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Economy Watch
Sunday, January 29, 2006 Here are the interesting articles on the economy from last week. The Innovation Race heats up Forget Davos. Try Mississippi. Protecting America's Competitiveness Vital Signs for the Week of Jan. 30 Study finds uneven job growth for cities Is the SBA Hurting Small Business? Why You Should Care about Nanotechnology Worldview | India's messy democracy or China's model of economics? Advice from Georgia: Use university research to grow jobs Economy sagged as 2005 ended Even if it's no Ferrari, the economy runs like a Porsche India is everywhere in Davos posted by Ed | Incentive Watch Here are articles on incentives I came across last week. Long a critic of incentives, the Corporation for Enterprise Development issued its annual "Development Report Card for the States". The report card tries to move policymakers from a low cost strategy of development to a more balanced view of a state's economic climate. Read more. You can view your state's scores from this page. Kentucky governor Fletcher has introduced legislation to provide state funding the match Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards. Read more. Here's an interesting article on how officials in McAllen, TX are trying to get the next Kia plant. Read more. Warren Buffet's Acme Brick got a big tax deal, and that set off a columnist in Ft. Worth. According to the columnist: "Acme will spend $16 million, including buying the land, on its improvements. There's no cap on the rebate, so if brick sales in Texas climb 5 percent a year, Acme will get back more than $64 million by the time this deal expires." Read more. Nevada continues to try to entice companies out of California. Read more. The president North Carolina Economic Developers Association argues why incentives are important. Read more. Someone could write a book on growing incentives for the film industry. Here are two articles this week. One from South Carolina, one from Idaho. and one from Connecticut posted by Ed | Wisconsin emerging in biotech Saturday, January 28, 2006 FierceBiotech, an e-mail newsletter, has named five areas at biotech hotspots. The four regions in the U.S. are located in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. (Massachusetts folks are probably scratching their heads on this one.) In addition, Singapore's impressive commitment to Biopolis landed it in the top five. Wisconsin, not surprisingly, picked up the story. Read more. Read the FierceBiotech article here. posted by Ed | Silicon Valley morphing to Smart Valley Civic leaders in have a plan to make Silicon Valley completely wireless over 1,500 square miles. Read more. As one of the promoters notes, "Establishing a ubiquitous network will enable the deployment of a new generation of broadband services for our entire community, including small businesses, schools, non-profits, and all the citizens of our region.” You can download background documents from this page. posted by Ed | Branding Ft. Wayne People in the Midwest are practical, hard-boiled. So, it's not surprising that the latest effort to develop a brand for Fort Wayne, Indiana has prompted the editorial board of the local paper to express its skepticism. Read more. Far from corrosive cynicism, the editor's points are important. Branding is more than a slick tag line and a bunch of bullets on a Powerpoint presentation. Fort Wayne -- and most of the industrial cities I've come to know in the Midwest -- are far more complex than the popular press would have us believe. At its best, this branding exercise in Fort Wayne will help the community and region uncover its unique strengths. But that will require hard work from a skilled professional team. The challenge will come in distilling the values and experiences that animate the city. (Based on the editorial, they may have missed it in Bay City, Michigan.) posted by Ed | Iowa State research and economic development Iowa State's new vice provost for research wants to build the connection between university research and economic development. The ISU president told him: "You are the vice provost for research, but I also must tell you that you will have a leadership position in economic development as well." In the months ahead, Iowa State will be participating in an initiative called Innovation Iowa. As the new vice provost notes: "It is really in our mission to assist in the state as much as possible with people in their efforts to start up new companies, to be successful in those companies, making a profit, employing people." Read more. posted by Ed | Nano Networks: Northeast Ohio connects to New Mexico Northeast Ohio's Nano-Network has connected with Technology Ventures Corporation in New Mexico. Read more. This connection provides a good example of the future of economic development: Networks forming and connecting. posted by Ed | New report: Global impacts on our cities The U.S. Conference of Mayors has released a new report on the impact of global competition on our cities. The picture is mixed, with the biggest challenges facing the Midwest. Read more. You can download the report here. posted by Ed | Workforce-economic development innovations Many of us participated in some way in preparing proposals for the Bush Administration's WIRED initiative. Read more. WIRED promotes collaboration among economic development and workforce professionals. The same idea -- innovation in workforce and economic development through closer collaboration -- drives the Southeast Michigan Information Security Regional Skills Alliance. Read more. We need to accelerate innovation to compete globally, and the Department of Labor has compiled a good reading list to get us all motivated to move: View the list. posted by Ed | Rhode Island's emerging innovation economy A new report out of Rhode Island advises the governor to invest in innovation and research to boost the economy. Rhode Island has been moving in a focused way to build an innovation economy. One initiative will make the entire state wireless. Read more. You can download the report here. You can learn more about Rhode Island's efforts by exploring the web site, Business Innovation Factory. posted by Ed | The velocity of change Last week, I was in Lexington, KY, where I heard a very good presentation by Dennis Donovan, head of HR for Home Depot. A former GE Executive, Donovan is part of the new management team that has been remaking the company. Donovan caught my ear with his definition of a healthy organization: An organization is healthy when the velocity of change inside the organization exceeds the velocity of change outside the organization. Another point: Velocity is a friend of change. Donovan's points underscore an important message for EDPros: We need to move from strategic planning to strategic doing. We learn best by quickly translating ideas into action. posted by Ed | Moving to a networked world This commentary raises some interesting issues. In older industrial cities, like Cleveland, we face difficult transitions. In the wake of the Ford announcement, more communities are facing this transition. Read more. To manage the shift, we all need to be more entrepreneurial, more open to new connections. Economic development becomes a challenge of making these new connections as fast as possible. Here's the perspective from New Bedford, MA. Read more. posted by Ed | ASU Innovation Center Many universities often have a tough time connecting with their surrounding communities and region. Arizona State is launching an innovation center that will build new connections. Read more. posted by Ed | The healing power of what we do Last week's release of Michael Fortier, an accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing, demonstrates the healing power of what we do. The bombing took place just as we were rolling out our economic development initiatives, Forward Oklahoma City. I had spent over a year redesigning the business community's economic development strategy. Combined with the city's bold investment in physical infrastructure, we hoped to remake Oklahoma City. We obviously delayed the launch of our strategy as the residents of Oklahoma City tried to come to grips with the enormous tragedy. But the business and political leadership in Oklahoma City did not hesitate to move on with bold plans to remake the city. Now, ten years later, we can see the healing power of economic development. As the head of the United Way notes, "Oklahoma City is a different city, completely, than it was in 1995." Read more. Oklahoma City is now on to Forward Oklahoma City III. I'll be heading out to OKC at the end of next week, and I'll give you an update. posted by Ed | The hard lessons of sprawl Loudon County, VA "is 'a little test tube' for coping with hypergrowth on the far fringes of many American cities." Here's a good article on the hard lessons of sprawl. Read more. Loudoun, the nation's fastest-growing county in the past five years, up 46% since the 2000 census. posted by Ed | Iowa's rain forest For a couple of years, we have been following the saga of the indoor rain forest in Iowa. I got steamed when Iowa's Senator Grassley stuck in a $50 million earmark to support the indoor rain forest at the same time the federal government was cutting the Manufacturing Extension Program by a similar amount. (not surprisingly, the controversy pumped up the blogoshere. (The money for the rain forest was tucked into the Department of Energy legislation. That's the logic of earmarks.) The Senator has since modified his position to be more sensible. He has made the $50 million contingent on a local match. I'm all for big projects. But they need to be financed locally. Federal earmarks lull us into the idea that money is "free". The Environmental Project might be a great idea. We may need some environmental education in this country. (A new study released this week ranks the U.S. 28th in the world in environmental performance. Read more.) But the majority of the financing should come from a combination of private financing and local taxes. The federal government's investment -- if any in this time of record deficits-- should represent a small fraction of the total project. (Better yet, keep the federal government focused on investing in our colleges and universities.) Here's the latest chapter. Read more. posted by Ed | The ethical dimensions of biotech Florida's biotech push may touch off a values clash over stem cell research. Read more. posted by Ed | Privatizing the Indiana Toll Road Governor Mitch Daniels in Indiana wants to invest in transportation infrastructure. First, he proposes to increase the tolls, since the Toll Road no longer pays for itself. Second, he proposes leasing the Indiana Toll Road to finance transportation projects across the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Reading well by the fourth grade Adult illiteracy drags down our nation's competitiveness. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in Colorado proposes to require English proficiency as a condition for receiving a high school diploma. Here's an editorial backing the proposal. Why stop there? Why not focus on setting the goal that every child will be able to read and comprehend well by the fourth grade? Remedial reading help would cost about $5,000 a child. But the costs later in life are enormous. (When a young person drops out of high school, they lose about $200,000 in lifetime earnings, compared to a high school graduate.) posted by Ed | Turning university research into innovation Pittsburgh has been moving university research into a more prominent role in regional economic development. Here's an update on the progress being made by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Read more. View a graphic. posted by Ed | The telecommuting trend Thursday, January 26, 2006 Another trend to watch: telecommuting. Reports in Europe indicate that between 15% and 25% of the workforce could telecommute. The movement is gaining steam in metro areas where sprawl and congestion are on the rise: places like Florida. Read more. This is another area where the Europeans have some of the most advanced thinking. At the very least, telecommuting requires changes in the way we do business: From new personnel and HR policies to expanded broadband infrastructures. You can learn more from these sites: The federal government's telework site Telecommuting resource links from a member of the faculty at the University of Washington Telework Ireland posted by Ed | Early education pays off Here's another viewpoint out of South Carolina on how early education pays off for economic development. Read more. As the author notes, "[T}hese programs have a very high return on investment — anywhere from $4 to $7 ($17 if you look at the internal rate of return) for each dollar spent." posted by Ed | Investing in universities Part of the new challenges we are facing in economic development involves building new linkages between colleges and universities and surrounding regional economies. Here is an interesting commentary from Iowa on boosting biotech by investing in universities. Read more. Iowa State University’s vice provost for research is clearly heading in this direction. Read more. And investing in universities is a cornerstone of the economic development strategy crafted by Governor Rendell in Pennsylvania. Read more. posted by Ed | The care and feeding of venture capitalists Chuck Lawton is one of the most interesting commentators on economic development around. He writes from Maine, and most of his focus is on how his home state can compete more effectively. Here's a recent comment from his trip to a venture capital conference in Boston. His insights from "The Masters of the Universe" is particularly entertaining and useful. Read more. (Tom Wolfe's phrase for investment bankers in Bonfire of the Vanities may not apply as well to VCs. Investment bankers operate in a financial economy that, too often, is only loosely connected to the economy for real goods and services. However, venture capitalists will perish if they lose touch with the real economy. At the same time, they often -- as we all do -- get swayed by conceit and fashions.) posted by Ed | The top EDPro in Phoenix Here's profile of Barry Broome in his new position as head of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Read more. (Broome replaced Rick Weddle who now works in the Research Triangle.) posted by Ed | Big lessons from a small chamber Civic leaders in Gladwin County, MI are pulling together the threads of an economic development for the first time. The local chamber has been the epicenter for these efforts. From the looks of this article, the chamber has managed an inclusive, focused process. It's a lesson that some chamber executives in much larger organizations can learn. Designing a civic process that combines open participation with leadership direction is not easy. But is essential to economic development in our emerging networked economy. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Saturday, January 21, 2006 Here are the interesting articles on the economy I came across last week. Cerf: Internet growth will come from Asia The Future Of Outsourcing U.S. Productivity Growth Slowing Sharply as Emerging Markets Catch Up Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Who Beats Corruption? Country that Doesn't innovate, stagnates Ten trends to watch in 2006 Rural Businesses Forced to Find Their Own Internet Access Vital Signs for the Week of Jan. 23 The Innovation Spark Must Be Carefully Nurtured Wages fall to inflation posted by Ed | Incentive Watch Here are the articles I came across on incentives last week. Alabama owes $5 million to companies it lured to the state. Read more. Arkansas is dealing with the legacy of spec buildings, incentives, and economic shifts: a lot of vacant property. Read more. Incentives aren't enough for a small Colorado airport to attract carriers. Read more. Many of Kentucky's business incentives are buried in the tax code and have little oversight, according to an organization that has been criticizing the way the state administers incentives. Read more. (This story is a follow-up to a story from last November. You can download the report from this page.) Governor Pataki is proposing a series of energy incentives. Read more. Iowa is granting $11 million in incentives for a $14 million investment in high end jobs. Read more. posted by Ed | Business school in Baltimore: Connecting with entrepreneurs Colleges and universities -- especially business schools -- have an important role to play in building entrepreneurial regions. Take the case of Baltimore. The University of Baltimore is moving ahead with practical entrepreneurial initiatives. Here is a good overview. Read more. According to Jeff Cornwall who keeps track of these things, entrepreneurship and innovation education is exploding across the U.S. As Jeff notes, "Just a few years ago it was rare to see entrepreneurship taught in Colleges of Business. Now it is not only common in Colleges of Business, but is moving across campuses to reach students of all majors at colleges and universities of all sizes. The innovation in these programs is amazing." Jeff points to an example of one of a new initiatives underway in Missouri. Read more. At the recent conference of United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship that Jeff mentions in his post, Babson College walked away with the award for the most innovative entrepreneurship education. Read more. Further, the Kauffman Foundation announced this week a new panel to explore changes in entrepreneurship education. Read more. posted by Ed | Remaking Dallas into a quality, connected place Dallas is trying to move ahead with a comprehensive plan. Promoters of the effort Forward Dallas envision an interconnected city with light rail, well-designed sidewalks and a distinct urban character. Read more. posted by Ed | A brainpower initiative for Vermont Vermont's governor has promoted a plan to encourage young people to stay inside the state to get their college education. He wants to give out 12,000 scholarships to students who agree to spend at least three years in Vermont after they graduate. Read more. posted by Ed | Global pressure on Arizona's aerospace businesses Our aerospace industry represents among the most sophisticated manufacturing businesses we have. Yet, increasing pressure from low cost countries is eroding our strength in these markets. Here's a note from Arizona on this challenge. Read more. These trends are not new. You can learn more about the challenges facing our aerospace industry by downloading the 2002 report of the Aerospace Commission from this page. A variety of states also have aerospace commissions, and the industry site of record is the Aerospace Industries Association. posted by Ed | New North venture capital fund launched Some interesting developments have been taking place in 18 northern Wisconsin counties, now branded "New North". Last week, leaders announced the launch of a new venture capital fund. Read more. Here is some more background on the alliance. Read more. You can download background reports from this page. posted by Ed | Moving toward innovation economies This article out of Roanoke, VA highlights the transition underway in our economy toward more open networks of innovation. Read more. The true nature of our economic transformation involves moving from a mindset in which wealth is created largely through hierarchical organizations to mindset in which wealth is created through networks. Thinking of this shift as a move away from manufacturing and toward services misses the mark. We can see that we have some successful manufacturing companies are operating with global networks. Some of these businesses are located in rural areas. See, for example, this video of a harp manufacturer in Rising Sun, Indiana. Watch it. Visit the web site. The challenge for us all is to embrace innovation with open networks of collaboration that accelerate the process of turning ideas into wealth. posted by Ed | BW on successful start-ups Here's a Business Week article on lessons from successful start-ups. Nothing particularly insightful here, but you may find it useful to pass it on. Read more. posted by Ed | Modeling and simulation cluster in Hampton Roads An interesting cluster may start emerging in Eastern Virginia. A new simulation and modeling center may accelerate the development of the cluster. Read more. posted by Ed | KY report focuses on weak skills A new report out of Kentucky highlights the growing problem of high school graduates with weak skills. You can read more about the report here. You can download a copy of the report here. The facts are becoming even more clear: High school education is no longer a ticket to the middle class. To learn more, read Teaching the New Basic Skills. Published several years ago, the book provides EDPros with a quick update on the challenges we face. posted by Ed | Missouri efforts to establish biopharming Here is an interesting review of Missouri's efforts to build a biopharma cluster. Read more. posted by Ed | Florida's plan for a spaceport According to a new commission report, Florida needs a private spaceport. Read more. You can download the report from this page. This project would be similar in scope to the spaceport that New Mexico has announced in partnership with Virgin Galactic. Read more about the New Mexico initiative. Last week, Governor Richardson announced that New Mexico would be the new home for the Rocket Racing League, an aerospace entertainment organization that is developing the market for low-altitude rocket-powered aircraft racing. Learn more. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home This must be some kind of record for a chamber of commerce. The Greater Cleveland Partnership boasts that it started its cluster initiative in 1996. When you click on the link, "To see the latest update regarding the Clusters Project" you get a publication dated 200-2001. (Back then, Britney Spears was single, Brad and Jen were still together, Charles and Camilla were still dating, and the Red Sox still had not yet won a World Series.) The lesson: Keep your web sites up to date. In this fast moving world, outdated web sites make you look silly. Here's a good rule of thumb: you should archive stuff that's more than about 18 months old. posted by Ed | Developing new models of leadership training Leadership represents an important component of economic development, but the concept is fuzzy. Most communities content themselves with leadership programs that include very little leadership training. They often include only an exposure to what is going on in a community. Some leadership programs take another step and initiate specific ideas, but very few leadership programs work to maintain and grow leadership networks with their alumni. These traditional approaches to leadership are starting to change slowly. In Indiana, a new rural Leadership Learning Lab launched last week. The project, based in Southern Indiana, is focused on teaching the concepts of Appreciative Inquiry. And in Kansas, a new initiative has developed around the concept of Servant Leadership. Read more. posted by Ed | Learning from the Irish Miracle Indiana focused its leadership summit last June on the Irish Miracle. Last summer, a the governor of Arizona led a delegation to Ireland to learn how the Irish turned their economy around. Now the governor of Wisconsin has led a delegation to learn the same lessons. Learn more. If you are curious about the Irish Miracle, you can download the report of 2005 Leadership Indiana to learn more. go. posted by Ed | Baton Rouge's new initiative Baton Rouge is launching a new national economic development initiative. It focuses in three areas: 1. Targeting and recruiting companies to rebuild New Orleans; 2. Assisting Baton Rouge area businesses to leverage federal assistance; and 3. Retaining Louisiana businesses that are at significant risk of leaving the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Sustainability Businesses Georgia is trying to move to the front edge of sustainable business development with events like Sustainable Business Day. Learn more. If you are interested in how sustainable business development links to economic development, one of the leading groups in the country is Entrepreneurs for Sustainability in Cleveland. Led by a dynamic civic entrepreneur, Holley Harlan, E4S is changing the landscape of opportunity in Northeast Ohio by moving this region's leaders to think in new ways. Learn more. posted by Ed | The advantages of being small There are advantages with being small. You can move fast and achieve scale through networks. Here's an example: Rhode Island is moving ahead with a statewide wireless pilot. You can learn more here. The New York Times this week also carried a good article on the politics of Wi-Fi. Elsewhere, Maine's governor is drafting a state plan to accelerate the deployment of high speed broadband networks in his state. He wants to establish an Advanced Technology Investment Authority. Here is an update. In another story I picked up last week, citizens in Clarion, PA are holding a summit on the broadband issue. The organizers hope to align different interests in the county to move toward a broadband future. Learn more. posted by Ed | Nobel laureate promotes early childhood education Monday, January 16, 2006 Nobel laureate James Heckman wrote an important opinion column for the Wall Street Journal. In it, he emphasizes the importance of investing in early child care for disadvantaged families as an economic development strategy. He notes:
You can read the column here. You can review a summary of the research findings from the web site of the National Council of State Legislatures here. posted by Ed | Pennsylvania's innovation zone program Pennsylvania's innovation zone program, an initiative of the Rendell administration, is starting to take shape. Last week, the state announced awards that landed in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. You can read more about what's happening in Pittsburgh here and here . You can read about the announcement for Philadelphia here. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, January 15, 2006 Here are the articles I enjoyed reading on the economy last week. Dancing on thin ice The innovation burden must be shared EU 'is 50 years behind the US for innovation' Vital Signs for the Week of Jan. 16 VCs Spar Over Tech Direction Math Will Rock Your World U.S. senator calls outsourcing of white-collar jobs a fact of life World economy grows, faces dangerous balancing act Drop in foreign enrollment worries U.S. educators There is a fundamental shift in the distribution of global economic power posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Not too many good articles on incentives this week. Toledo is pushing hard to get a GM transmission plant. Read more. Michigan is struggling with Toyota's new R&D center planned for Ann Arbor. Read more. Here are some details on Intel's incentive deal with Larimer County, CO. Read more. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home Don't: Buy $100 humidors and charge them to your expense account. Have the taxpayers pay $35,000 in your moving expenses, then seek expense reimbursement of $700 to your in-laws for helping you move. Refer to yourself as Dr. Big Cheese when you are not. Buy a desk set for $8,000 as part of a $10,000 office makeover for yourself. Read more here and here. Then don't go out pumping up a prospect without doing some due diligence. Read more here and here. (If you put the company's address in to Google Maps and look at the location from a satellite view, you see that the company is located in a residential subdivision of St. Paul. The processing facility listed in the company's web site apparently does not exist.) posted by Ed | Upsetting the apple cart Some people don't like to hear this message, but good economic development is inherently disruptive. You are encouraging people to think and act in different ways. You are creating new networks and breaking bad habits of thought and action. So, I was interested when a consultant in Kansas told his audience to "upset the apple cart". Read more. Many people hear this message and become wary, concerned that -- by these terms -- good economic development is divisive, contentious, controversial. Not really. The simplest way that economic development work can be made engaging and fun is to make the interactions among people pleasant. The most interesting work in the world will not be fun if the interpersonal atmosphere is poisonous. The challenge of civic engagement involves both engaging the right people and helping them enjoy each other. At the same time, leadership needs to focus relentlessly on getting important stuff done. posted by Ed | Georgia’s “Entrepreneur Friendly” program Georgia has an interesting initiative to promote "entrepreneur-friendly"communities. Here's an article on one community looking for the designation. Read more here and here. You can learn more about the initiative here. posted by Ed | Appalachian center focuses on getting young people to college Here's an interesting initiative. (In the past, we would have seen this as education, not economic development. Now we see that education is economic development.) Georgia Appalachia Center for Higher Education is focusing on encouraging young people in North Georgia to continue their education beyond high school. Read more. One of the best indicators of how well a region performs economically can be found in the percentage of adults with some post-secondary education. Learn more. posted by Ed | A leap frog strategy for Arizona An influential analyst in Arizona, Mary Jo Waits, is calling for the state to embrace a "leap frog" strategy: "Spot opportunity and respond faster and better than anyone else". Read more. This commentary follows an earlier article on the "10 big forces that are knocking on Arizona's door". Read more. On a separate note, a private foundation in Arizona has announced a $50 million gift to build the research base of the state's bioscience cluster. You can read more here, and here. posted by Ed | NY business group calls for innovation focus A leading business group in New York is calling for a major shift in the state's economic development strategy. "Ahead of the Curve" argues that New York must move toward a more innovation-led economy. Read more. posted by Ed | Akron invests in Israeli innovation Here's an dynamic innovation from Akron, OH: Possibly the first partnership of its kind between an Israeli incubator and a U.S. city. Read more. The Targetech Innovation Center focuses taking emerging technology ideas and turning them into viable businesses. You can visit the Web site here. posted by Ed | Seeing the world from 30,000 feet Some interesting articles appeared this week on the consequences of globalization and the opportunities of innovation. Max Baucus, an influential U.S. Senator was over in India telling his audiences that the outsourcing of white collar jobs is inevitable. Read more. In Bristol, TN, the editors of the local paper advise their readers that fundamental shifts are underway. Bristol Compressor, the city's largest employer, announced layoffs of 290 workers last week. Read more. Here, the takeover of a local textile plant by a new owner in India triggered the comments. The editors focus their attention on facing the inevitable facts of life and looking for the opportunities in this dynamic, global economy. Meanwhile, in India, an interesting commentary focuses on the opportunities from innovation. Read more. And in China, the China Academy of Sciences announced that over the next five years, China will build a series of innovation bases in areas such as information technology, space science, advanced energy, nanotechnology, manufacturing and new materials, medicine, and agriculture. Read more. Meanwhile, Ireland, a good model for most states to follow, is aggressively moving to increase ties between its companies and partners in China and India. Read more. posted by Ed | Wisconsin and early childhood education Saturday, January 14, 2006 We're staring to see economic developers make the connection between economic performance and early childhood education. In a conference last week, economists and economic developers focused on a strategy of investing in early childhood initiatives. The state faces a major time bomb: an aging workforce, a brain drain of bright college graduates and in-migration of too few workers into the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Hunting gazelles in Research Triangle Park The recruiting game continues. Here's the perspective from Research Triangle Park, where a lot of recruiters go to hunt. Read more. posted by Ed | Houston's ambitious agenda The Greater Houston Partnership has released it strategic plan which sets forth ambitious job development goals: 600,000 in a decade. Read more. You can download a copy of the plan here. posted by Ed | New regional strategy in Portland, OR Business leaders in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA have released a new plan for their region. You can read more about the plan here. posted by Ed | Adjusting state law in eminent domain cases Thursday, January 12, 2006 States are still figuring out how to grapple with the Supreme Court's decision in the Kelo case (Kelo v. City of New London). Here's a web page from the National Council of State legislatures that outlines what each state is doing. Go. This week, a task force in Missouri also issued its recommendations to the governor about how to reform state law in light of the Kelo decision. Read more about the task force report here. Download the report here. You can also get an issue brief from the national Governors Association on this page. posted by Ed | Mississippi's coastal recovery The Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal in Mississippi has issued its final report. You can read an overview from the Commission chair, Jim Barksdale here. You can also download the report. But you should first register on this page. posted by Ed | Resource: GEM Entrepreneurship Report for 2005 In an important partnership, the Babson College and London Business School are conducing a valuable line of research into global entrepreneurship: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). They released their latest report this week. In it, they introduce the concept of "high expectation entrepreneurship". They define the term as all newly formed businesses which expect to employ at least 20 employees within five years. These ventures have far reaching consequences for the economies in which they operate. They account for about 10% of all entrepreneurs, but they create 75% of all jobs from start-ups. You can read more about the report here. You can download the report from this page. You can learn more about the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor from this page. posted by Ed | Regional alliance emerging in coastal SC Four counties in coastal South Carolina, led by the council of governments, is moving toward a regional alliance in economic development. Read more. Last November, the COG's consultants recommended a $50 million film studio for the region. Read more. posted by Ed | More on the incubator gone bad Here's a follow up article to the Incubator Gone Bad" posting. Lax governance led to lax performance. Read more. posted by Ed | The tough job of rebuilding New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission released its recommendations yesterday, and not surprisingly, not everyone is happy. Facing the financial realities of rebuilding the city, the Commission's Urban Urban Planning Committee report — titled “Action Plan for New Orleans: The New American City” -- drew heavy criticism from residents. Read more. You can download the report from the Commission's web site. Go. posted by Ed | Creatives in Fresno Wednesday, January 11, 2006 Tim Stearns, Director, Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, passed this note on to our Economic Gardening list serv: posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, January 08, 2006 Here are some of the best articles I came across on the economy. Congress Ready to Tackle Tech Issues in 2006 Bush Urges Congress to Extend Tax Cuts, Slow Spending Growth Vital Signs for the Week of Jan. 9 Report Documents 2004 as a Good Year for Small Business New reports may hint at more Fed rate hikes U.S. Manufacturing Index Falls to 54.2 in December The Web: Fifteen years of browsing Sorting Out December's Jobs Report posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the articles on incentives I came across last week. South Carolina will be increasing its budget for economic development, and the governor wants to add $7 million to a deal closing fund. Read more. Missouri has an interesting incentive program to promote Individual Development Accounts. This initiative reflects the emerging trend of shifting incentives from companies to people. Read more. Faced with evidence that the state's incentives are not spread evenly across Indiana, Governor Daniels tried to focus attention on the core issue of investments in quality jobs. To his mind, simple measures of incentive dollars per capita probably do not tell you very much. Read more. Rhode Island has benefited from a move by Fidelity away from Massachusetts. This move has touched off a comparison of incentives between the two states. Read more. New York has established 3 new Empire Zones. Read more. Minnesota is trying to hold on to its Ford plant. Read more here, here, and here. posted by Ed | Shifting gears in South Carolina No state is struggling more with the policy shifts in economic development than South Carolina. Pushed up by the Palmetto Institute, the state has been moving away from its traditional economic development strategy of attracting manufacturing firms based on low wages and relatively low business costs. In its place, the state has been trying to evolve a new strategy around innovation and clusters. As one economist at the College of Charleston states, "Economic development now is struggling to find its way.". Here's a partial summary of what's been happening in South Carolina. Read more. posted by Ed | Judging Governor Warner in Virginia Governor Warner in Virginia is about to leave office. He established economic development as one of the priorities of his administration. Across the state, economic developers are generally pleased with the performance. Here's a good review of what has taken place under the Warner administration. Read more. posted by Ed | Higher education investments as economic development Increasingly, the funding of higher education will be translated into economic development terms. Here's an example from the state of Kentucky. The Senate majority leader has indicated that the Legislature would be willing to fund higher education more aggressively, if they saw a clearer connection between the university and economic development goals. Both the University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University are aggressively moving in this direction. Read more. At the same time in North Carolina, the University of North Carolina system has a new president, Erskine Bowles. Bowles will be moving the different campuses of the UNC system toward higher levels of research investment. Read more. posted by Ed | New York's new nanotechnology center Governor Pataki in New York has announced a $435 million high-tech center that will be built in Albany. The center will be the home for the Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery and Exploration, or INDEX. Read more. posted by Ed | Massachusetts technology indicators report A new report from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative outlines how Massachusetts compares to other comparable states. According to the report, Massachusetts is losing ground. Read more. Download the report. In a more informal assessment, the president of the Wisconsin Technology Council grades the performance of his state. Read more. posted by Ed | Correcting irresponsible journalism At its best, the popular press can inform citizens of the economic challenges and opportunities ahead of us. At its worst, the popular press can distort perceptions. Take the case of Fort Wayne, Indiana. About a year ago, Men's Health magazine used dubious criteria to label Ft. Wayne as the "dumbest" city in America. It was a gratuitous slur, as this article makes clear. Read more. To my mind, there is no difference between the Men's Health story and the graffiti spray-painted subway cars. Both are the product of civic vandals. posted by Ed | A clear view of our innovation economy Louis Branscomb has long been a strong voice on the state of the innovation economy in the US. In this commentary, he outlines the decline of the U. S. relative position in innovation. He suggests how the state and local governments can combine with the private sector to help provide a national response to our innovation challenge. Read more. He also points to the importance of reading the recent National Academy of Sciences report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm". You can download the report here. (You need to register to download.) posted by Ed | Promoting early childhood education Rob Grunwald, an economic and public policy analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, promotes the idea that early child care investments are good economic development investments. A simple message: invest one dollar in early childhood development and for an at-risk child, and you'll get back as much is $18 over the child's lifetime. Grunwald was making his case recently in upstate New York. Read more. posted by Ed | Arts in South Dakota More and more communities are seeing the many connections between the arts and economic development. The South Dakota Arts Council has released its development plan. You can read more about the plan here. You can download the plan here. The arts are part of the "creative industries". You can learn more about the creative industries and economic development from this site from New England. Go. European countries are generally more attuned to using the arts as an economic development engine. See, for example, the site for Creative London. posted by Ed | Biofuels report from Indiana Last week, I was doing a little work on a biopolymers project, and I came across a report I missed. Last November, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture released a new report on the US biofuels industry. You can download a copy of the report from this page. posted by Ed | Conducting research in clusters A new project at Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI) illustrates the value that an economic development organization can provide to a cluster of related businesses. GLI is working with an affiliate organization, the Customer Contact Center Network, to conduct a benchmarking survey of local call centers. Read more. This type of research provides valuable insights for local companies. And at the same time, enabling economic development professionals to take the pulse of a variety of different employers in a detailed and meaningful way. posted by Ed | Worker shortages on the horizon Worker training is also becoming an increasingly important challenge for economic developers. Three trends are converging. The first comes with the accelerating retirement of the Baby Boom generation. As baby boomers retire, skills are lost. Second, the general skill levels of most jobs are going up. Increasingly, even entry-level workers need some basic understanding of information technology, for example. Finally, our education system is underperforming. Too few of our young people are moving on to postsecondary education. Despite all the the effort spent on education reform, performance improvement is minimal. As a consequence, more and more industries are facing a shortage of skilled workers. Here's an article from Montana that explores how the state plans to respond to the pending shortage of construction workers. Read more. posted by Ed | The challenge of water shortages Increasingly, water shortages will play a more significant role in economic development decisions over the next decade. The shortages will appear not only in the Southeast and Southwest but also in isolated pockets in other regions. So, for example, Southwest Minnesota is facing water shortages. Read more. Water shortages are affecting growth patterns in Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh Durham and Hampton Roads of Virginia. Read more. posted by Ed | Seeing opportunities with retirees With the coming retirement of the Baby Boom generation, more communities are looking at retirees as an economic development resource. Here's a good article from Greenwood County, South Carolina. Read more. The Greenwood Partnership Alliance has targeted retirees as part of its economic development strategy. Among the interesting facts included in this article: retirees spend about 3.6 times the average worker. Visit the partnership client's web site. Go. posted by Ed | An incubator gone bad Saturday, January 07, 2006 If you are thinking of developing an incubator, you should read these cautionary stories from an "incubator gone bad" in North Carolina. Incubator failed to help entrepreneurs Incubator episode may have long-term consequences Incubator snapshots (A brief overview of other incubators.) If you want to learn more about incubators, start with the National Business Incubator Association. posted by Ed | Finding workers for manufacturing Finding qualified workers stands as a major obstacle for manufacturing firms. It's a tough problem, especially for smaller firms. Here's what a manufacturers' association in Florida is doing. Read more. posted by Ed | Louisiana Recovery Authority Thursday, January 05, 2006 Here's a note from an e-mail from Mike Olivier in Louisiana about the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The LRA's website is here. According to Mike: "This website is updated regularly and contains lots of information on the LRA, information provided at board meetings, and much more. The "Archives" section provides excellent background information". posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, January 01, 2006 Here are some of the articles on the economy I have been reading. Trends show increasing number of older workers stay or return to the workforce GM's fall has some lessons for manufacturing Dreams Incubate in Shopping Mall Carts More of the young and hip fight urban urge Vital Signs for the Week of Jan. 2 Innovate or perish Technology isn't the only harbinger of higher productivity Future is in globally distributed work, not offshoring The Wal-Mart Model posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are some of the articles on incentives that I came across during the holidays. Folks in the nrothern and southern regions of Indiana are finding out that most of the state's incentives land in the central part of the state. Read more here and here. Virginia's economic development officials are trying to exercise "claw back" provisions of incentive deals that did nto work out. Read more. EDPros in Draper, UT (outside Salt Lake City) want to provide incentives for an IKEA store, and this article indicates that the Draper incentive package is in line with what other communities have offered IKEA. Read more. Minesota's JOBZ program review. (It's an enterprise zone porgram.) Read more. You can download an analysis of the program by the Center for Rural Policy and Development. Download the report. Buffalo debates whether it makes sense to provide incentives to developers for building "spec" buildings in a soft market. They may simply provide reasons for firms to move around inside the region. Read more. posted by Ed | The growth of wind power in 2005 Wind power markets are growing, as the price of natural gas and crude oil jumped to new highs. But adding wind power to the nation's energy mix raises a new set of issues for local, state and federal officials. Here is an article outlining these trends. Read more. posted by Ed | Don't try this at home One of the joys of living in Northeast Ohio is our very active blogging community. Our Blogger-in-Chief, George Nemeth (author of Brewed Fresh Daily), keeps his eyes out for new stuff on the web. This morning, one of George's posts pointed us to a top 10 list of 2005 web moments. The first one caught my eye. A couple of years ago in China, I met a young Japanese corporate consultant who was a BIG fan of Romanian pop music. (Imagine the scene: I was in a Chinese taxicab, speaking English to a Japanese consultant telling me about Romanian pop music.) "The Numa Numa Dance. New Jersey 19-year-old Gary Brolsma found Internet fame when he not only lip-synched, but did a slick choreographed routine—albeit without leaving his chair—to 'Dragostea Din Tei,' a dance track by Romanian pop trio O-Zone." I click on the video and nearly fell off my chair. View it for yourself. (You can get a little more of ths history here.) posted by Ed | Welcome to 2006 It's amazing how the years zip by. May we see a world next year in which more children are safe and healthy, more adults do good work, and each of us are connected with more ties of understanding and compassion. posted by Ed | |
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