EDPro Weblog: Economic Development for Today's Professionals

Resource: Report from the Bay Area

Saturday, September 16, 2006

A friend out in Silicon Valley, Ted Kahn, pointed me to a useful report that I had missed. The Innovation Economy: Protecting the Talent Edge is the latest in a series of reports from the Bay Area Economic Forum. Ted points to the useful metrics that are outlined in the report.

You can download the report here.

The Bay Area report outlines the same challenges facing other regions:

The Bay Area faces a dual challenge.... First, its education system must prepare all segments of the population to succeed in the knowledge economy. Second, the region must work more effectively to attract and retain talent...

The report underscores the core of regional competitiveness in today's global economy: the ability of civic leaders to move quickly to realign resources -- "reinvent the region" -- as economic circumstances change.

This agility is grounded in thick, collaborative networks that enable people to learn quickly, spot opportunities, and move.

Older industrial regions -- like those in the Midwest -- confront more rigid (at times dysfunctional) patterns of civic behavior that undercut the speed with which a region can adjust.

In the years ahead, every region will face the talent shortages. The underlying drivers are the same: an underperforming primary and secondary school system; a Baby Boom retirement; an emerging global market for skills; and continuously higher skill standards required by knowledge-based businesses.

The regions that learn how to collaborate more effectively will likely end up with faster rates of productivity growth...more prosperity. They will be the first to move beyond legacy education systems and innovate with new approaches to continuous, high quality learning.

posted by Ed Morrison |

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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