Articles

From Chris:

Nice story in the WSJ on Ron Kitchen’s ED project in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Read more.
 

 

From Chris Gibbons:

Some more work out of Chad Moutry’s shop in the SBA.  I had a chance to meet Zoltan Acs at the Edward Lowe Foundation several years ago (as well as Chad).  His work reaffirms what we have known in Economic Gardening for some time and that is a few companies (3%) are making a disproportionate difference in job production/wealth creation.  We have always called them gazelles but Zoltan’s term of high impact companies might be useful.  I think what this paper adds to the discussion is the age of the firms (25 years).  Also the quote:

"Nearly all job loss in the economy in each of the three time periods analyzed is attributable to low impact firms with more than 500 employees."

One of the things that I think makes Economic Gardening different from standard business assistance programs is our constant monitoring of the universities and research people for the best of ideas….and then taking those ideas out to the business/economic development world for practical implementation.  That constant running back and forth between the people who are thinking in depth and the people who are doing is what makes this job interesting.

A note from Chris:

Eurobodalla Shire, Australia… (say that three times fast)
 
 http://moruya.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/leading-us-down-the-economic-garden-path/1002882.aspx
 

Note: You can cut down on the long URLs by using a service like SnipURL or TinyURL . So that big URL above becomes: http://snurl.com/31a9t

This is especially helpful if you are sending a URL through Twitter.

A note from Chris:

Things keep tinking along at the grassroots level in the Iowa Great Lakes region…..
 

From Chris:

One of the interesting little operations in Littleton is the Milestones Project.  Richard and Michele Steckel have traveled all over the world photographing children at their common milestones:  first steps, first tooth, first tooth lost, first birthday, first haircut, etc.  Their objective has been to show our commonality as humans, not our differences.

Richard and Michele recently received a national award from the NEA for their work.  You might be interested in the YouTube video entitled "Author llustrator....."

Richard and Michele live across the street from Littleton city hall. 

Story, via Chris from East Arkansas:

Source: Times Herald

Grant funds to boost services provided by EAEC’s Business Development Center

Published: June 24, 2008

Kendall Owens, T-H Staff Writer

The Business Development Center at the East Arkansas Enterprise Community will benefit from funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program after a recent grant announcement.

According to a press release from the Arkansas congressional delegation, the EAEC will receive $98,800 in funding for technical assistance and training for residents of the EAEC census tract under the economic gardening program.

“It is no secret that we are always stronger and more productive when we work together. This funding will allow small businesses to collectively pool their resources and grow the economy together so all businesses can benefit,” said Congressman Marion Berry. “I applaud the East Arkansas Enterprise Community for securing this grant and launching this innovative program.”

Dr. Robert Cole, EAEC consultant, said the funding is for an on-going program which assists small businesses primarily by providing technical assistance and support.

“We’ve had this program for several years, and this funding will continue to support our efforts. What we do is try to help small businesses by providing them with technical assistance and other areas of support to help their businesses grow,” said Cole.

The Business Development Center is located in the EAEC facility at 1000 Airport Road in Forrest City, and according to Cole, has assisted 20 businesses in the EAEC Census Tract with opening through its small business loan program. The center has also assisted 70 businesses annually with more than 250 total employees.

The EAEC Census Tract includes portions of St. Francis, Cross, Lee and Monroe counties.

Note from Chris:

I had the opportunity to talk with a number of key individuals involved in the economic development activities in Flagstaff, Arizona yesterday.  (Phoenix was 110 degrees when we landed late afternoon but Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet and much more pleasant in the summer).
 
Many of us know Flagstaff as a pit stop on I-40 or as a jumping off point for a visit to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  True, tourism is still a significant part of the economy (2000 census has median HH income at $37,146) but a number of changes are brewing beneath that.  University of Northern Arizona and the city have partnerships in the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies.  GoreTex has a major presence in the community and there is a growing bio-tech effort.
 
Like a number of Colorado resort towns (e.g. Steamboat), Flagstaff has a growing second home population.   Housing prices are rising faster than median income.  As with Aspen and Vail and Steamboat, it leads to situations where the workforce has to live out of town and commute in – in the face of rising fuel prices.
 
“Every picture tells a story”….as Rod Stewart once sang.  Every community has its own combination of factors and pressures and opportunities.  It will be interesting to see how Flagstaff’s story unfolds.
 
Chris Gibbons
Littleton, Colorado
 

From Kathy Evert:

Corridor Launches Youth Entrepreneurial Class
“Be Your Own Boss” seminar with Tom Bedell as keynote
 
[Spencer, IA] – The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation has expanded its entrepreneurial course offerings to include students at area high schools. A one-day seminar called “Be Your Own Boss” will be held on April 9 at the Clay County Regional Event Center in Spencer.
 
The seminar will focus on teaching students in grades 9-12 the power of starting their own business. Tom Bedell will be the keynote speaker at the event and Diana Reed, Miss Iowa, will also speak.
 
Students will get the chance to be a part of break-out sessions with young entrepreneurs, many of whom have been involved in the Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute held by the Corridor each fall. The seminar will be held from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on April 9. Students from schools in the counties of Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet will be participating.
 
The “Be Your Own Boss” seminar is a part of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation’s larger goal to turn the Corridor into the most entrepreneurial region in the state. Other entrepreneurial endeavors by the Corridor are the Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute, a week-long event offered to college students, and the Entrepreneurship Academy, a week-long event that will be offered for the first time in August, 2008 for students in grades 7-9.
 
For more information on the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, visit www.lakescorridor.comwww.lakescorridor.com.
 
Miss Iowa Visits Spencer as an Entrepreneur
“Be Your Own Boss” seminar for high school students a success
 
[Spencer, IA] – Over 200 high school students attended the first-ever “Be Your Own Boss” seminar held at the Clay County Regional Events Center in Spencer on April 9. The all-day event showed students in Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties the possibilities of entrepreneurship as a career.
 
“You have to focus on what you do best,” said Diana Reed, Miss Iowa 2007 and founder of Diana’s Golden Twirlers, a baton twirling school in Iowa City. Reed spoke at the event about her experiences as an entrepreneur as well as the Miss Iowa Competition. She even found time to pull a few student volunteers onto the stage to demonstrate baton twirling.
 
Tom Bedell also spoke at the event, telling about his own entrepreneurial experiences, which began at the age of 16 when he founded the Bedell Guitar Company while still in High School.
 
“Your mentors are out there, go find them,” Bedell said during his keynote speech. “There is no greater compliment than for a young person to come to me and say, ‘will you help me,’ and there is no greater reward than helping them.”
 
The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation hosted the all-day event along with the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Iowa. Students had the chance to be a part of break-out sessions with young entrepreneurs, many of whom have been involved in the Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute held by the Corridor each fall. These entrepreneurs sent messages to the students such as, “Don’t be afraid to fail” and “Don’t let your age hold you back.”
 
Kathy J. Evert, CEcD
Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation
President & CEO
1900 Grand Avenue North; Suite E-12
Spencer, IA  51301
712.264.3474 or 1.800.765.1428

www.LiveWorkPlayHere.org

From the Rural Entrepreneurship News via Chris……

From National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship News:

A new Kauffman Foundation study punctures some myths about the founders of technology-based entrepreneurial companies. News reports often tell us that tech firms are founded by young hot-shots who have the energy and the stamina to survive the grueling early days of a technology start-up. But, as the new report shows, most technology firm founders are middle-aged with extensive experience in key business and technology disciplines. The study surveyed 652 US-born technology firm executives to assess their backgrounds and life experiences. The findings are instructive.

The median age at which the founders started their firm was 39. The group is highly educated. Ninety two percent hold bachelor’s degrees, while 31% hold master’s degrees, and ten percent hold a Ph.D. The founders attended a wide variety of schools, but top-level research institutions, such as Harvard, MIT, Penn State, and Stanford, were most prevalent on the list.

It matters where you go to school. Forty-five percent of surveyed entrepreneurs founded their companies in the state where they attended college. Top states for home grown firms included California, Michigan, and Texas. Meanwhile, Maryland, Indiana, and New York did a poor job of retaining these technology entrepreneurs.

Download the May 2008 Kauffman Foundation report, Education and Tech Entrepreneurship, by Vivek Wadha, Richard Freeman, and Ben Rissing.

Here's a note from Leslie Scott

We have seen in NC the emergence of public libraries -- business librarians in particular -- as key players in networks of people who help entrepreneurs, especially in at least two of our rural regions. Many startups and aspiring entrepreneurs use the library as a first point of information and it's great when the business librarian knows the other resource people in the region. 

In the Rocky Mount region east of Raleigh there is a group of public libraries across 3 counties working together through a grant-funded project called Business Information Center Outreach Services Program (BICOS) on improving their entrepreneurship-related resources.  They are subscribing to more business "intelligence" sources, and they have recently started offering on-site counseling through SCORE.  See http://www.bicos-nc.org for more info. If this all goes well we should encourage them to become an economic gardening site!

Ms. Leslie A. Scott
Director, Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship
N.C. Rural Center
4021 Carya Drive
Raleigh, NC  27610
919/250-4314
fax:  919/250-4325
www.ncruralcenter.org/entrepreneurship

Here are some weekend notes from Chris:

We’ve had some interesting trials with the “Jumpstart Team” in California and Washington.  The business issues are universal and our toolkit is practical and robust…. but it remains to be seen if we can work virtually through technology.  We are using Skype video, Yugma for PowerPoint presentations and the ever reliable Ma Bell voice conference on a black phone but it still remains clunky.  With the price of fuel making travel more expensive, I’m guessing we’ll see more people in this technology market.
 
Our first EG training session is filling up well.  It will be limited to 25 people (most of whom know each other from the Steamboat conference or this list).  There are a few spaces left but registration must be in by August 1 (Melissa@lowe.org ).  It’s becoming clear to me that we need to lay in a solid foundation of principles and tools before people “rush off to buy a database.”   The politics, financing, understanding of core business issues etc. are very critical to the success of programs.
 
One of the biggest issues is getting to the payoff quick enough.  Many programs deal with startups and local market companies.  While these businesses may be important to the political survival of an EG program, the payoff is in growth companies and exporters (out of town).  They are much harder to identify, approach and work for.
 
As a poor student of all things economic over the last 35 years, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions about the free enterprise system – neither of which fit neatly into the views of the major political parties (which is why I’ve tried to keep EG out of politics).  What our system absolutely does better than any other is create new wealth and then eventually make that wealth more efficiently as time goes on.  As Joseph Schumpeter noted so clearly, it means that we are in constant churn with new winners bubbling up and old stable companies dying off.  The terrible price for this wealth creation is that people on the bottom are caught in the grinding (witness Ohio, Michigan).
 
At one time, it was only the unskilled, blue collar workers (say textile factor workers in Georgia or the Carolinas) who had their lives thrown into turmoil.  Most of us winced but justified it by saying they really didn’t get a good education and that’s sort of what happens.  Then the meat grinder worked its way up to good paying, skilled blue collar jobs in auto factories and steel plants.  People like me looked at the news stories of devastated Flint and Youngstown and Allentown and saw the people from Michigan living in their cars on the streets of Denver (the new Okies) and thanked whatever gods we believed in that we were in Colorado and not the upper Midwest.
 
Then corporate “right sizing” cleaned out white collar mid-managers.  I remember a high level U.S. West (our phone company in the old days) manager who served on my advisory committee.  For a year and a half her job was to go around firing people in the organization.  One day she came in and said she had been laid off-- after a 25 year career in the corporation. 
 
Then China and India came on line with their engineers and software people (who used to go to our universities and fuel our technology companies)… and not even our college education/knowledge jobs were safe.  Russian code writers would work for 1/10th the salary and do ever bit as good a job.  During all of this, the top corporate officer’s equity positions increased because they cut expenses in the company by laying off people and moving work offshore.  It was the natural and logical outcome of our system (and I am a huge believer in the system).  But the line between those who benefited and those who were sacrificed moved further and further up the company until we arrived at today when many are on the sacrifice side and a few are on the benefit side.
 
Unlike the law of the sea where the captain is the last to leave the ship, under our system the pressure to reduce costs means that the crew throws the passengers overboard…. the officers then throw the crew overboard….. and finally the captain throws the officers overboard before he gets on a helicopter and flies away from the doomed ship.  Complexity science argues that it has to work that way….but our human side rails at the inequities.
 
I struggle much watching this…. trying to think through how you get the best of the system (innovation, efficiency and creation of new wealth which benefits everyone) without all the pain.  I also worry that a system that benefits 25% of the population while 75% have their lives thrown into turmoil cannot last.  It is the historic recipe for a revolution.  The political parties seem to argue simplistically on one side or the other without admitting that the pain and the benefits are intrinsically tied together—two sides of the same coin.  The person that solves this riddle will be the one who accounts for both aspects.
 
Have a good weekend, all.  This is one of the big issues in life worth working on. Thanks to all of the smart people who contribute to this list.
 
Chris Gibbons
Littleton, Colorado

Chris sends along the following scheudle for the 3 day training at the Lowe Foundation in August. Spaces are limited, so you'd better get moving if you are interested.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
IN ECONOMIC GARDENING
August 15-18, 2008
Edward Lowe Foundation 
Cassopolis, Michigan

Join us for three days of intense exposure to Economic Gardening tools, principles and practices at the pastoral 2,600 acre retreat of the Edward Lowe Foundation in southern Michigan.  This course is designed for professionals that are either starting or currently running a local economic gardening program to support entrepreneurial growth. Professionals will get the best of intellectual stimulation combined with the chance for solitude and reflection on the trails that wind through the woods and streams and rolling meadows of this beautiful location. 

This course is taught by Chris Gibbons, co-creator of the Economic Gardening (entrepreneurial) approach to economic development.  Dino Signore and other staff members of the Edward Lowe Foundation (co-sponsors of the training) will also provide interesting and supportive exercises and learning consolidation experiences using the full natural resources of the foundation property.

Economic Gardening is a twenty-year proven concept that can grow economies from the inside out.  It uses sophisticated, high end tools and cutting edge fundamental theories to make real, practical differences in growing businesses.

Evenings will be spent in conversation around a large campfire exploring the kaleidoscope of entrepreneurship topics and sharing ideas and insights. 

    Three Day Course                        $690
    Three nights lodging and  meals*                $250
        *Friday evening meal excluded
   

For more information, email Chirs Gibbons.

To register, email Melissa Phillips. 

Flights should be booked to South Bend, Indiana.

AGENDA
ECONOMIC GARDENING TRAINING

Friday, August 15th

5:00-7:00 p.m.     Arrival and check in
7:00 p.m.             Welcome – Chris Gibbons, Mark Lange
      Orientation, ground rules, introductions
7:30 p.m.            Ice breaker (unique things)
8:00 p.m.            Expectations
8:30 p.m.            Dewitt Jones Video (National Geographic photographer)
9:30 p.m.            Campfire

Saturday, August 16th

7:30 a.m.  Breakfast
8:15 a.m. Kickoff
Overview and Objectives
Exposure to ideas
Exposure to tools
Exposure to resources
Opportunities to practice

8:20 a.m.  Foundation of the Program
Economic Gardening Video 
History of Economic Gardening
Beliefs and Philosophy
Commodity Traps
Supporting Data and Studies
2005:  The Entrepreneurial Tipping Point

10:00 a.m    Break
10:15 a.m.   Tools
Core strategy
Exercise on core strategy
Group work
Discussion

12:00 p.m      Lunch
1: 15 p.m.  More Tools
Database Searching
Introduction to database searching
Which databases?
Typical uses
Market research
Competitor Intelligence
Industry Trend
Marketing Lists

GIS (data sets, examples)
Introduction to GIS
Which datasets?
Typical uses
   
Search Engine Optimization/Marketing
Introduction to SEO/SEM
Which tools?
Typical uses

3:00 p.m.  Beware of Scotomas  (blind spots)
3:30 p.m.  Cutting Edge Concepts
Temperament--basic concepts
Exercise
Temperament in business
Practice  

4:45 p.m.  Reflective Walk
6:00 p.m.  Dinner
7:00 p.m.  Pickel Barrel Golf with Disc Cards
9:30 p.m.  Campfire

Sunday, August 17th

7:00 a.m.   Sensory Hike
8:00 a.m.    Breakfast
8:30 a.m.   Overview and Review
8:40 a.m.  More Cutting Edge Concepts
Complexity/Network Theory/Systems Thinking
Exercise

10:00  Break
10:15 a.m.  Case Study One
11:00  More Cutting Edge Concepts
Innovation on a Fitness Landscape
New Economy Marketing / New Media Marketing
Rules of Thumb
Pareto charts (80/20 rule-- Pareto, Italian mathematician)
RFM
Adoption of new technology
Chasm crossing
The Gold Standard
Working on the business
Definition of a market
Data driven
Mechanical vs. Biological
Leading and trailing indicators


12:00 p.m.  Lunch
1:00 p.m.  Case Study Two
2:00 p.m.  Running an EG Program
Starting an Economic Gardening Program
Getting Things Done in the Public Arena

3:00 p.m.  Point the Finger (team project)
4:30 p.m.  Political Exercise
5:00 p.m.  Closing comments for the day
6:00 p.m.  Dinner
7:00 p.m.  The River Tweed
9:00 p.m.  Campfire

Monday August 18th


7:30 a.m.  Breakfast
8:00 a.m.  Overview of the Day / Review of Tools, Concepts
8:30 a.m.  Capstone Case Study 
10:00 a.m.  Break
10:15 a.m.  Presentations and Discussions of Capstones
12:00 p.m.  Lunch
1:00 Action Plan
2:00 p.m.  Wrap
Key Takeaways
Economic Gardening Resources
Existing EG programs
Econ-dev mail list               
Useful Web Sites for Economic Gardening       
Resource Organizations
Online databases
Supporting Studies and Data
Samples of Love Letters
Wrap up discussion  
3:00 p.m.  Conclusion