Tuesday, February 11, 2003
A good review of how St. Louis is building its biotech industry underscopres an important point. Economic development is increasingly about recruiting talent. And it's not just the young, Gen-Xers. In the case of St. Louis, the city needs experienced entrepreneurial leadership.
While St. Louis has a deep pool of people with corporate experience (from careers with Monsanto, Boeing and other large companies), many of these experienced managers lack entrepreneurial skills.
Richard Fleming, head of the Regional Chamber and Growth Association puts it this way: ""Increasingly, economic development is not just about recruiting companies, but about recruiting talent. There's an analogy to the sports world: When you're building a team, you do that through a combination of talent coming up through your farm system, as well as recruiting free agents from other teams who have already established their careers."
There's another dimension...the business environment in successful regions tolerates failure. Resilient regions have thick enough networks to support entrepreneurs who do fail. In sum, in successful regions, business attitudes emphasize "failure as learning", and not failure as a personal flaw.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
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Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Increasingly, ED is about recruiting talent...
