the next step of what we’ve got to do.
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09:55
Ravi Kumar S.
因此，卢克（Luke），您知道，我只是想问您另一个问题，这与Hartford非常相关。您将如何吸引来自邻近州的年轻人才，您正在做什么使哈特福德充满活力以吸引人才来到这里？
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10:17
Mayor Luke Bronin
因此，现在您将难以让我停止讲话，因为这确实使我兴奋。I mean, I first of all, I think we’ve got a tremendous opportunity right now because the reality is that in the largest fastest-growing metro areas, people are getting priced out everyday people and businesses are getting priced out, you know, it’s so expensive to live in a place like New York or San Francisco or Boston and so there’s a lot of momentum and movement to cities like Hartford, where you can deliver a tremendous quality of life at a fraction of the cost and where you can also become a part of the fabric of the community in a whole different way, you know, you can be part of making the place and shaping the place in a whole different way. So, I think that’s one of the things that I really pitch and sell about Hartford. It’s why my wife, Sarah and I decided to come here 12-13 years ago. We saw a city with incredible history, you know, beautiful architecture, beautiful parks, incredible arts and cultural institutions, a great company and a great base of companies but also a place that we could make home feel like we were part of it in a whole different way. And, then the other piece of it is as you say, we need to make sure that it’s active and vibrant enough and what that means is people, you know and for us, that means creating enough residential density that you can feel that energy and that activity and feet on the street. We’re doing a lot of work over the last few years, a whole bunch of vacant commercial office buildings have been converted to residential. They’ve leased up like that there’s tremendous demand and we have a long way still to go but you can feel just a very different sense of energy and activity in the city today than even just a few short years ago and that means we’ve got to continue that work and we need to continue to build our innovation, you’ve got ecosystem and build our partnership with our employers.
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12:08
Ravi Kumar S.
Is this becoming a partying place?
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12:11
Mayor Luke Bronin
你知道,我认为我们还有更多to make sure that there’s enough nightlife, but there’s a lot to do here, you know, there’s I mentioned our arts and culture, we have two phenomenal producing stages right around the corner from here. The stages that, you know, create shows that go down to Broadway now on a regular basis. You’ve got a world-class museum just down the road in the Wadsworth Atheneum. You’ve got the largest Performing Arts Center in Connecticut, Bushnell theatre right across the park from here and you’ve got a very active and vibrant local arts and cultural scene as well, you know, we don’t have our pro hockey team anymore but you’ve got a lot of spirit and excitement around our local minor league teams you know, the Hartford Yard Goats, which is a name that I didn’t like at first and now I love it, you know, it just creates a sense of community and in some ways I think it’s even more fun going to games like that than it is to go into a, you know, a 40,000 - 50,000 person stadium. We’ve got pro soccer coming in next year, Hartford Athletic coming into Dillon’s Stadium. You’ve got, you know, the Rangers affiliate, the Wolfpack and you’ve got, of course, UConn Sports as well. So, whether it’s arts culture, whether it’s sports, whether it’s the breweries that are springing up in neighborhood after neighborhood, there’s a lot going on in the city on any given day, any given night. And, you know, what we need, I think, is for everybody who’s here and a part of this community whether you live in Hartford or whether you live around Hartford to help spread the word because changing perceptions requires all of us to do the work. I was talking to a group of people yesterday, a couple of days ago, who are very involved in Hartford and someone said, “Well, you’re preaching to the choir.” I said, “Yeah, but the point is we need the choir to start preaching” because there is a really true and powerful message about what’s happening here and we need to all be part of making sure people know about it.
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14:08
Ravi Kumar S.
The pursuit of young professionals looking at public service, who could be this new breed of leaders in comparison to traditional politicians who have come up the ranks? What’s your message to young professionals who want to look at public services and high-impact platforms for themselves?
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14:34
Mayor Luke Bronin
Well, first of all, I always say that you know, there are many ways to serve the public and not all of them are in traditional public service. I mean you build a company, you grow a company, you’re doing a public service. And, you work in the nonprofit world and you serve others, you’re doing public service. There’s lots of ways to serve the public. I happen to love, you know, the job I’ve got right now. I happen to love the ability to help shape a community and make policy decisions and, you know, encounter tough, kind of naughty tangled questions of, you know, policy, law, politics.
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15:08
Ravi Kumar S.
您被视为局外人吗？
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15:10
Mayor Luke Bronin
I don’t know, I mean, you know, I’ve been between roles of the state and the federal government, have been involved in government for a little while but I think the most important thing that I would say is you don’t have to just pick one path. It’s what’s true in business now which is that you can make many, many different changes and make many zigs and zags in your career. That’s true even if your passion is in public service and so I think the most important thing is just find something that you’re passionate about and do it and as you say, you know, one of the virtues of the American public political system is there are lots of routes to have an impact in government and you can do it as an elected official or non-elected official. You can do it if you came up through the ranks as a civil servant or if, you know, spent 20 years in business and then decide to make an impact and vice versa too which is important. So, you know I think that we’re lucky to have a system with economic and political system that you know allows many days. Lines can be blurred, in the sense, that you can build skills in one on one area that can translate to another but the other thing I would say is I often talk with people, young people who say that they want to get involved in public service and they’re very focused on the national level. They’re very focused on what’s happening in Washington DC but, back to where we started earlier, I personally think you can have an even more powerful and profound impact working at the local level. You can, you know, you can make a difference that you can see and that has a really powerful impact on people’s lives in a really immediate way, at the local level. So, I encourage everybody to get involved whether it’s as a full-time career or just something that they’re doing in addition to their full-time career.
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16:56
Ravi Kumar S.
非常感谢，卢克。这对我们来说是一个大赌注，我们对此感到非常兴奋。
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17:01
Mayor Luke Bronin
我们也很兴奋，期待继续共同努力。
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17:03
Ravi Kumar S.
Thank you again, thank you very much.
