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Practical steps to building an entrepreneurial economy
Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Littleton, CO stands apart in economic development. Following a strategy of "economic gardening", the city nurtures existing firms and start-ups. It turns its back on offering incentives. Littleton's approach offers sophisticated information services to local firms in a way that encourages them to expand. In this way, it builds an entrepreneurial climate. (I don't like the term "economic gardening". To me, it belittles an important strategy.) Thanks to the work of people like Anna Lee Saxenian, we have long known that economies based on networks show more resilience and potential for growth. Sexanian reached her conclusion by being one of the first researchers to examine what was really going on in Silicon Valley...how the Valley's economy depended on a climate of entrepreneurship to grow. But Silicon Valley is unique, and it leaves EDPros with little guidance about how to build an entrepreneurial economy. That's where Chris Gibbons, head of Littleton's Business/Industry Affairs Department fits in. He's the EDPro who has taken a broad concept -- "entrepreneurial economy" -- and translated it into practical steps. His critical contribution, in my opinion, is a focus on valuable market information as a key element of an economic development infrastructure. By stimulating information flows, Gibbons created an environment in which economic networks grow. (Gibbons has deeper insights into the connections between economic development and chaos theory, but I'm not smart enough to figure all that stuff out. You don't need to understand that to pick up on what Littleton is doing.) Most EDPros flop around with "business retention and expansion" programs (another inadequate term...too stale). Littleton's approach shows us that rather than being the "back water", BR&E strategies really form the core of community competitiveness and economic prosperity. Today's Rocky Mountain Times provides a good background on what Chris has accomplished. And the Littleton web site provides even more detail on the New Economy Project. Not every community can follow Littleton's recipe. That's not the point. Take some insights and adapt them. Maybe you don't need all the information power that Littleton has assembled. But you do need to think about improving flows of valuable information, you need to understand what type of information is valuable in your high growth companies, and you do need to think about how to identify and focus on these faster growing firms. Most important, you need to adopt Littleton's attitude of innovation and experimentation. If you are interested keeping up with what Littleton is doing, subscribe to their Econ Dev mailing list. posted by Ed Morrison | |
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