Looking in the rear mirror to see reality

Copyright: hagure-metaru.net

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 "

Lightspeed thoughts on entrepreurship

Picture: Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau

Vivek Wadhwa at Stanford (120 min (!)) - video
Who is the first politician to comment?
Wer ist der erste sächsische Politiker, der kommentiert?

Time for a shift in the world and SAXONY, as well.

Picture on left is the Silicon Valley of its day on the outskirts of Dresden:

DRESDEN-Hellerau

From Entrepreneurial Ego-Systems to Eco-Systems

VivekWadhwa, a tech-entrepreneur, academic, researcher, and writer, on why and how the economy can be re-boosted (not just in the US (!)) through accelerating the startup process. Like in any eco-system the entrepreneurial eco-system needs certain ingredients, without which fresh startups (either in the tech, computer science, design, production, and service field) can't really emerge.

It needs some kind of constraint to build up the ability to grow steadily (and not dying in the first down turn of the economy). Especially where subsidies are paid out the constraints are hidden by this money, only leading to future difficulties when the subsidies are not any longer in practice. In about two years time the subsidies in area of the former GDR will run out (the track will move further East to the new economies, where subsidies are paid for development).

Then the same will happen as was seen in Finland in the beginning of the 90s, where in the area of Jyväskylä, a new form of entrepreneur education popped up in form of TeamAcademy. Combining this model with other initiatives such as High Tech U (HTU) and the library and institution of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden could also a very special blend of eco-system.

What new models for generating economic growth with what is at hand already?