The New Economy! How to Create Regional Wealth
What is the focus of your community’s economy? The time has come to transition from a knowledge based economy to an innovation based economy. The innovation economy is based on intellectual capital and the ability to translate ideas into new technologies, products and services faster and better than the competition. Consumers are demanding that their products be innovative, creative, and personalized. As a community, long term planning must begin in order to build the infrastructure necessary to attract talent, capital, technology, and entrepreneurs.
Many say the biggest threats facing North American manufacturers are challenges from emerging economies such as China and India. However, Vancouver, B.C. based Ballard Power Systems sees a potential market. This company sells innovative technology — technology that revolves around the design, development and manufacture of zero-emission proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Fuel cell technology promises to revolutionize the automotive industry, offering tremendous potential to increase efficiency and reduce emissions for many types of vehicles. Like Ballard Power Systems, communities must refocus their efforts to become more innovative.
Innovation must be sought to survive the challenges. A community that doesn't innovate will stagnate. As the U.S. think tank, RAND Corp. says in a new study on the global technology revolution to 2020, "The global marketplace is changing and demanding, with new powers emerging and established ones continually vying for the competitive edge. To sustain current levels of prosperity and power, nations at the top of the developmental ladder must continually seek to push beyond what they already have." Communities must also “push beyond what they already have” and redirect their economic focus.
Creative industries are now the second biggest job generators in London after financial services. Professor Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Canada says the design economy has emerged as the successor to the information economy, which in turn succeeded the manufacturing and service economies.
Many community leaders have recognized that innovation is vital to their region's prosperity. As a result, innovation-driven economies are becoming the new focus for many communities. Talent, entrepreneurs, capital, and research/development are among the necessities when attracting innovation technology to a community.
• To succeed, communities must attract and retain talent.
Talented people are mobile and can live anywhere they want; jobs follow talent, not vice versa; cities must be talent attractors.
• Entrepreneurs are vital to economic growth and, consequently, to higher living standards.
According to a recent SBA study, the most entrepreneurial regions across the country had 125 percent higher employment growth, 58 percent higher wage growth and 109 percent productivity growth. Entrepreneurship is a critical driver of wealth in this country.
• Venture Capital is needed to attract entrepreneurs.
The importance of venture capital in today's innovation-based global economy is growing rapidly. A state’s rank for venture capital investment is a common measurement for entrepreneurship and innovation.
• R&D is crucial.
Research & Development plays a central role in productivity growth in the new economy. Innovation and productivity are the pre-requisites for higher wages and increased opportunity for American workers.
Is your community focused on innovation? Are talented entrepreneurs attracted to and moving into your area? Let Economic Development Marketing, an iGroups company, help redirect the focus of your community from a knowledge based economy to an innovation based economy. Put your community on the leading edge of innovation!
Donald Flor
Economic Development Marketing (EDM)
(800) 595-7052 (619) 585-7052
Great article, someone once said the only constant is change