John Eger on Creative Economy
America in the Creative and Innovative Economy - Government Technology
Excerpts and Highlights:
Most economists now seem to agree that the emerging so-called "creative and innovative" economy represents America's salvation. Given that "the world is flat" -- as author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has pointed out in a book by the same name -- this new thinking encourages America once again to do things it does best: "create and innovate."
"The game is changing, Business Week magazine recently argued, "It isn't just about math and science anymore (Although those are surely important disciplines) It's about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation."
Similarly, Business Week points out it wasn't Edison's development of the light bulb that marked his genius and ensured his place in history, but his design of an entire system to produce and distribute electricity.
For example, Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, first published in 1990, pointed out the importance of "economic clusters" -- "Geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers and associated institutions in a particular field that are present in a nation or region." Such clusters, he said, are central to survival in the wake of an uncertain global economy.
The IIT Institute of Design in Chicago, for example, reportedly has found a way to "bridge the chasm between business and design." It defines design as "a core methodology of innovation" and as such, it argues, represents the key to new inventions and innovation itself. Business schools across America are rethinking their curricula, too, as the Master of Fine Arts is as valued to business as the revered MBA.
Sadly, if America does capture the high ground in this latest effort to lead the world economy by being first in the demand for creativity and innovation, it will do so because the hearse is now at the back door of our current economic situation. We continue to lose the high paying jobs to outsourcing and off shoring which living in a "flat world" has fostered.
John M. Eger is the Van Deerlin Chair in Communications and Public Policy at San Diego State University, and president of The World Foundation for Smart Communities.
