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Moving manufacturing through the transition
Sunday, November 12, 2006 Here is an interesting article flagged for me by Jeff Miller and Stacy Skinner in Indiana. The transition we are facing involves businesses moving from one predominant type of business model (minimizing costs through command and control hierarchies) to another (learning through networks). Here's a good example of a manufacturing company making the transition. Read more. posted by Ed | Incentives for downtown living Saturday, November 11, 2006 Cities can help their own situation by providing incentives for downtown living. Here's how a pilot program in Rockford, IL works. Read more. posted by Ed | Health and economic growth The connection between health and economic development might seem obscure at first, but the connection is strong. Here's a report out of London on the importance of health to economic prosperity. According to the study, "A study of 10 industrialized countries also found that better health habits increased the rate of economic growth by about 30 percent." Read more. posted by Ed | Shifting public expectations in Pittsburgh Managing public expectation about economic development is both tough an important. Guiding the prevailing conversations within a region is vital to align resources across economic development organizations. Pittsburgh, one of our older industrial cities, is in the midst of a transformation. While some leading edge civic entrepreneurs see the transformation, changing public attitudes lags. t will take some time for the prevailing view to shift. Read more. posted by Ed | Microcredit's potential Microcredit is an important strategy for a significant segment of our communities: the poor and working poor. Here's a review of microcredit's potential, as seen frm Canada. Read more. posted by Ed | Web-based strategies Massachusetts has a new governor, and he may apply some interesting economic development strategies over the Internet. Here's a good article on how the Internet can streamline state government operations and improve regional collaboration. Read more. posted by Ed | Economic gardening in Iowa Tuesday, November 07, 2006 Thanks to Chris Gibbons in Littleton for this one: The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation has established a $1.35 million venture fund as part of its "economic gardening" strategy. Economic gardening is an appraoh to build entrepreneurial communities. Read more. You can learn more about economic gardening here. posted by Ed | Higher education and economic growth Last week, the Federal Reserve in Chicago conducted an important symposium, "Can Higher Education Foster Economic Growth?” You can access the presentations here. The Cleveland Fed will be conducting a follow-up session next week. You can learn more about this session here. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Here are the articles on the economy I came across last week. U..S. Economy: Productivity Stalls, Costs Increase Fed is getting squeezed by slow growth and too-high inflation Productivity growth stalls in third quarter Economy's political sway shifts Vital Signs: A Narrower Trade Gap? U.S. economy's growth rate slows A boost on jobs U.S. Economy: Growth Slows to 1.6% as Housing Slides posted by Ed | Incentive Watch Here are some articles on incentives I came across last week: Tax incentives designed to entice Westinghouse Incentive Inflation in New York Incentives could be big part of landing project posted by Ed | Personal reflections on the elections Monday, November 06, 2006 For a little over a year in the early 1980s, I worked as staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia chaired the committee. As the staff member in charge of tax in trade legislation, I worked to formulate party positions on legislation heading to the floor. It was an exciting time. All of these memories came back to me as I read the an article about Senator Byrd seeking re-election tomorrow. At 89, he is the longest serving senator in U.S. history. Read more. Senator Byrd's loyalty to his home state of West Virginia is legendary. Once, with the Policy staff convened in his office off the Senate floor we were trying to plot a political and legislative strategy to cap the third year of President Reagan's initial tax cut. Senator Byrd interrupted our meeting to place calls to lobby members of House in order to protect the appropriation for a bridge in West Virginia. At the same time, Senator Byrd's deep reference for the institution of the Senate strengthened my own understanding of the genius of our founding founders. It's a useful perspective as election day approaches tomorrow. posted by Ed | Delaware's new innovation initiative Delaware has a new initiative to accelerate the development of high growth companies. First State Innovation will concentrate on biotechnology, advanced materials, nanotechnology and information technology. Read more. posted by Ed | Strengthening venture finance in Florida For the past year or so, Florida has been making a major push into biotechnology. Their strategy is focused on building the research anchors necessary to sustain long-term growth. But building a cluster takes more than research. Strong company growth also requires sophisticated investors, comfortable with the complexities of the life sciences. Here's an interesting article that explores how some leaders in Florida are trying to strengthen the pool of venture investors. Read more. posted by Ed | Georgia connects to China Georgia is making a smart move by strengthening its ties to China. Read more. China's foreign currency reserves make it a good candidate for foreign direct investment into the U.S. As China builds its auto industry, it will be looking for locations for transplants. Building relationships with the Chinese will take time. The best strategy: Start early and visit often. posted by Ed | Green buildings in Pittsburgh Leaders in Pittsburgh are focusing on "green building" technologies. The Green Buildiung Alliance is launching Green Buildings Products Initiative will spur interaction among regional businesses and organizations involved in the development and manufacture of green building products. The initiative is funded with $125 million in government and foundation grants. Read more. posted by Ed | Northern Colorado's clean energy cluster Last May, civic leaders in northern Colorado announced the formation of a clean energy cluster. At that time, the head of the Northenrn Colorado Economic Development Corporation stated, “We would like Northern Colorado to become the global leader in attracting clean-energy projects, R&D (research and development) and technology.” The leaders announced that Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory would be part of the cluster. The group is making headway. Here is an update of what has been going on. Read more. You can also viwed the cluster's newly launched web site here. posted by Ed | Ethanol production in the balance Here's a good article on the different dimensions of ethanol production. Read more. posted by Ed | WIRED Watch: California This week, I'm starting in new feature, WIRED Watch. the series of posts will explore how all regions are using the new Department of Labor initiative, Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) to develop new initiatives combining workforce and economic development. You can larn more about WIRED from this fact sheet. It is the most at innovative economic development program to come out o the federal government in the past twenty years. The Department of Labor is providing unprecedented flexibility to these regions to experiment with new alignments among their education, workforce development and economic development systems. The Employment and Training Administration, which administers wired, is also providing remarkable coordination among other federal agencies with in these regions. The WIRED initiative recognizes the remarkable challenges facing our country, challenges that have been clearly outlined in a series reports on innovation and work skills. You can read summaries of the 13 regions involved with WIRED here. In California, the WIRED regions stretches to 13 counties, called the Innovation Corridor. You can learn more about what is happening in California from this article. To learn more about the competitive challenges we face, download and reviewed these reports: Rising Above the Gathering Storm Innovate America Task Force on Future of American Innovation Tapping America's Potential Are They Ready to Work? Manufacturing Skills Gap Report Manufacturing in America 2004 Reports by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills posted by Ed | Science Center in Philadelphia Saturday, November 04, 2006 The Association of University Research Parks (AURP)awarded its Outstanding Research/Science Park of the Year to University Park Science Center in Philadelphia. The significance of this announcment: Science Center moves beyond more passive forms of incubation to a more directed strategy of network formation to speed the development of high impact companies. Science Center provides what they call a "total venture ecosystem". This system is designed to form and fund early-stage life science and technology companies, accelerate their commercialization and provide the infrastructure and community they need to flourish. Read more. Visit their web site here. posted by Ed | Small Business Survival Index Thursday, November 02, 2006 The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has produced its Small Business Survival Index. You can see how your state ranks by downloading the 2006 edition here. I'm not a big fan of these indexes. They tend to tell you more about who put them together than what is in them. More important, they do not serve as a very practical guide to action. posted by Ed | Economic development and distributed power Wednesday, November 01, 2006 Here is an interesting blog post from the Northwest on the economic development potential from distributed power systems. The post explores a new report on the economic development potential from smart power infrastructures. Learn more. posted by Ed | CDCs in Albany In Albany, NY, the City is dealing with a real challenge in many older industrial cities: neighborhood Community Development Corporations (CDCs). Originally designed to help revitalize neighborhoods, CDCs can be useful allies as inner city neighborhoods try to adjust to new economic realities. At the same time, CDCs can slow down innovation. In too many circumstances, they have become "gatekeepers" for their neighborhoods. Focused on their territory, they jealously guard their turf, and, over time, become slow to change. In this situation, they become another costly part of a city's "social overhead". Here's an article on the situation in inner city Albany, NY. Read more. posted by Ed | |
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