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In June a dear friend, entrepreneur, mentor, and more than curious economist at the same time, Vivek Wadhwa, wrote an article at the Washington Post, "
Industry Clusters: the modern-day snake oil". A global citizen and systems thinker he pointed out some things that are well worth to have a look at. Maybe, just maybe there are underlying patterns that could be useful to kickstart economically sustainable growth in communities and business world, despite the current uproars and turmoil. Today at 21st 'Tag der Einheit' - the day when Germany officially became one country once again - the weather is sunny, all is quiet, and yet everybody can feel that we are moving in changing (fast-paced (!)) times.
Here goes my comment:
"Thanks Vivek for sparking again some deep thinking about what may go wrong in our economy and education system. The pattern you describe is pretty much observable over here in Germany, especially in the Eastern part of the country where I live permanently for the last ten years now.
However, there is hope - and it is right there in front of all eyes.
It is called arts, in this special case I mean it is the performing arts in form of ballet. Here in Dresden, the
http://semperoper.de/en is holding the
http://facebook.com/Semperoper.Ballett. Ballet as it occurred last autumn by surprise during the Open Day of the Semperoper, has its own magic of entrepreneurship. The dancers move into spaces on stage that are unknown shortly before (a clear clean stage before they enter) and while the process is ongoing and the team is collectively creating the play, the audience is shaken. Pretty much as the entrepreneur in the business world shakes up and disturbs the "normal" business folks with ideas that seem crazy.
Nevertheless, this does not really hold back the dancers who are driven by deep passion. And once one gets to know some of them, which I am lucky to do due to my emphatic reviews on their play and interaction from a non-musician point of view on
http://leanthinkers.blogspot.com (look for ballet or Semperoper), one gets surprised. Dancers are not just the "dancing machines" one would imagine, rather deep thinking and sensitive people who see the world from what could be.
In this sense, I am glad to have chatted for various hours with Cas Rose,
http://twitter.com/casrose10, also on the value of ballet in an innovation hot spot like Silicon Valley. The San Francisco Ballet with roughly 90.000 fans on Facebook is certainly one of the key drivers of innovation in the area - probably greatly underrated to what it really brings to the innovation to get going and growing out of the Valley.
Similar, rather at a bit smaller scale, the Semperoper Ballett is -in my view- the ultimate driving force for the innovations to become visible and evolve here in "
Silicon Saxony" around Dresden where business centers and startup
incubators have been set up by state money, only not to foster overall sustainable economic development.
What has been missing in the equation by now is the active integration and dialogue moving in and out from the innovation into the Semperoper and the various other places where performing artists are making us aware of what the world of tomorrow can and should be (even though the plays stem from an older time - yet they are often timeless, when you let go your assumptions and let you flow within the course of action with a little glimpse out of the corner of the eye to what your business is currently doing.
Looking forward to discussing this matter and other relevant ideas on how to spur innovation, entrepreneurship, and open-minded appreciation of a future we yet don't know quite well. Daring to take the step to try new gives great pay-off!!!
7/16/2011 12:25:05 AM GMT+0200 "
