Here's a report that profiles 11 regional innovations taking place across California. According to the report, each of these case studies illustrates how "regional stewardship" can lead to new approaches to the complex challenges of building a prosperous region.
Here's the backstory of Strategic Doing, how I came to explore strategy in open, loosely connected networks. The organizers of TEDxRockford invited me to tell the story, since folks in Rockford are using this new strategy discipline to accelerate civic collaboration and the transformation of their economy.
Next week, Bob Brown at Michigan State will be leading about 30 neighborhood leaders in Strategic Doing: The Game to teach the skills of building complex collaborations quickly.
Michigan State, The University of Akron and Purdue have executed a multi-party MOU to speed the distribution of this training. We will be conducting a certification training at Purdue in April. You can learn more by contacting Peggy Hosea at Purdue: [email protected].
(Memo to future TED talkers: After the technician pulls your shirt to wire you up, make sure you tuck it back in.)
Here is the business plan for Innovate Washington, a public-private initiative, chaired by the governor. One virtue: it has a vision statement that is not too mushy. These type of documents tend to be heavy on the jargon, and this report falls victim to the fault. It's a bit too much to call this document a business plan -- with no numbers, no milestones, and no operational plans. Yet, it does set out strategic focus areas (expanding R&D, enabling company growth, and aligning policy), and that's more than most states.
The University of Michigan generated a report that distills some of the bast practices in incubation: Incubation Best Practices That Lead to Successful New Ventures.
For almost a decade, the Milken Institute has been compiling reports of the "Best Performing Cities". We can reveal some interesting patterns when we string together these reports. AMong older industrial cities, Pittsburgh seems to be a model to emulate. Some of the smaller industrial cities seem to be making a turnaround: they are moving up in the "league tables". Their relative position is improving. Among these cities: Grand Rapids, Dayton, Rockford, Youngstown.
Oklahoma City has been cited as a national model for economic transformation. Oklahoma City shows that smart strategies, consistently executed, can move a city up in relative performance.
Last week, the London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers published a report on the huge challenge posed by global food waste. The report estimates that 30-50% of all food produced on the planet is lost or wasted before it can be consumed.
The London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers has published a report on the huge challenge posed by global food waste. The report estimates that 30-50% of all food produced on the planet is lost or wasted before it can be consumed.
The Institute for a Competitive Inner City has released a new report on urban food clusters. As our regional food systems reorganize, new entrepreneurship opportunities are emerging in the urban food sector.
