Gupta sees too many "silos" in Maryland - great organizations ignoring the resources each has to offer the other.
"We haven't built," he says. "We are very insular in some respects: 'This is my patch. This is your patch.' "
Changing that, he says, requires not just political commitment but business leadership. Maryland has been deficient in the latter category for a long time.
"What's the vision for the city?" he says. "What's the vision for the state? What does it mean to compete on the international level? There has to be a will on the part of the elected leadership and the business leadership. This could be the most fantastic place on Earth."
For much of Maryland's business community, leadership means complaining about taxes.
"In California you have less taxes? You have fewer regulations?" he retorts. "I don't think it's a question of taxes, per se. It's a question of environment. Why would companies go to Boston to locate? Why would companies locate near Stanford? Because you create an environment that's highly interactive" between creative people and financial resources.
The economic crisis and the changing global economy present Baltimore with a new opportunity to innovate and grow, Gupta says, as power shifts from Wall Street to nearby Capitol Hill and the White House.
By all means, take the federal money, he says to Maryland and its businesses. But do something with it. Create something. Build an industry that doesn't need government revenue to survive.
If the Carey School fulfills only half its potential, it'll be a critical resource for accomplishing that.
Gupta wants it to draw energy not only from Johns Hopkins Medicine but also the university's health-policy resources, its defense research and its School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. He wants graduates to bring analytical and quantitative skills not just to industry and finance but to public health, government and education anywhere in the world.
He's talking about having graduate students mentor Baltimore high school students, with the Hopkins students' grades tied to how the high school kid does. He envisions Carey students spending a semester in Africa's Malawi to design distribution chains for anti-HIV drugs.
If it helps bring new blood to Baltimore's private sector, it'll be just in time. The federal bonanza will start diminishing soon, as stimulus money expires and defense spending lags. Gupta and Hopkins, however, can't do it alone.
