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5. The Incentive Myth: Moneyor other rewards increase motiva-tion and hence creative ability. To some extent, yes. Incentives can help, but often do more harm than good.

6. The Lone Creator Myth: A

breakthrough invention or striking accomplishment is the result of one person’s efforts. Burkus argues that we tend to rewrite history in a way that credits one person, ignoring the people who influenced him and worked with him as collaborators.

7. The Brainstorming Myth:Brainstorming alone will yield cre-ative breakthroughs. Not so. Just throwing ideas around is not enough to produce breakthroughs on a consistent basis. Brainstorm-ing can generate new ideas but it takes work to implement them suc-cessfully.

8. The Cohesive Myth: every-one needs to get along and work happily together. Not always. Ma-ny of the most creative companies have found ways to structure dis-sent and conflict into their process to insure that they produce the best work possible.

9. The Constraints Myth:companies that produce the most innovative results are those that give people unlimited resources. However, many companies inten-tionally apply limits to leverage the creative potential of their people.

10. The Mousetrap Myth:Once you have a creative idea, the

work is done. If you build a better mousetrap, the world will recog-nize the merit of that idea and help bring it to life. If only the myth were true. The world won’t beat a path to your door. It is more likely that you will be ignored or discred-ited. It is not enough to know how to generate creative ideas, you need to understand how to overcome the obstacles you will face.

Burkus traces his interest in the business world, education, and re-search back to his childhood in Philadelphia. His mother was a teacher and his father worked for Digital equipment and later devel-oped his own health care company. Burkus moved to Oklahoma to at-tend Oral Roberts University where he now works as an assistant professor. He holds a master’s de-gree from the University of Okla-homa and a doctorate from Regent University. He lives in Tulsa with his wife and son.

His book is not designed to transform you into a creative per-son. Rather, it will dismantle the myths learned in school and the business world that have blocked the creativity you already have. “We are all creative,” Burkus says.

— Lynn Robbins

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by Andrew Shapiro

Governor chris christie recently signed comprehensive new incentives legislation to help the state compete more effectively for businesses and jobs. The new law, known as the New Jersey eco-nomic Opportunity Act of 2013, takes a creative, balanced approach to designing complex, market-based financial incentives to en-courage businesses to expand or relocate to New Jersey.

Rather than an across-the-board increase in incentive packages, the new program provides for more limited incentives in some areas that need less public support, and injects more significant stimulus to promote growth in urban locations that need it most, and where the state is seeking to encourage “smart growth” – especially mass-transit-oriented developments in the urban centers. This legislation, which took nearly a year to negotiate, was ultimately supported by Republi-cans and Democrats alike.

Here are six ways the new law will improve the state’s ability to compete for business:

1.) Expands incentives oppor-tunities to broader areas of the state. While some of the previous incentives programs were avail-able statewide, the most valuable programs were limited only to cer-tain cities or older suburbs (referred to as State Planning Areas 1 and 2). The new law makes a broader menu of targeted tax credits and grants available in more areas of the state, but still restricts incentives in envi-ronmentally-sensitive areas.

2.) Targets more resources for “smart growth” urban centers where redevelopment costs are higher. The new law clearly favors urban redevelopment, allowing much higher levels of incentives for companies that locate in urban mass transit “hubs,” with special emphasis on cities in the newly-created Garden State Growth Zones (camden, Trenton, Passaic and Paterson), and other “dis-tressed municipalities.”

3.) Enables smaller “high growth” companies to qualify. To attract technology start-ups and companies in life sciences, finance, energy, and defense, the new law reduces the number of employees needed to qualify for job-creation tax incentives, and eliminates a $20 million investment threshold im-posed by the previous law that was an enormous barrier to entry for smaller companies. For example, a promising technology startup with as few as 10 employees (but lots of growth potential) could qualify for valuable tax credits under the new rules.

The new law also provides for developers to build “incubators.” (I should note that the governor and legislature earlier this year also cre-

ated the Angel Investor Tax credit, which encourages venture invest-ments among smaller investors).

4.) Streamlines Programs. The state’s five biggest tax incentives programs have now been merged into just two concentrated pro-grams. Now there is one set of tools for employers through the GrowNJ program, and another set for devel-opers through the economic Rede-velopment and Growth Program (“eRGG”). This consolidation ef-fectively addresses the needs of both the supply and demand sides of the market.

5.) Provides more modest sup-port for existing New Jersey jobs.The new law cuts back on incen-tives available to New Jersey busi-nesses that are considering relocat-ing outside of the state (whose jobs are deemed “at risk”). Incentives for such “retained jobs” are re-duced to 50 percent of the award available for new jobs. This is a

balanced and fiscally responsible approach acknowledging that, as a relatively high cost location for business, New Jersey needs to be competitive. It also recognizes that the state cannot start counting new jobs until it can retain those already here. However, the state still feels that attracting new jobs are more valuable to the state’s economy.

6.) Elevates standards for re-ceiving incentives. While the New Jersey economic Development Authority has always applied a keen due diligence review to pro-posed projects, the new law codi-fies and elevates these standards into law, and raises the bar even higher. companies must prove that incentives are necessary to make an expansion or relocation to New Jersey possible, and the ceO of the company must personally certify the need for incentives.

In short, the NJ economic Op-portunity Act is a smart and long-awaited piece of legislation that streamlines the state’s business in-centive tools and concentrates as-sistance in the areas of the state that need it most.

Given the time consumed in ne-gotiating and approving the new legislation, there is a back-log of companies that will now be seek-ing approvals for expansions and relocations to the state. We expect to see a number of corporate expan-sion announcements in the coming months as a result.

Andrew Shapiro is managing di-rector of Biggins, lacy, Shapiro & co., which helps companies suc-cessfully plan and execute location strategies. BlS, based at 47 Hul-fish Street, worked with the state’s Smart Growth coalition on the drafting of the economic Opportu-nity Act. BlS has represented cli-ents on some of the largest projects in New Jersey, including new head-quarters for Prudential and Pana-sonic in Newark, which, together with other BlS projects, resulted in tax credit awards of more than $800 million. BlS analysts Iryna Hamkiv and Noah chrismer con-tributed to this article. Visit www.blsstrategies.com for more infor-mation.

INSIGHTS & ARGUMENTS ESSAYS & SOLILOQUIES

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new Jersey’s new bi-partisan incentives target areas that need the most help and en-courage ‘smart growth’ develop-ments.

How NJ Has Improved Its Business Edge

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