Shanghai to Step Up Promotion

Here is what the folks in Shanghai have concluded: "Shanghai should do more to promote its image globally by providing overseas audiences with more information about its economic development and social progress." Here to read more.

Toledo Area Creates New Urban ED Organization

The organizational landscape in the Toledo-NW Ohio region is changing. A new organization, focused on the redevelopment needs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo, will be formed. While a final decision about the organizational structure has not been made, it is possible the new organization would be created within the existing Regional Growth Partnership (RGP). Here to read more.

(As a note, I proposed this exact idea to the RGP almost a year ago, and I did not charge the Port Authority, Toledo and Lucas Couhty $132,000 to provide that answer.)

Kentucky Changes Enterprise Zones

Kentucky thinks it needs to refine its enterprise zone program to keep up with the "Joneses." The earlier program had some problems, as do comparable programs in other states. Here for more.

Manufacturing Innovation: New Report

Deloitte & Touche will release the most recent installment of its Global Manufacturing Supply Chain Benchmarking Series research, "Mastering the Innovation Paradox," at National Manufacturing Week (NMW) 2004. The latest findings, based on research gathered from nearly 650 leading manufacturers worldwide, reveal that:

- Manufacturers cite launching new products and services as the No. 1 driver of revenue growth, yet also view supporting product innovation as one of the least important priorities.

- 50 to 70 percent of all new product introductions fail.

- New product revenue will jump to 35 percent in 2006, up from just 21 percent in 1998.

- By 2010, products representing more than 70 percent of today’s sales will be obsolete due to changing customer demands and competitive offerings.

"Our research clearly shows that a significant profit barrier exists in the manufacturing industry and this barrier is directly related to the failure of most new products and services, as well as the lack of priority placed on successful innovation practices," says Doug Engel, director of Deloitte's U.S. Manufacturing Industry practice.

The findings conclude that many manufacturers are unable to profitably bring new products and services to market. This paradox is the result of several key reasons, including:

Insufficient information on customer needs;
Supplier capabilities;
A reluctance to allocate additional spending on R&D;
A disjointed approach to innovation across product, customer and supply chain operations.

Deloitte’s new report, Mastering the Innovation Paradox, reveals best practices for driving profitable growth through effective new product lifecycle management. The small percentage of manufacturers that have achieved success excel in three areas:

- Managing Innovation: The ability to identify both "sustaining" and "disruptive" innovations, the latter of which are often ignored by companies trying to protect their current products; superior generation of ideas from outside the organization; development of business cases upon which enlightened investment decisions can be made; an understanding of the gap between the performance of current satisfiers of customer demands and proposed new offerings; and the ability to decide upon the best organizational model for putting the innovation into action.

- Exploiting Innovation: The ability to turn ideas into growth and profit. Most companies focus only on the front end of the new product lifecycle instead of focusing on the entire lifecycle.

- Building Innovation Capabilities: In addition to managing and exploiting innovation, four key capabilities drive success and can enable manufacturers to maximize profits throughout the entire product lifecycle.

- Extensive collaboration with customers and suppliers, and development of better processes to increase flexibility and lower cost.

- Superior visibility both upstream and downstream in the value chain.

- Flexibility with product development, manufacturing and other operations.

- Use of advanced technologies for product lifecycle management (PLM), customer relationship management (CRM), and advanced planning and scheduling (APS).

You may want to make sure manufacturers in your area are aware of this study.

Differing Views on Offshoring

Click here to download the transcript of the Brookings Institute's briefing on offshoring and globalization. It was held earlier this week. Terrific insights into how various interest groups see the issues.

Presentation:

Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

Moderated by:

Ron Nessen
Journalist in Residence, Brookings

Panel:

Jared Bernstein
Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute

Lael Brainard
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Foreign Policy Studies, and the New Century Chair, Brookings

William T. Dickens
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings

E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings; Columnist, Washington Post

Harris Miller
President, Information Technology Association of America

Defending American Jobs Act of 2004

More than 50 members of Congress soon will introduce a bill designed to bar U.S. companies from receiving government financial aid if they don't protect local jobs to the same extent they protect jobs they provide outside the U.S.
The Defending American Jobs Act of 2004 will be introduced by Rep. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) with 50 co-sponsors from both the Republican or Democratic parties, Sanders said in a statement on his Web site.

Under the proposed legislation, companies seeking government assistance would have to disclose their local and overseas workforce levels and would be ineligible for assistance if their policies favor overseas workers at the expense of U.S. workers.

One of the organizations that will be targeted is the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which provides trade financing and other help to U.S. companies that do business abroad.

Sanders identified several IT and telecommunications companies as major benefactors of the Ex-Im Bank, including Motorola Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and IBM.

In particular, he has singled out Motorola for taking almost $500 million in direct loans and loan subsidies from the Ex-Im Bank, while reducing its U.S.-based workforce to only 56% of its total workforce.

Here for more.

Kerry Says Bermuda Culpable for US Economic Losses

The No. 1 U.S. enemy is not al Qaeda, Libya, North Korea or Cuba. It's Bermuda. At least that's what John Kerry seems to want American voters to believe. At almost every campaign stop, he attacks "Benedict Arnold corporations" that move to Bermuda. One could almost conclude that Bermuda is a predatory regime that shelters scoundrels.

Here to read more.

International Native Community Economic Development Conference Planned

Alaska Native leaders are planning an international summit this summer to exchange information about developing the economies of rural and indigenous communities.

Organizers say representatives from cities, villages and development organizations in Asia and South America are expected to participate

What works at the village level? That is what the conference sponsors want to know.

Here to read more.

Gay Marriage is an Economic Development Strategy, Says Maine Professor

By Jon Reisman
Mar 3, 2004, 09:28

As the nation has heartburn over gay marriage and constitutional amendments, I am amazed that Gov. Baldacci has not seized upon this opportunity to promote economic development.

The Baldacci economic development team has been touting the "creative" economy strategy championed by Professor Richard Florida, who has argued that communities with large number of artists, musicians and homosexuals are exactly what Maine needs to prosper in the 21st century. Any concerns about Professor Florida's geographic analysis (he classified Silicon Valley and San Francisco as one "community") or his logic (correlation and causation are not the same thing) have been dismissed or ignored.

Promoting Maine as a tolerant place to get married to whatever gender or genders you prefer is a surefire tourism winner, and if any of the same sex couples decided to stay, we'd be well on our way to turning Bangor into a Bohemian economic engine. The traditional wedding month of June is pretty slow because of the black flies, so we've got plenty of available rooms and space. Maybe the new National Park in Greenville can be the Niagara Falls for gay honeymooners. The "Kate" can ply Moosehead on honeymoon galas.

Gay marriage celebratory traditions could include such Maine delicacies as donut-free bear meat and environmentally correct aquacultured oysters. The Boy Scout troops of Maine could do community service penance by serving as ushers at gay weddings across the state.

Governor Baldacci should issue an executive order directing the state and our partners to aggressively pursue gay marriage. That strategy is perfectly consistent with the administration's stated creativity strategy. If the Governor isn't brave or smart enough to do it, what San Francisco and New Paltz, NY have shown is. it only takes a mayor.

Jon Reisman is a Maine Public Policy Institute Scholar and a faculty member at the University of Maine at Machias, which does not necessarily agree with his views.

Click here to read more.

The Arts and Economic Development

The Twin Cities rank highly in a new University of Minnesota study analyzing the economic impact of artists. The study looks at the concentration of artists in the 29 largest metro areas in the United States. Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco topped the list, while the Minneapolis-St. Paul area was ranked eighth.

Professor Ann Markusen of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs says artists are not getting enough recognition for their contribution to the economy.

"It used to be that people thought that artists were local-serving, and were supported by whoever is in the region patronizing their work -- and that's just less and less true all the time," says Markusen.

Increasingly, Markusen says, artists are selling their work outside the region. Playwrights get their money from theaters across the country, artists show at galleries in other states, and dance companies take their work on tour. As a result, the artists are drawing in money from elsewhere, and spending it locally.

Markusen says typical economic studies gauge the impact of the arts based on ticket sales, parking revenues and whether or not arts patrons went out for dinner as a part of their evening. Instead, Markusen's study looks at the number of artists employed in a community.

Markusen says she is troubled by one thing in her report. The top three arts cities -- Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco -- are surging ahead of the rest of the country. She says these high profile hubs of the media industry are drawing younger artists away from smaller communities.

Here to read more.

More Is Different: Complexity Theory in Business and Economic Development

Get out of the box!

In an intricately networked world, the study of “nonequilibrium” systems is teaching companies how to overcome risk.

In 1972, the (future) Nobel Prize–winning physicist Philip Anderson published an article in the journal Science titled “More Is Different.” Dr. Anderson was exploring what happens when a number of elements — atoms or molecules, but perhaps ants or even people — interact with one another. Interactions lead to messy interdependence; for observers, they ratchet up the difficulty of understanding what goes on and why. But Dr. Anderson’s point was that interactions also lead to “emergence” — to the spontaneous appearance of features that cannot be traced to the character of the individual parts.

Today, science is increasingly concerned with understanding not only how more is different, but how “more” becomes “different” — how thousands of genes and proteins interact to create the human organism, or how an ant colony organizes its members into an intelligent community. This research, broadly associated with the term complexity science, is gathering attention in the business world as well, as executives and scholars recognize that conventional theories of management, forged in the era of industrialization, vertically integrated companies, and relatively impermeable institutional borders, can no longer cope with the immensely complex organizations that have emerged during two decades of rising globalization and decentralization. With the global economy now far more integrated than it has ever been, chains of economic cause and effect reach across the world with disconcerting speed, exposing individuals, firms, and governments to a new kind of “interdependence risk” — to the possibility that events quite far away can undermine the activities on which their security and prosperity depend.

Here to read more. (Free registration is required.)

How can we apply this same thinking to advance economic development? If businesss are using this thinking, then we had better get with the program. Maybe the subject is worthy of a national or international summit on the role of complexity theory in economic development.

Is Japan Out of the Economic Game? Some Say Far From It

The entire world watched as the Japanese economy tumbled during the 1990s. Its competitors cheered. What does Japan's economic future look like? You may find this article of interest--especially those of you who share my interest in the role of culture in shaping business.

Guided by the ancient philosophy of bushido (not Bush-ido!), a new generation of Japanese companies is set to emerge on the global scene. In Miyamoto Musashi’s classic handbook for Japanese strategists, The Book of Five Rings, the samurai’s way to survival is highly dependent on bushido — a philosophy that teaches patience, frugality, and constant self-improvement. In single combat, the samurai swordsmen stand face-to-face within striking distance of each other, each waiting for his opponent to make the first move. The weaker man, no longer able to bear the strain of waiting, will eventually strike the first blow. But the instant he makes his move, his opponent will also move, not to defend but to attack.

Following this philosophy, Japanese business strategists believe that patience and concentration constitute the highest form of strategy, a kind of discipline that can be acquired only after years of training. Musashi also emphasizes the need for superior intelligence in building strategy, which can be achieved through “knowing whether or not the spirits of the opponents are high or are waning, knowing the psychology of the opponent’s troops, having a grasp of the prevailing conditions of the site of conflict, and observing the conditions of the opponents.”

Here to read more. (Free registration is required.)

This raises an important question in my mind. What philosophical principles will underlie America's future economic development, especially as we look at the hollowing out of our economy that is taking place right now ala offshoring, mergers and acquisitions, and other powerful business strategies? This is one all of us in the economic development need to think about.

Understanding the Emerging Market Consumer

With more jobs and income headed their way, developing countries are becoming larger markets for a wide array of consumer products and services. Click here to read an excellent discussing the behavior of emerging market consumers. This is some very good research. Any company hoping to sell in these markets should read this one. Note: The article gives special attention to Latin America. (Free registration with the journal is required.)

Good Review of Bio Industry

This recent speech by Richard Pops at the BIO 2004 CEO & Investors Conference last week provides some interesting and useful insights into the state of the biotech industry. Here to read it.

Industrial Biotech Conference

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), American Chemical Society (ACS) and the National Agriculture Biotechnology Council (NABC) plan to hold the first-ever World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Orlando on April 21-23, 2004. May be one to look into for leads.

Topics include:

- Connecting Business, Academia and Government
- Advances in Industrial Enzyme Discovery
- Agriculture Feedstocks for Bioproduction
- Biotech for Chemical Synthesis
- Fostering Industrial Sustainability
- Bio-Energy Production

Here for more information.

Science Education Reform in Georgia

Here is an interesting one. Georgia officials are working together to advance science education at the elemenatry education level. Great move! Here to read more.

UK Launches New Science Strategy

You might find this article about the UK's new science strategy to be of interest. My question is "how can US state and regional technology centers and initiatives link to this new strategy. Are there opportunities for international collaboration, bringing UK and US regional science centers together? Go here for more.

A Silicon Valley Comeback?

A string of Silicon Valley technology companies recently reported better than expected fourth-quarter earnings. Many tech shares are trading at 52-week highs. Venture capitalists are reading business plans. And the highly anticipated initial public offering of search-engine Google is raising hopes that riches will once more rush into Northern California .

In short, Silicon Valley is percolating once again. While some caution that it’s too soon to know if the resurgence has staying power, others are more optimistic. Here to read more. (Free registration is required.)

The Strategy Canvas for ED

Here is another idea from business strategy that makes sense in ED strategy.

Unfocused corporate vision stems from the strategic-planning process itself, which usually involves preparing a large document, culled from a mishmash of data provided by people with conflicting agendas. That kind of process almost guarantees an unfocused strategy. Instead, companies should design the strategic-planning process by drawing a picture: a strategy canvas.

A strategy canvas shows the strategic profile of your industry by depicting the various factors that affect competition. And it shows the strategic profiles of your current and potential competitors as well as your own company’s strategic profile—how it invests in the factors of competition and how it might in the future. The basic component of a strategy canvas—the value curve—is a tool the authors created in their consulting work and have written about in previous HBR articles. This article introduces a four-step process for actually drawing and discussing a strategy canvas. Readers will learn how one European financial services company used this process to create a distinct and easily communicable strategy.

Could this idea be applied to EDO's? Yes, I believe it can. Go here to read more. (Free registration required.)

Changing Minds

Click here to read an interesting article about how to influence others' thinking--an important issue for economic development, especially in getting business executives to think differently about the image, brand, and desirability of places as business locations.

According to Howard Gardner, a famous Harvard psychologist, there are seven "levers" for changing minds, but deciding which lever to emphasize depends on the context. When it's just two people, for example, resonance [appealing to intuitive sense] is very important. Redescriptions [presenting the same idea in different ways] are the most underappreciated. It's not enough to repeat something a million times; you've got to say it several different ways.

Business 2.0 Ranking of Top 20 US Boom Towns

Metro Areas Ranked by Percent Job Growth to 2008

1 West Palm Beach, FL
2 Phoenix, AZ
3 Raleigh-Durham, NC
4 Sacramento, CA
5 Atlanta, GA
6 Charlotte, NC
7 Austin, TX
8 San Diego, CA
9 San Jose, CA
10 Washington, DC
11 Middlesex-Somerset, NJ
12 San Francisco-Oakland, CA
13 Seattle, WA
14 Minneapolis, MN
15 Denver, CO
16 Dallas, TX
17 Baltimore, MD
18 Philadelphia, PA
19 Boston, MA
20 New Haven-Stamford, CT

Go here to read more. (Subscription required)