| |
|
Economy Watch
Sunday, April 30, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy I enjoyed reading last week. Growing Economy Propels Hiring, Factories: U.S. Economy Preview VCs Call for U.S. Innovation Cause for economic optimism Anger about high pump prices nearing peak What is the meaning of citizenship? U.S. needs climate policy Investors Await Raft of Economic Data Vital Signs: The Jobs Machine Chugs Along Globalization's new underclass posted by Ed | Incentives Watch I came across only a handful of interesting incentives articles this week. In Iowa, government officials are talking with Whirlpool about keeping Maytoag jobs. Incentives are obviously on the table. Read more. Norfolk is trying to figure out a next step in the wake of Ford's decision to close a plant there. Read more. In North Carolina, Dll;s attorneys have asked the court to throw out the suit challenging Dells hefty incentive package. Read more. Meanwhile, the Dell deal may, some speculate, lead to a Toyota deal for the state. Read more. Utah's incentives are attracting more public attention. Read more. The Kentucky legislature killed a proposal to give more scrutiny to incentives. Read more. posted by Ed | The debate over growth in Northeast Ohio The Greater Cleveland Partnership has been pushing the idea of that casinos can help revitalize the Northeast Ohio economy. It appears, however, that Ohio voters are skeptical of these claims. Read more. At the same time, other voices within the region are emerging to argue that the region's future depends more on innovation. David Morgenthaler, one of the country's top venture capitalists, is a Cleveland loyalist. He argues that the civic leadership in Northeast Ohio should be focusing on building technology and innovation networks. Read more here and here. posted by Ed | Wireless news Here's some wireless news. The City of Austin has launched a new downtown wireless network. Read more. Rhode Island hopes to become the first state to offer a complete wireless network. Taking advantage of its small size, civic leaders recognize that providing a wireless network across the state could generate important economic development opportunities. Read more. Annapolis, MD has launched a free wireless network. Read more. posted by Ed | Collaborate to gain agility As civic leaders and EDPros come to understand the implications of globalization, more and more regions are coming together. These leaders recognize that in order to compete globally, we need to collaborate regionally. Last week, three counties around Saginaw, Michigan put aside rivalries and have begun working together to explore new opportunities. Read more. The key to regional economic development is agility. The strength of a regional economy depends on the underlying competitive position of the companies within the region. As markets and technologies of these companies mature, growth slows. Civic leaders need to recognize these trends and move quickly to align resources around new growth opportunities. In the case of Saginaw, the auto industry is in decline. Civic leaders hope to move the economy more toward medical devices. This is the type of transition that successful regional economies are able to make relatively quickly. Regional economies that lag are unable to align their resources quickly around new opportunities. So, for example, for over two decades, civic leaders in Youngstown Ohio held on to a hope that the steel industry would re-emerge. Only now, civic leaders in the Mahoning Valley are moving to build a new economic base. posted by Ed | The emerging opportunities for small towns Two articles out of Canada illustrate an important point in the shifting dynamics of regional economic development. Small towns are coming back into style. Read more. At the same time, the entrepreneurship is creating new opportunities for rural towns. Read more. posted by Ed | Creating career pathways in manufacturing Reforming our education system in improving dramatically. Its performance will require collaborations across organizational and political boundaries. Relatively little new money will be found to invest in education in the years ahead. Instead, we need to focus on improving performance through collaboration and alignment. Here's a couple of examples. In Pennsylvania, a high school and a technical college have gotten together to offer a clear career pathway of robotics training. The articulation agreement is flexible. As one participant explained, "The important feature of the 2 + 2 + 2 program is that it provides multiple exit and entry points for students so that their individual needs can be met". Read more. Here's another example of how high schools and community colleges can partner. In Longview, Texas, high school students have the opportunity to earn college credit in advanced manufacturing skills before they graduate from high school. Read more. posted by Ed | New Jersey Chamber focuses on its agenda The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is trying to get off on the right foot with the new governor, John Corzine. In a news release last week, the chamber nudges the governor toward tackling some of the more persistent problems in the New Jersey business climate. Read more. The chamber promotes an interesting initiative, called the Platform for Progress. Launched last fall, the Platform for Progress is designed to establish an agenda for moving the state's economy forward on a range of different dimensions. You can learn more about the Platform for Progress here. You can download their agenda here. posted by Ed | Wisconsin: The opportunity in stem cells A newspaper in Wisconsin has published a three-part series on the development opportunities from stem cell research. The series looks at three different perspectives: research, business development and ethics. Stem cell work crosses boundaries From UW-Madison labs to the marketplace An ethical dilemma posted by Ed | Center for Innovation and Growth at Baldwin Wallace College Baldwin Wallace College in Cleveland has launched new Center for Innovation and Growth. The new center is designed to combine the disciplines of mass science and business to create new pathways for economic development in the region. The new center is another example of how colleges and universities are becoming more focused players in regional economic development. Read more. posted by Ed | The emerging turnaround in Michigan There appears to be signs of a turnaround in Michigan, despite continuing pressure on the auto industry. As this article notes, "Michigan is...tapping into its intellectual base around universities and medical centers." The turnaround in Michigan is focused in three regions. In the West, the cities of Muskegon, Holland, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo are showing some promising signs of life. New development is happening around the Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. Finally, Northwest Michigan, around Traverse City, is attracting retirees and wealthy entrepreneurs. Read more. posted by Ed | Jane Jacobs and John Kenneth Galbraith Last week saw the passing of both Jane Jacobs and John Kenneth Galbraith. Both writers shaped the popular debate about economic development. They opened the doors of economics to general audiences. Jacobs operated on the level of cities and regions, while Galbraith painted on a bigger canvas of national policy. Neither writer was embraced by the mainstream economics profession, but that lack of recognition is probably to their credit. As the joke goes, "An economist is someone who is good with numbers but does not have the personality to be an accountant." Too often, as Charles Wheelan writes in his useful book, Naked Economics, economists fall victim to opaque writing, inscrutable diagrams, and an excessive reliance on mathematics. They also do not often admit what they do not know. (While at Case, I ran into one economist -- a specialist in entrepreneurship, no less -- who did not know how to prepare a budget for a simple speaker's program...and he was unwilling to admit that he did not know.) Both Jacobs and Galbraith were clear writers and iconoclastic thinkers. Read more about Jacobs. Read more about Galbraith. posted by Ed | Building new foundations in the Delta Along with the Great Plains, the Mississippi Delta faces the prospect of major population losses over the coming decades. Reversing this trend will not be easy, but it starts with building a new economic base. This new economic base should be focused on accelerating entrepreneurship and education. The Rural Heritage Development Initiative represents one opportunity to continue building this new foundation. Read more. posted by Ed | Water shortages in Georgia Major new development in Georgia faces a stark reality of water shortages. Here is an overview article from Atlanta. Read more. posted by Ed | Use clean-up campaigns to start building networks In some communities, it's difficult to find where to start to build new collaborations. In communities where distrust is high and energy is depleted, simple collaborative activities can begin to build a sense of direction and momentum. We learn to build civic trust, not with words, but with action. Moving people action can be as simple as organizing a cleanup campaign. From these activities, core group forms and larger, more ambitious activities can emerge. Here's an example of how cleanup campaign worked in Belmont, North Carolina. Read more. posted by Ed | Fast growing occupations Here's an useful table that outlines the fastest growing occupations and occupations projected to have the largest numerical increases from 2004 to 2014. View the table. posted by Ed | Finding "tipping point ideas" in North Dakota Here's an interesting idea. A foundation in North Dakota is sponsoring a competition to identify the best "tipping point" ideas. The winning idea will receive $1,000. Read more. (The approach is based on no Gladwell's popular book, The Tipping Point. If you have not read this book, you should. We are facing the challenge of building new models of economic development based on networks. Gladwell's book introduces you to some basic network thinking.) posted by Ed | Emerging collaboration in Northeast Ohio One of the major challenges in Northeast Ohio is a lack of collaboration and coordination. This dynamic is slowly changing, however. Here's some evidence of the shift. Team NEO, the region's economic development organization, has formed a partnership with two major port authorities. The agreement establishes a structure to share prospects opportunities in a cooperative way. Read more. Most economic development professionals know that these types of regional collaborations are very difficult to negotiate, execute and maintain. The success of these agreements depends on a high level of mutual trust. So, the mere fact of three organizations in Northeast Ohio have come together to execute this type of agreement is a significant event. Interestingly, this event was not covered in the Cleveland papers. posted by Ed | New strategy for western MA Western Massachusetts is launching a new strategy effort to identify specific initiatives to move its economy forward. The region has retained two consulting firms to assist them. Read more. The first is the Monitor group, based in Boston and founded by Michael Porter. The second is Mount Auburn Associates. Twenty years ago I was one of the founding partners of Mount Auburn Associates. With Beth Siegel, Andy Reamer, and Peter Kwass, we launched not Auburn Associates in a small office in Cambridge (right off Mt. Auburn Street). I soon left, and Mt. Auburn Associates has gone on to stablish a national reputation for high quality economic development strategy. posted by Ed | Incubators in Georgia and Michigan Lanier Technical College in Georgia is on the verge of opening a new incubator. Read more. The success of an incubator depends on the strength of its networks. Communities that invest in incubators as real estate developments generally fail. Cheap space and shared services are not enough to accelerate business development. On the other hand, incubators of focus on providing quick access to business development resources -- mentoring, investment context, legal assistance, market and product development partners -- experience far higher rates of success. That's the focus of a new incubator in Constantine, Michigan. According to one promoter of the incubator, "Any startup business in the incubator program is offered the opportunity to take classes in business, marketing, or writing a business plan. It is all completely free of charge, courtesy of our collaboration with the state and dub you and you. We have found that it isn't the space that makes or breaks the new business. In an incubator, it is the support that keeps the business viable in most cases." Read more. posted by Ed | Leveraging the Corn Husker diaspora Nebraska joins a list of states that are actively trying to build networks with -- and recruit -- former residents to move back to the state. Read more. Indiana will be launching a similar initiative soon as part of its economic development strategy. posted by Ed | The anniversary of globalization While some may differ, I mark the birth of the modern era of globalization to the development of container shipping after World War II. Last week marked the 50 year anniversary of containerized shipping that started with an experiment by Malcolm McLean. Read more. posted by Ed | Indiana's economic strategy Governor Daniels in Indiana released a state economic development strategy last week. The goal is to improve per capita incomes. The governor hopes to close the gap between Indian and the rest of the country by the year 2020. Since his election two years ago, the governor has been focused on one key statistic: for every dollar made by the average American, the average worker in Indiana earns about $.90. To close the gap the governor is proposing a range of initiatives focused in three areas: innovation, talent and investment. Read more. You can download the strategy here. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, April 23, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy that I found interesting last week. Skyrocketing oil prices, trade deficits seen as risks to global economy Global Imbalances: Is globalization destined to fail? Forget income — tax pollution instead After Caterpillar's Turnaround, A Chance to Reinvent Globalization Why a strong economy is no GOP asset Globalization keeps inflation at bay -Fed's Fisher Globalization can't control inflation: IMF Economy, wise spending boost manufacturers Report: High-tech exports jump 34 percent in 2005 posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are some articles I came across on incentives. Austin landed a Samsung chip plant. Read more. In Nebraska, 29 companies have applied for tax credits under the state's Nebraska Advantage Act. Read more. Virginia is eying the prospect of a Toyota plant. Read more. Four southeastern cities are in the running. Read more. The cost of a Toyota deal is likely to be high. Read more. Louisiana is trying to start with a "clean sheet". Read more. A report out of California finds the state's enterprise zones are ineffective. Read more. Download the report. Michigan is trying to get GM to expand two transmission plants. Read more. Blatimore has used training grants and tax credits to lure Chubb Corp., to locate some back office operations in the city. Read more. posted by Ed | Michigan's 21st Century Fund Michigan is making a major effort to move its economy forward by accerlating the commercialization of new technologies in life sciences, alternative energy, automotive technologies and homeland security.. Read more. posted by Ed | New blog on network weaving Increasingly, economic development depends on designing and weaving new networks of connection. But how do you do that? The skills require thinking and acting in a new way. My colleagues, Jack Ricchuitto, June Holly and Valdis Krebs have launched a new weblog on weaving networks. Through this weblog, you will learn the practical aspects of how to find new opportunities in your economy through networks. Jack, June, Valdis and I launched a new training in this appraoch to economic development at Baldwin-Wallace College in March. We have another session scheduled for June. More on this session later this week. posted by Ed | Some promising developments in Milwaukee Some interesting things appear to be happening in Milwaukee. Among a string of older industrial cities -- Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit -- Milwaukee has had a tougn time adjusting to the new dynamics of the network economy. But there are some encougaging signs of a shift underway. Two articles caught my eye last week. First, a new regional effort is focused on understanding the challenges of doing business in the region. In economic development, you need to deal with the facts as you find them. One of the first steps any effort needs to take involves a clear-eyed assessment of where you stand. The region's new effort at collaboration, "Milwaukee 7" is taking this step. Read more. A second article points to a surprising finding. Milwaukee's saw a rise of nearly 12% last year in the assessed values for all residential, commercial and industrial property. The increase was greater than outlying suburbs. Read more. posted by Ed | Indiana's rural strategy For the past nine months or so, EDPros in Indiana, led by Purdue's Center for Regional Development, have been working on a rural economic development strategy. Called “The Spirit and Quality of Place: A 2020 Vision for the Indiana Countryside", the report represents the best thinking of over 150 people involved in the project. This process sets the report apart. Both dynamic and transparent, the process underscores the importance of designing civic engagement that balances open participation with leadership direction. The idea of balance is simple, but not easy to execute. The next step involves reviewing the draft in community meetings across the state. Read more. The strategy focuses on key components that every rural community should consider as they build strategies to strengthen their economies. You can download a copy of the draft report here. posted by Ed | Manufacturing in Northeast Ohio A new manufacturing initiative in Northeast Ohio, hopes to boost the prospects of manufacturers in the region. Called MAGNET, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, the initiative will provide services in four areas. Read more. posted by Ed | Manufacturing in Central New York Manufacturers in Central New York are focusing on what it takes to compete. Successful companies are lean, focused and agile. Read more. posted by Ed | Innovation in California's Central Valley The Central Valley of California is focusing on a new innovation agenda. Read more. As part of this effort, Cal State at Fresno produced a regional Innovation Index to guide thinking and action. The index includes a checklist of 10 ingredients required for a region to be successful in the knowledge-based innovation economy. The checklist includes the education and skill level of the workforce, accessibility to investment capital, research and development capacity, patent registrations on new technology, new business starts and a diverse mix of industry clusters. You can download a copy here. posted by Ed | Census migration report The Census has released a new report on populations shifts: Domestic Net Migration in the United States: 2000 to 2004. The report describes recent patterns of population redistribution within the country. The analysis focuses on net migration for different geographic areas, including regions, divisions, states, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas and counties. The report focuses on the post-Census 2000 period but also includes data from 1990 to 1999. You can download a copy here. posted by Ed | Biofuels in Indiana and Ohio Here's a good contrast between a state that is focused on a strategy and one tangled in confusion. Biofuels represents an opportunity for the Midwest states. Indiana has moved forward aggressively. Read more. Meanwhile, Ohio is hobbled by confusion and inactivity. Read more. posted by Ed | Web Watch: Charlotte's new GIS site The Charlotte Chamber and Mecklenburg County have introduced an electronic geographic-information system (GIS) for use in economic-development research. The website provides detailed demographics, real estate images, industry clusters and other information for the county. The site says its purpose is “to provide national businesses of interest a decision making tool with a wealth of geospatial information to help them to consider relocating their business to Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. This interactive mapping system will also provide local business an invaluable tool for local business expansion and relocation.” You can visit the site here. posted by Ed | Nebraska's Building Entrepreneurial Communities Program Nebraska has a new initaitive to encourage eentrepreneurial communities. Last week, the governor announced the first awards under the program. Read more. The purpose of the Building Entrepreneurial Communities Program is to support economically depressed rural areas of Nebraska in building entrepreneurial communities. You can learn more here. posted by Ed | Wisconsin promotes workforce development innovations The governor of Wisconsin has launched a competition to encourage innovation in workforce development initiatives. The competition is open to a wide array of organizations, not just workforce development boards. K-16 education organizations, local governments, business associations and labor organizations can also apply. Read more. You can download the background material here. The governor's initiative is a good approach to stimulate collaboration across existing organizational and political boundaries. Our workforce challenges will require innovation. Our current approaches are missing the mark by wide margins. Given ferderal funding priorities, there will not be a lot of new money available for existing programs. The best approach will come in "linking and leveraging" our existing efforts to achieve transformative results. That's the philosophy behind the Administration's WIRED initiatives, and it's the same appraoch that Wisconsin is following. posted by Ed | Northeast Ohio gets a "dashboard" Northeast Ohio, led by a coalition of foundations called Fund for Our Economic Future, has released a "dashboard" to monitor the regional economy. The dashboard looks at eight areas: skill level of the work force; vitality of small business; ethnic diversity and minority business ownership; integration of minorities into the community; management of the costs associated with a declining industrial base and an older infrastructure; growth in income equality; the quality of local amenities; and the level of poverty in the central city. Read more. You can download a copy of the dashboard report here. posted by Ed | Adjusting in Appalachian Ohio The Dayton Daily news has been running a series on the economic shifts happening in Appalachian Ohio. As globalization takes away jobs, it also opens new opportunities, especially in rural communities. Read more. The trick will be to design economic development strategies that are agile. This appraoch requires a quickness and an openness that many regions are having difficulty implementing. But there are some good models to follow. In Applachian Ohio, the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks provides the model to follow. Led by my colleague, June Holley, ACEnet has pioneered the application of open networks to accelerate innovation. Learn more. posted by Ed | Shifting the economic development paradigm Friday, April 21, 2006 We're moving to new models of economic development as our underlying "real economy" shifts from industrial business models to business models based on networks. Our old economic development models communicated to business executives in terms of old industrial business models: "We have low cost land, labor and energy costs." "A strong work ethic." "A high quality (Read: reliable, often nonunion) workforce." Now wealth is being created with a new set of business models that rely on brainpower, innovation, networks and collaboration. In this world, companies rely heavily on the region's "innovation ecosystem". One element of that system is high quality graduate and technical education. Here's an example from Dallas. Read more. posted by Ed | New venture capital in the Triad The regional economy iin the Triad of North Carolina continues to heat up. The latest sign: an established venture capital firm is opening an office in the region. Read more. The story highlights an important point. Venture capital is a lagging indicator of innovation, not a leading indicator. Venture capital flows where there is opportunity. Or, as one venture capital investor told me, "We invest in regions that produce high quality business plans." posted by Ed | Agricultural entrepreneurs in Michigan Entrepreneurs in agribusiness offer a new opportunity for many rural economies. Here's an article from Michigan that explores the potential for that state. Read more. The article refers to a recent report from Michigan State University. You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed | Locating near brainpower There's a growing recognition that global companies are locating their high value operations near reliable sources of high quality brainpower. Here's a good article on the connection between IBM and Austin. Read more. posted by Ed | Launching one of Michigan's WIRED initiatives The WIRED initiatives are continuing to roll out. Hopefully, they will provide a good stream of practical innovations that other regions can follow. Michigan received two WIRED grants. Here's some background on one. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, April 16, 2006 Here are some good articles on the economy I came across last week. The World's Most Innovative Companies Vital Signs: Will Inflation Stay Tame? Smart City 2020 Toughen Up, America! White Paper: Employee Obesity is Number One Factor in Productivity Loss Flexible companies change to stay put Lower wages or higher prices? From the produce aisle to wages, everything's global Fed officials hint rate hikes finally nearing end Taming inflation is the focus: Fed governor posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the week's articles on incentives I came across: Utah's governor wants to bring more openness to the state's use of incentives. Read more. Even so, the State Records Commission voted 5-1 against disclosure. Read more. It's an all too common story: Government provides an incentive based on some job projections. The company misses the projections. Here's a case from Michigan. It's inherent in the nature of the incentive. Tax expenditures are very difficult to track. Read more. Even so, legislation proposed in the legislature would enable all local governments in Michigan to offer tax incentives. (Currently, the authority is limited to about 100 cities for blighted areas.) Read more. At the same time, Michigan's conservative Mackinac Center continues to argue against incentives. Read more. Here's an article from Connecticut on companies failing to meet job goals. Read more. CertainTeed selected Indiana for a new manufacturing facility. Here are the incentive details. Read more. Kentucky's long-standing policy against offering incentives to retail businesses withstood a recent proposal to provide incentives to Cabela's. The proposed tax break would have allowed allowed Cabela's to recoup 25 percent of the cost to construct, equip and furnish a store about six miles from the Tennessee border. Read more. posted by Ed | Milwaukee 7 Council Milwaukee is another industrial city in the Great Lakes region that is facing employment and population loss. Civic leaders appear to understand the stakes involved. They have formed the Milwaukee 7 Regional Economic Development Council to develop collaborative investments across a seven county region. The Council is beginning to work on appropriate investment strategies. Read more. You can learn more about the Council from this web site. posted by Ed | Pennsylvania's nanotech play Pennsylvania is another state that is focusing on developing nanotechnology as a major economic driver in the future. Pennsylvania has some major advantages, since a number of large companies are involved in nanotechnology research. The Pittsburgh-based Nano Materials Commercialization Center includes US Steel Corp., PPG Industries, Alcoa, and Bayer Materials Science. Here is a review of what has been going on. Read more. posted by Ed | Putting the DC region in a global context Civic leaders in Washington, DC are surprised by a new report that shows that the region's regional product is larger than many of the world's major metropolitan regions, including London, Paris and Seoul. Long viewed as simply a political center, the Washington, DC region also has a dynamic innovation-driven economy. Read more. You can download the report from this page. posted by Ed | Flattening Appalachia The world of economic networks creates new opportunities for rural areas. Here's a good article that introduces you to the changes that are sweeping the Appalachian region of Ohio. Read more. posted by Ed | State VC initiatives Thirty-six states run venture capital funds, and here is an article that reviews some of these developments. Read more. posted by Ed | San Francisco's new strategy San Francisco is launching a new economic development strategy. The city plays a pivotal role in the Pacific Rim, the most dynamic region of the world's economy. San Francisco is a city of immigrants, and that fact largely defines the city's economic opportunities. Read more. Or, you can visit the project web site here. posted by Ed | Arkansas focuses on older workers In a smart initiative that is likely to spread to other states, Arkansas has launched a program designed to help older workers stay in the workforce. With the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, we are facing significant worker shortages. We are losing skills that are younger workers are not able to replace. Read more. Worker shortages are becoming more and more apparent. The problem is that we are training to few young people to move into postsecondary training and careers. Too many young people are dropping out of school or graduating from high school with weak skills and no career plans. As a consequence, we have too few workers with postsecondary training needed to fill our higher income jobs. You can learn more about this situation by reading the book, The 2010 Meltdown.. posted by Ed | Philadelphia's creative summit Philadelphia is another region of the country that is starting to embrace the creative industries as a new opportunity. Innovation Philadelphia will be sponsoring a global conference from June 12-14. Read more. You can learn more about the conference on its web site here. posted by Ed | Two region's and their WIRED grants The Triad region of North Carolina is focused on building a new cluster of businesses around creativity. Now, the US Department of Labor has stepped in to help implement the plan. The Triad region received one of a handful of $15 million grants issued by the Labor Department. Here is an overview of how the region will use their WIRED grant. Read more. Northeastern Pennsylvania is also one of the region selected by the Department of Labor. For one of its WIRED grants. The focus of this grant will be to create Wall Street West within the region. The strategy focuses on building backup facilities for Wall Street firms, banks and financial intermediaries. Federal disaster recovery regulations now require major financial institutions to maintain backup systems at least 125 miles outside of major cities. Read more. I have been asked to serve as the economic adviser for the WIRED grant that was awarded to Purdue University. So, I will be able to keep fairly close tabs on what the 13 regions are doing and what lessons we might be able to transfer to other regions of the country. I will keep you updated through the EDPro Weblog. posted by Ed | EDAmerica's Winter 2005 issue The Economic Development Administration publishes an solid publication that highlights some key issues in economic development. The articles are short and generally well-written. The Winter 2005 issue explored innovation and entrepreneurship. You can access the issue here. In particular, you should look at a article, "Creating Systems for Entrepreneur Support" by Erik Pages. It lays out a good framework for evaluating your network of entrepreneurial support services. Read more. posted by Ed | Recalibrating southwest Pennsylvania Pittsburgh is an older industrial city that has been to struggling to make a major economic transformation. Like the rest of the country, southwestern Pennsylvania has been losing manufacturing jobs. In addition, the loss of US Airways cut 8,000 jobs. Despite these challenges, there are promising signs of growth within universities and healthcare systems. Read more. The article mentions a site that is tracking and promoting these developments. Visit the site. posted by Ed | Teaching entrepreneurs in Indiana Universities across Indiana are expanding their courses to train entrepreneurs. Here's a good overview of what has been happening. Read more. posted by Ed | Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center Virginia Tech has become a major job generator in Southwest Virginia: 138 companies operate out of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, next to the Virginia Tech campus. In total, the businesses employ about 1800 people. The number of businesses has been growing about 10% a year for the last four years. Here is a good overview of what has been going on. Read more. Visit the web site. posted by Ed | Web Watch: New Midwest technology web site An entrepreneur in Indiana has launched the Crossroads Technology Report to provide news on technology developments in the Midwest. Read more. Visit the site. posted by Ed | A new regional development authority for Illinois? Illinois has 8 regional economic development authorities across the state. Now civic leaders in central Illinois want to create another authority to cover 11 counties. These authorities can issue bonds to provide low cost business financing. The bonds are backed by banks that issue the bonds, not the local governments involved in the authority. Read more. posted by Ed | Education collaborations in Lowell, MA Four colleges are joining the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to form EdLink, a formal partnership to collaborate in providing higher education to the region. They have launched Project Connect to explore how Massachusetts will compete with other regions in the country to meet the educational needs of business. Read more. posted by Ed | Research jobs on Florida's coast The Treasure Coast of Florida is repositioning itself as a major research-driven region. Florida's Research Coast Economic Development Coalition, a partnership among the three counties, has set a goal of creating 8,500 jobs within the next five years. The alliance is also making improvements to its web site. Read more. Visit the web site. posted by Ed | Minneapolis and St. Paul declare a truce In an important turn of events, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul say the rivalries between their two cities are over. One practical outcome: the collaboration may eliminate the opportunity for business firms to play one city off against another in the competition for relocations. Importantly, the mayors also focused on particular steps they could take to build the connections between the two cities. By establishing a shared agenda, they began immediately to translate words into action. Read more. posted by Ed | Unshackling Upstate New York Business leaders in upstate New York are making some progress in their effort to reshape state policy toward the region. The initiative, called Unshackle Upstate, focuses on decentralizing economic development funding and making reforms to health care and worker compensation. Read more. Visit the Unshackle web site. posted by Ed | Web Watch: Knowledge Network site for Buffalo's region The University at Buffalo has launched a new regional information web site, called the Regional Knowledge Network. The region includes eight counties in western New York State and the Niagara Peninsula of southern Ontario. We can expect to see more web sites that provide detailed regional information. The site is good in that it is easy to navigate. It also has a number of important features, such as the ability to download data. Read more. Visit the web site. posted by Ed | Branding St. Louis St. Louis has launched a new branding campaign. The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association will invest $2 million a year on marketing. The new slogan: "St. Louis: Perfectly Centered. Remarkably Connected." It's a very good tag line. Broad brand-building campaigns are expensive. But they can and do work to reposition a region. The key is to invest enough money so that it matters, and keep focused on the positioning for a number of years. Read more. It's also important to move as many agencies and organizations to adopt the same messaging and design. So, for example, tourism and economic development strategies need to be linked. (Pittsburgh tried this a few years ago. It didn't work out all that well, but the Pittsburgh Branding site is still very useful. Visit the site.) Getting this level of coordination is tough, though. Everyone is invested in their own logos. More serious, each organization has a budget and their own set of marketing relationships. This problem is particularly acute for state governments. The change of each administration brings in a new (usually politically connected) marketing firm to remake the state's image. I'll be curious to see how Oregon's branding strategy turns out. They seem to have done a good job is defining and executing their campaign. It will be interesting to see if it sticks past the next governor. Learn more. posted by Ed | Keeping quality places in a growing region Saturday, April 15, 2006 Regional growth requires regional responses. A week ago, Gov. Bush in Florida made this point to a Symposium on Regional Cooperation. Read more. Civic leaders from Charlotte, NC, a fast growing region, spent some time last week focusing on how to grow. What's the appropriate "pattern of growth?" Read more. The paradox is this: for regions to preserve the values that they hold important, they must move faster and innovate. Old land use solutions are too slow, and they do not protect a region from the consequences of haphazard growth. posted by Ed | Philadelphia's move into the creative economy Thursday, April 13, 2006 Europe, New Zealand and Australia have all launched major initiatives to build their creative economy. (This strategy has little really to do with Richard Florida.) See, for example, the web site of Creative London. Visit the site. Yet, U.S. EDPros have been slow to embrace this approach. We see some moves in New England, (Vermont and Providence, RI are two good examples), San Diego, and some places like Savannah have moved forward with this strategy. Some EDPros in Philadelphia are moving to position the city in the creative economy, but, reading this article, it seems that the business community still needs convincing. Read more. posted by Ed | BIO 2006 This week's BIO 2006 conference in Chicago is focusing a good deal of attention on biotech. Here are some of the articles that have appeared in the past week. Here's a good overview article. Read more. One of the more interesting developments has come with a Memorandum of Understanding between Illinois and Ontario. Read more. No state has placed bigger bets than Florida. Read more. Here's what Enterprise Florida is doing at BIO 2006. Read more. New Jersey has emerged as a leading state in biotech. Read more. Wisconsin is also making big showing. Read more. Here's a review of Indiana's efforts. Read more. Kansas is focused on making a big impression. Read more. Here's a review of what Missouri is doing. Read more. The states are not the only players at BIO 2006. New Zealand sent a delegation. Read more. posted by Ed | Austin chamber adds new initiatives The Austin Chamber of Commerce has added two new components to its organization: a technology division and an angel investor network. Read more. posted by Ed | Ohio's gamble (again) Wednesday, April 12, 2006 It's always nice when a mainstream journalist picks up on something you blog. Scott Suttell of Crain's Cleveland Business picked up the post on Ohio gambling. Read more. There's not much chance of moving the Cleveland business community away from this path. Last fall, the Greater Cleveland Partnership voted to take a lead role in bringing gambling to Ohio. Read more. Hopefully, though, other civic leaders will focus on the central issue facing the Great Lakes states: Creating a new economy based on brainpower and innovation. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home Tuesday, April 11, 2006 In a smart move, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has withdrawn his job offer to Michael Montgomery for allegedly failing to inform the mayor of a prior arrest. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, April 09, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy from last week. Solid Growth for U.S. Payrolls US On The Wrong Side Of The Technology Gap? Download a copy of the report here. The economy is a political issue again U.S. March Payrolls Rise 211,000; Unemployment Rate at 4.7% Vital Signs: Keeping Tabs on Spending Europeans fear low-wage competition will cut cherished benefits Outsourcing close to home Chinese roadmap for growth Immigration Book Excerpt: 'Lockout' posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are some of the articles on incentives I came across last week: Gresham, Oregon is trying to accommodate a new expansion of RR Donnelley, one of the world's largest commercial printers, with a new enterprise zone. Read more. Georgia is building in new incentives for video game development. Read more. Ohio and Kentucky continue to engage in mindless (although understandable) competitioon over jobs. Read more. A local government in Rhode Island has introduced a tax stablization plan as a way to help existing businesses. Read more. Wal-Mart is continuing its national expansion into struggling neighborhoods. Read more. According to the Wal-Mart spokesman, "We will be receiving local incentives in a very small number of these projects." Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina are all competing for a pharma plant. Read more. South Carolina legislators want more incentives for movie makers. Read more. Soon after announcing the Kia plan, Georgia finds out that there is trouble ahead. Read more. Mississippi's governor tells proviate developers, "Let me see the money." Read more. posted by Ed | Quotes of the week Here are some interesting quotes from last week. "We are not going to recruit ourselves to prosperity in this state." Kris Kimel, president of the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation. Read more. "Development has run totally uncoordinated through our state without infrastructure and things deteriorated because we didn't make a public infrastructure investment." Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Read more. “The WIRED program reflects Washington’s belief that the nation can best compete in the global economy by focusing assets on regions and regional competitiveness, and by thinking regionally when it comes to workforce and economic development.” Don Kirkman, President and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership. Read more. “If the people making the decisions never bothered to go to college themselves, then they probably don’t value it." State Senator Chris Steineger, a Democrat from Kansas City, reflecting on why the Kansas legislature has difficulty funding higher education. Read more. "Everybody here has the potential to change their community no matter how small or large your phone book." Julie Kitka, Alaska Federation of Natives. Read more. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home Google makes life more transparent. There are fewer places to hide. So, if you're taking a job paid for with public money, expect the newspaper reporters to turn to Google for their own background checks. Take the case of the new Director for Regional Development in Cleveland. He allegedly failed to reveal that he had once been arrested. But the local paper found out. Now, everything has hit the fan. It's a sad day for Cleveland. Slow with the truth New city official jailed in 1999 Search firm: Cabinet hire lied about interview (This fellow was apparently hoping that his past would "slide by". The better path to follow when you have bad news: Obey the Tylenol rule of crisis management. Deal candidly with bad news. Have the courage to confront the facts as you find them. Don't hide from the issue. Take responsibility. Tylenol was the first acetaminophen-based analgesic to be sold as an OTC drug. The product was promoted aggressively and had become a leader within a few years. In 1982, some Tylenol capsules showed up that were laced with Cyanide. This resulted in several deaths. However, with the company’s proactive and effective public relations program, Tylenol regained its market share within six months.) posted by Ed | More on Kalamazoo's Promise The Chicago Tribune published an article last week on Kalamazoo's Promise, a promising economic development initiative in Kalamazoo. Donors have promised to bankroll the college tuition of thousands of public high school graduates in the city. Now, as the article notes, "Out-of-state businesses are sniffing around Kalamazoo as a relocation site." Read more. posted by Ed | TVA's move to develop more businesses The Tennessee Valley Authority has created a new division to recruit companies in high-growth industries, as well as women and minority owned businesses. Read more. posted by Ed | Conferenece at NJ Institute of Technology MIT Professor Richard Lester has been leading a research team that is focusing on the role of universities in regional economic development. Last week, at the New Jersey Institute of technology, Lester and others presented findings of their research. Read more. You can listen to podcasts of the conference by going to this page. posted by Ed | Software development center for upstate NY A new research center in Binghamton, New York, promises to create new economic opportunities for the upstate region. The center will focus on building new software based on Linux and open source software applications. The initiative is being led by the Southern Tier Opportunities Coalition. Read more. Learn more about the Southern Tier Opportunities Coalition here. This coalition looks like a promising network to accelerate business development. posted by Ed | Northern Kentucky's new strategy About a week ago, Northern Kentucky civic leaders released a new strategy, called Vision 2015. Led by the president of Northern Kentucky University, the effort is designed to focus on the key transformations that are needed in the region to accelerate innovation and build more high income jobs. Read more here and here. Visit the project web site here. You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed | Building nanotechnology networks in the South The Southern Growth Policies Board has released a new report on the potential for developing nanotechnology in the 14 Southern states. The report outlines the region's strengths and weaknesses in five key areas: human capital, knowledge generation, patents, funding, and commercialization. Read more. Virginia is moving ahead with its own nanotechnology development strategy. Read more. posted by Ed | Marketing a downtown: Albion, Michigan Civic leaders in Albion, Michigan are reviewing a new report on how to develop and market their downtown. The recommendations outlined in this article are generally applicable to a wide range of communities. Read more. They provide a good checklist for economic development professionals who are interested in marketing their downtown development districts. Read more. You can download the report here. posted by Ed | New opportunities in rural areas One of the paradoxes of globalization is that our rural economies have multiple new opportunities to build wealth. The expanding role of entrepreneurship in rural economic development, combined with the emergence of smaller towns, open up new horizons for rural economies. (On the emergence of smaller towns, see Jack Schultz' book, Boom Town USA.) In addition, new biotechnologies create opportunities in agribusiness development. Here's an example, in Amarillo last week, civic leaders held a conference on BioEconomics. Read more. This approach to development has been discussed in international development circles. Read more. posted by Ed | Bartlesville's new stratetgy Angelou Economics has delivered a new strategy to Bartlesville, OK. Read more. You can also vist the project web site here. posted by Ed | The revival in Youngstown In Youngstown, the death of the steel industry devastated the local economy. Additional challenges appear on the horizon. Just last week, GM announced that it was reducing production and its nearby Lordstown assembly plant. At the same time, a new economy is emerging in the region. The Youngstown business incubator represents a dynamic new effort to build high-growth companies within the Mahoning Valley. It's a promising model for building new companies. Read more. You can visit the incubator's web site here. Last week, Jim Cossler, Chief Evangelist of the Younstown Incubator, sent around an e-mail to highlight another new development: A good blog, called I Will Shout Youngstown. posted by Ed | Update on the Bay Area economy A new report from the Bay Area Economic Forum underscores that the problems of maintaining a high growth economy. Three trends are undercutting the competitiveness of the Bay Area economy, according to the report. First, Baby Boomers are retiring. Second, workers are getting squeezed by the high cost of living and the relative lack of affordable housing. Third, skilled foreign professionals are beginning to move back home. Read more. You can download the report from this page At the same time, Stanford continues to play a vital role in building a vibrant economy for the Valley. Read more. posted by Ed | Ohio's gamble on casinos Ohio is now moving down and of promoting casinos is economic development. Read more. Casinos work as economic development strategies only in a relatively isolated cases. In particular, they are appropriate for rural regions that are within a reasonable driving distance of larger metropolitan areas. Casinos can operate as an effective way to shift income from stronger metro regions to weaker rural counties. (So, for example, the casino in Rising Sun, IN draws from metro Cincinnati.) Given the competition from Las vegas and Atlantic City, casinos generally do not work well in larger metro regions. To be an income generator, casinos must attract over 60% of their patrons from outside the region. In metro areas like Detroit, hitting this target is very difficult. An example from Louisiana illustrates the point. Casinos in Shreveport are successful as income generators. Located in the northwest corner of the state, Shreveport is able to draw patrons from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas (where gambling is outlawed.) In contrast, casinos in Baton Rouge do little to boost the regional economy. These casinos have no clear target market from which to draw patrons. Overall, the Great Lakes states are facing tough times ahead. Among these states, Ohio has been the worst performer. Staking the future on gambling will help some real estate developers, but it will not generate the innovation economy Ohio needs. posted by Ed | Saginaw looks to the arts In Saginaw, MI, an area hard-hit by the compression of the auto industry, civic leaders are turning to new approaches to build their economy. They are seeing the arts as an increasingly important driver of economic development. Read more. The same is happening in Maine, where a leadership summit last week explored possibilities of creative businesses. Read more. In the late 1990s, the UK government began to focus on creative clusters. By 2000, this approach began to take root in New England. Now, cities and regions across the country are starting to look at their arts communities in new and different ways. In the past, the arts community occupied a peripheral role in most economic involvement strategies. Economic development professionals saw the arts as part of the "quality of life". Now, however, regions are starting to see the arts community as part of a continuum of businesses that stress creativity and innovation. If you want a good book on the subject, read Charles Landry's The Creative City. posted by Ed | Higher education collaborations Here's an interesting collaboration between Ohio University and Kent State University. Using their wide networks of campuses across eastern Ohio, the two universities will collaborate to provide adult education with a maximum flexibility for students. Read more. In a similar collaboration announced last week, for colleges are joining with the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, to collaborate and provide more effective coordination of higher education resources in that region. Read more. posted by Ed | Web Watch: Measuring innovation climate within Massachusetts The in an effort to build technology investment across the state, the Massachusetts High Technology Council has released a study which evaluates the technology investment climate within the state. It's the first effort I am aware of that takes a look at innovation climate issues within a state ("innovation microclimates"?) This approach is a good way to inform local business and political leaders to the important policy issues that drive innovation investment. Read more. You can visit the site. posted by Ed | Texas manufacturers form association A group of manufacturers in Texas have launched the Texas Association of Manufacturers. For the first time in 30 years manufacturers in Texas have come together to promote their shared interests. As they point out, a manufacturing job in Texas creates some 2.5 secondary jobs. In addition, manufacturing jobs pay 22% higher than the national average. Read more. posted by Ed | Building Maine's research base Maine has been moving to increase its investment in a research infrastructure for the state. As part of this effort to they relied on some outside experts to evaluate their research strategy and recommend improvements. Read more. Last year, the Maine office of innovation recommended a five-year plan, it would double the amount of money invested in research and development. You can download the plan here. posted by Ed | Building global research partnerships The Georgia Tech Research Institute will be opening a new research enterprise in Ireland. The organization, GTRI Ireland will be the institute's first applied research facility outside the United States. Read more. The Georgia Tech initiative highlights a growing collaboration among international research centers. Here is another example. Last week, representatives from Queensland Australia, visited Washington State in an effort to build research partnerships. Read more. posted by Ed | Jacksonville's Blueprint for Prosperity The City of Jacksonville, Florida, has joined with the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce and the regional workforce board to produce a new strategy, called Blueprint for Prosperity. The focus of the effort is to improve per capita income in Duval County. Here's an overview of the effort. Read more. posted by Ed | Envision Utah Envision Utah has developed a national model for addressing regional growth issues. Here's a good overview of the organization's focus. Read more. You can also visit their web site. posted by Ed | Committing to incubators in Washington State Washington State is committed to building more small-business incubators. According to a recent presentation before a chamber of commerce, one state official estimated that every dollar of public money invested in small-business incubators generates a $30 return. Read more. posted by Ed | Worker shortages in Rhode Island The Rhode Island Economic Policy Council has released a report that concludes only 23% of ninth graders in the state and up earning a college degree within six years of graduation from high school. The basic conclusion: the education system is not producing students with enough skills to meet future workforce needs. Read more. The Rhode Island report to identifies a pattern which is prevalent in other states. We are producing far too few high school graduates with postsecondary plans. At the same time, we are producing far to many dropouts and the high school graduates with weak skills and no career plans. As the Baby Boom generation retires, this problem will become far more prevalent. If you're etched in exploring this issue in more detail, read the book The 2010 Meltdown. posted by Ed | Slower time in rebuilding Louisiana Rebuilding Louisiana will take a very long time. Here's the tragedy: The political culture of the state is working against a more rapid reconstruction. Large infusions of federal cash in the wake of hurricane has spawned a new wave of corruption. News reports are showing that federal prosecutors are conducting corruption investigations in the state. Read more. The Louisiana example underscores an important point about the relationship between corruption and economic development. In political climates in which corruption flourishes, the prospects for economic development dwindle. Louisiana does not stand alone. We see the same challenges in a number of large industrial cities in the North. posted by Ed | Personal Note Thursday, April 06, 2006 Thank you for your patience. I'm back to a more regular blogging schedule, now that other commitments have subsided a bit. As I look out over the next six to eight weeks, though, I don't see a lot of calm sailing. So, there may be some gaps in the blog from time to time. posted by Ed | |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
 |
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
