Action: "When is the last time you created or helped create a new product or service? Were you just copying a competitor, or did you actually hatch a new idea? Try again." Peter F. Drucker
The only way in which any institution can maintain continuity is by building systematic, organized innovation into its very structure (from the book).
Look at your own town/city as an institution which has huge impact upon how you and your children's children will live in the future. Has your economy become rigid, obsolete, lacking innovation? Likely this is because your innovation engine is broken. How do you know what to do?
You look at other models. You emulate the best practices of what other communities have done to get themselves out of the doldrums. Or, you look at successful, innovative communities to see what they have in common, again to learn best practice. Then you apply that knowledge to your community, to develop a vision of what your economy could look like. This is not theory, this is exactly how other communities have and are proceeding. Will yours be left behind?
As a result of some of my work in the past, we find that there are several critical components of the 'engine' that must be brought together properly to create an entrepreneurial culture (from http://www.jointventure.org/images/stories/pdf/2000internetcluster.pdf by A.T. Kearney with Joint Venture Silicon Valley) :
- Talent: Management, Science, Engineering, Marketing, Sales
- Pillar Companies: Capital, Management talent, Technical Resources, Bus. Partners
- Universities: Talent, Research, Networks
- Government: Tax, Regulations, Technology Parks, Consortia
- Support Services: Accountants, Lawyers, Associations, Incubators
- Investors: Venture and Angel funding, Networks
For other Publications on the topic see the JVSV archives: (copy and paste in browser)
http://www.jointventure.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=156:publications-archive&catid=13:silicon-valley-index&Itemid=183
You can also go to www.octaneoc.org . Which is an organization formed in approximately 2000 to fuel innovation development in Orange County. There are even books which deal with the 'science' of developing regional innovation engines such as: Institutions and Systems in the Geography of Innovation (Economics of Science, Technology and Innovation) by M.P. Feldman and Nadine Massard
I would challenge those of you who are worrying how your community is going to co-pete in the world economy to build systematic innovation structures into your regional governance. Especially now as we move through to the end of this turbulent transition to the information economy by 2030. It is time to leave the bi-partisan (polarized) politics behind and embark upon much more economically disruptive and innovative path for many U.S. Communities.
What will your children do for a living, and what will be their living standard vis-a-vis innovative Chinese and Indians? Or will they be relegated to continued real-estate selling?
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