Economic Development for the Rest of Us?

The sessions and speeches at the IEDC's Tech-Led Conference in San Jose was striking in their emphasis on not attempting to replicate an economic success story elsewhere and doing something distinctive and unique to a region. Rohit Shukla of LARTA lamented the failure of "Me-Too" Development Strategies and the rush to become the next Life Sciences Hub. Joe Cortright while he emphasized the importance of attracting the Young and the Restless (YNR) cautioned against every location, city, and region embarking on its own YNR strategy. Every region must build upon its own unique endowements rather than trying to create something that doesn't exist, he maintained. In contrast, the entire field of economic development is full of cookie-cutter strategies starting from the World Bank and IMF on the top to the leading consulting companies and one-man consulting operations. With the cookie-cutter culture so much a part and parcel of economic development landscape, it is no wonder that regions so often attempt to replicate well-established success stories. But is there really a unique economic development strategy for each one of us? One participant and commentator at a session summed up the frustration: "If Silicon Valley had gone ahead with doing what it did best rather than creating something entirely new from scratch 40 years ago, they'd still be growing oranges." This is, by far, one of the most important intellectual curiousities in regional economic development today.