Even before President Obama offered the annual State of the Union address this week many journalists had already dissected and responded to it from pre-issued copies. David Brooks of the New York Times gave a very interesting set of suggestions to Obama in the frame of a visionary guide to economic development and competitiveness. I would like to offer two more ideas as extensions of what Brooks had to say.

“…[C]ompetitiveness will be more about organizing relationships than amassing force. To thrive, America will have to be the crossroads nation where global talent congregates and collaborates.” The big shift will happen when we understand that we are truly globally affected and affecting. There is no such thing as nations and economies separate from ours. We rise and fall together. When we talk about competing with other countries and mean besting them, we are lying to ourselves about how the world works.

Brooks understands this. He continued,

In this century, economic competition between countries is less like the competition between armies or sports teams (with hermetically sealed units bashing or racing against each other). It’s more like the competition between elite universities, who vie for prestige in a networked search for knowledge. It’s less: “We will crush you with our efficiency and might.” It’s more: “We have the best talent and the best values, so if you want to make the most of your own capacities, you’ll come join us.

The new sort of competition is all about…gathering talent in one spot… This concentration of talent then attracts more talent, which creates more collaboration, which multiplies everybody’s skills, which attracts more talent and so on.”

I like Brooks’ direction, and I think this is the place to add another essential idea. We must develop the talent that exists in everyone. For many businesses and apparently for our government this is one of the hardest mindset changes. The biggest shift we must make is away from the idea of attracting talent to one of developing people—all of our people. We want to build not buy (or attract) talent.

Companies and nations that envision every day and every task as a time and place to grow people develop smarter people and more talent each new day. Even extreme examples like Kingsford Charcoal, which took on this challenge, show what is possible. “Extreme” because the company was a small regional brand with a workforce that was almost 50 percent illiterate. Three years after they began an effort to grow, they had a literate workforce (and many families were lifted out of illiteracy), a dominant brand with a national market share, and managers who were sought after by other Clorox divisions to take on leadership roles. Innovation took off and Kingsford created a pipeline of products and new processes for years to come. Employees felt a part of something important and life changing, as did suppliers, and they wrote letters of appreciation to  Clorox’s board of directors.

Kingsford built capability within the workforce they had. They did not recruit and hire it. It’s time we learn to see the potential to grow and develop in every person, every child, and every family. The result will be a better nation with stronger families and futures and distinctive businesses that provide real value to all their stakeholders.

This commitment to grow capability from within its workforce is a basic characteristic of The Responsible Business.