Big Ideas of 2009

It’s getting to be that time of year when people start doing annual recaps; this year, folks get to have even more fun with decade recaps as well. My very favorite of these – the New York Times Magazines’ Year in Ideas issues – is going to come out soon, and I can hardly contain my glee. We here at the Prosperity Blog have also had a good year of ideas, generating all sorts of practical proposals for improving our region’s business climate and competitiveness. But, of course, we have also had lots of impractical, sky’s-the-limit ideas that we hope someone is going to take and run with and make all our dreams come true. So, for all you good-idea-awaiting folks out there, here’s a summary of some of our “Big Ideas of 2009″, presented in Top Ten format:

We Got a Bunch of Stimulus Money…So What?

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what to do with the information that we’re collecting on Recovery Act awards to industry cluster related activities. It’s certainly nice to know in general, but I’ve always said that we have to make sure that these dollars aren’t just a one-time windfall, but actually contribute to the long-term success of our regional economic development strategy. So I’ve started to think about the Recovery Act funds in three groups:

Silos: So Good For Grain, So Bad For Government

I was reading my recent issue of Governing Magazine (standard issue for all good economic policy analysts) and seeing who made the 2009 Public Officials of the Year List (it was Gregoire in 2007). This year, one of the big names was Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland and former Mayor of Baltimore…or as devotees of HBO’s The Wire know him, “Tommy Carcetti.” The biggest praise for O’Malley was his breaking down of bureaucratic silos:

Speaking of the Creative Economy…

A few weeks ago, Bill liveblogged from the second meeting of the International Regions Benchmarking Consortium that took place in Barcelona. Again, this is a group that was started two years ago by us and the TDA of Greater Seattle as a way to measure our economic performance against that of some of our peers around the world: specifically Barcelona, Stockholm, Helsinki, Munich, Dublin, Vancouver BC, Fukuoka (Japan), Daejon (S Korea), Cape Town and Glasgow.

As part of the conference – which had the theme of “Creativity and Talent in an Urban Environment” – we commissioned a report on talent attraction, the Creative Class approach being one of the most recent and highly touted. And let me just say, the report is awesome.

Remember That Whole Thing About the Creative Economy?

In the go-go days of the mid-2000’s, Richard Florida was king, and the creative economy was going to lead us to cafe-cultured prosperity. Here in the central Puget Sound, not only did we take credit for all our smart people, we actually hired Richard Florida to come and help us develop strategies to capitalize on these resources. But you don’t really hear too much about that these days. What happened to the creative economy?

Where’s the Full Frontal Assault on Economic Development Barriers?

About  a year ago, there was a lot of talk about “let’s see this recession as an opportunity!”  And, as much of a hackneyed phrase as that is, it does make some sense. When the going gets tough, the best take advantage of it to increase their market share. 

When you’re a business, that’s about using cash reserves to purchase undervalued assets.  When you’re a government, that can mean using a crisis to change policies that have long been viewed as less friendly to economic development but were always politically untouchable during better times.  Some people might say that the recent Seattle head tax repeal was just such an example. But why haven’t I heard anyone talking about taking down one of the Big Washington Economic Development Barriers?

Why Don’t We Have a Kauffman Foundation?

I was reading this article on Xconomy about their new partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, and the titular question immediately struck me: Why Don’t We Have a Kauffman Foundation?

Think about it: we are a center of innovation, but one of the most difficult places in the country to start and sustain a new business (see Indicator 13). And what do they focus on? Improving the success of entrepreneurship and commercialization!

Innovation

Wow, it must be Back to Basics Week at the ol’ Prosperity Blog. First “Regionalism,” then “Taxes” and now “Innovation.” I’m going to have to start my posts from now on with the old cheesy book report line, “Webster’s Dictionary defines innovation as…”

Here’s the thing about innovation. Innovation is like coolness. Everyone wants it, and the harder you try to get it, the more it slips through your fingers.

Celebrating Taxes and Economic Development

OK, I’m going to continue my modest proposal/rant from yesterday about getting everyone on board if we want to truly achieve our vision for a prosperous metropolitan region. I was at the Leadership Tomorrow Economy Day today, where the 80 young leaders spend a day learning about our region’s economy, and it was fascinating to listen in on the conversation.

Regionalism

I went to a really great discussion today at the University of Washington: remarks and a panel featuring Bruce Katz, the vice president and founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C.  Katz was in town to give a lecture on Tuesday night as part of the UW’s Danz Lecture Series, and he hung around Wednesday morning to do a more intimate session with a bunch of local bigwigs and leading regional thinkers (note: I am neither, but I got to go anyway).

Anyway, the discussion was really fascinating, centering on how the central Puget Sound can more successfully act as a region, and be an economic and policy leader for the country’s recovery and beyond. But, as Gene Duvernoy of the Cascade Land Conservancy – one of the panelists – pointed out, there was one big problem with the conversation.

Bring Back Griffey- and not for the reasons you think!

The brand, “Seattle” is a very strong global brand today, yet the brand, “Puget Sound” means little to anyone outside of the Vancouver to Portland corridor. When I talk to visiting delegations or travel (rarely) on business outside of the aforementioned corridor, I have to refer our region as the Metropolitan Seattle Region or risk blank stares and a constant drone of, “so, where are you from?” However, here at home I am very careful to refer to us as the Central Puget Sound Region for reasons primarily related to political correctness and job security.

It is worth remembering (and yes I’m ready for the hate mail from Everett and Redmond) that most people in the world think that Boeing and Microsoft are headquartered in Seattle.

The Sports Car of Innovation Speeds On

And the Puget Sound economy downshifts into high gear. Or something like that. I really need to learn car lingo.

Point being, I was just talking about the link between aerospace manufacturing, auto manufacturing and the knowledge economy of the region. And then Lamborghini makes a $1 million donation to support the school’s research into composite materials used to build both airplanes and high-performance cars.

Coincidence? Or the usual Prosperity Blog visionary economic policy analysis? You be the judge.

(BTW, because of the above linked article, I now come up in the top five when you google “Smartest Man Alive.” Awesome.)

What Will Alan Mulally Say at the Prosperity Partnership Luncheon?

So, like I mentioned, Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally is going to be the keynote speaker at the Prosperity Partnership Fall Luncheon on November 13 (register now before it gets sold out!). And what’s even cooler is that he doesn’t do speeches, so it’s going to be town hall format; whatever people want him to talk about, he’ll just be riffing, like a mix between Phil Donahue and Drew Carey on Who’s Line Is It Anyway (ok, maybe not exactly like that). So, given that it’s open season, what is he going to talk about?

Rain Is Great! Come Here Because of the Rain!

It must be economic development awards season. Everyone is making their lists of top places for IT, biotech, innovation, business climate, etc. And along comes the Wall Street Journal with their Next Youth-Magnet Cities list. Guess what? We’re tops! Except for one thing: rain.

Who Writes The Headlines?

Talk about your buried ledes. Last week, the Governor and her staff met with the head of Boeing Commercial Airlines to present the “business case” (the comparable data on costs, quality of life, workforce, etc.) for why it makes the most financial and business sense that the second line of the 787 should be assembled here in Washington, and ideally in Everett. To be honest, the business case is probably second in importance for Boeing – behind the relationship with the Machinists’ Union and the stability of the labor situation – but it’s a good thing to make sure that management has all the facts.

Which is why it’s really surprising to me that the headline in the Seattle Times is “Boeing won’t get new incentives to add 787 line here.” Yes, it’s true that incentives aren’t discussed in the business case, but even the article acknowledges that “Boeing has repeatedly made clear this year that a key issue in the competition is its concern about the company’s poor relationship with the Machinists union and the number of strikes in recent years…”

Here are a few reasons why the “No Incentives” headline is surprising: