I’m very pleased with the response to Workforce 2040. Most of the people who we’ve talked to believe there’s a need to think beyond tomorrow about Indiana’s economy, and that we need to prepare today for what is to come. I heard from someone from Ivy Tech who said that she’s read the book three times and uses it almost daily.

We have seven key takeaways from our research. The first one looks at the demographic cliff that Indiana’s workforce faces. The family formation years are stagnant in terms of young people having children. Then, of course, you have older folks who are living longer. You also have a more diverse population, and you have more population divides based on geography — urban, suburban and rural. The demographic shift will affect workforce participation and has big implications for businesses and state leaders as they work on economic strategies.

We also looked at the kinds of firms that will emerge in the years ahead, the focus on entrepreneurial and innovative firms, and the need for legacy industries to rethink how they do things. Innovative companies will generate more growth and more jobs. Taking a defensive posture will not serve companies well.

The third takeaway, which undergirds all the others, is the evolution of technology, and what the impact will be on individuals and on the state economy. As we put together Workforce 2040, ChatGPT and other breakthroughs in artificial intelligence emerged. Even coding jobs are now being replaced by artificial intelligence. That points out the need, now more than ever, to think strategically about the future of our workforce and the economy.

The development of AI and other technologies may well create even more disparities in opportunity, based on a person’s education and job skills. So, there is a potential to drive income disparity even further and create more economic and social stratification. If you aren’t dealing with those issues, then more people are likely to be left behind.

Indiana remains the most manufacturing intensive state in the nation, and with the current manufacturing renaissance, with companies returning production to the United States, we are seeing manufacturing jobs come back again.

But we still need to be globally competitive, and we can’t turn our backs on opportunities that exist around the globe.

We also believe that employees will have more power in the new economy because of changes in where and how people work and the demographic changes that I already discussed. Employers will need to consider the needs of employees in new ways as the competition for workers becomes even more intense.

We also continue to see the blurring of lines between learning and work. We’re seeing a heightened focus on work-based learning, apprenticeships, and the need for older workers to be reskilled.  The idea that you are prepared for life for a job when you graduate from high school or college will not be realistic with the technological changes to come.

So, there will be even stronger relationships between preparing and recruiting talent, the needs of employees, and the needs of employers.

Phase one of Workforce 2040 involved working with our partners on research and writing the report. We are now moving into phase two, where we will localize the data and the takeaways for at least two regions of the state. In the second half of 2025, we will assess developments at the federal level and at the Statehouse to determine if we need to revisit any of the recommendations.

We’re really trying to grow assets in Indiana and the Midwest around defense technology. A significant number of people in our manufacturing base work in industries that support our national defense, and we can grow those numbers.

We are leveraging Sagamore’s expertise on national defense with our cofounder, Dan Coats, and with Alan Dowd and Jerry Hendrix to help create a mega-region for national defense.

We will continue to work in this space to make the Midwest a strong partner on defense, and Indiana, with its assets from Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in the south to Lake Michigan in the north, a major player in defense technology.

In recent years, we have hosted mental health summits and Mental Health Matters days at the Statehouse with the Indiana Mental Health Roundtable. Last year, Jay Chaudhary, who led mental health initiatives for the state of Indiana, joined Sagamore and is researching how to build out policies related to mental health.

In 2025, we are looking to build on that momentum. We understand that state government matters immensely in this space, but so do employers and philanthropy. We want to help foster an all-hands-on-deck approach to improving mental health. There is a lot of opportunity to build on the work we’ve done in recent years and to amplify our impact in 2025.

I think this is a moment in time when people are looking for hope and purpose, and Sagamore has a role in providing both. People want to work with and for Sagamore because of the kind of people Dan Coats and Jay Hein are and the course they set for Sagamore from the beginning. We don’t get bogged down in the negative side of things. We are pragmatic and solution oriented. And we’re hopeful about the future.