The New North Coast "Creators"

by Chris Crawford, Justice Served
www.justiceserved.com

Crawford serves as president of the Redwood Technology Consortium (www.redwoodtech.org), a professional trade organization promoting technology-based economic development on the North Coast. He is the owner of Justice Served, a court technology consulting firm based in Eureka.

**************
James Champy (author of Reengineering the Organization) and Nitin Nohira wrote a book called The Arc of Ambition in which business cycles and the careers of ambitious people are explored. Champy identifies three business types: creators, capitalizers and consolidators. Creators are the innovators who shake up conventional thinking by coming up with new inventions, concepts and designs. Capitalizers find markets for these new ideas, and consolidators take them to their corporate extreme - standardization.

Throughout time, business and industry has followed this path of invention, marketing, and standardization, only to be turned on its head by another new invention. In electronics, for instance, we have moved from telegraph to telephone, from radio to television, and from cable TV to the Internet. Champy speaks of 50-year revolutionary technology cycles in the United States beginning in the Post-Civil-War industrial and railroad buildup that stabilized growth in the continent and transformed the US into a world power. The next 50-year cycle began in the early 1900s with mass production, especially in the automobile industry. In our third cycle, technology has turned to information and knowledge supported by the Internet and computerization. We are in the middle of this technology cycle of change and must deal with a whole new business context in order to survive and thrive.

What does this mean for the North Coast and our community? First, we have a rich history of "creators" locating here to seek their fortune and create jobs. Often, they were attracted by the natural resources that provided a means of producing goods or food for market. This portion of our local economy will continue to be important for the foreseeable future, but it is not growing. In order to sustain our local economy, we will need a new breed of "creator" that is drawn to our community for its natural beauty and quality of life.

These new age pioneers are equally daring and inventive, but they do not tend to produce durable goods or food -- they are producing information, productivity, research or a vast array of software tools that are needed worldwide. Many of these technology businesses do not have transportation needs for raw materials or finished product, because they can "ship" their goods over data networks and the World Wide Web. Like any other industry, these technology enterprises spin-off economies in the service sector to support such necessities as legal, accounting, printing, health, supplies and countless other services.

We shouldn't wait until everyone is able to program computers before we begin to put the necessary steps in place to prepare for the new economic shifts that will inevitably affect our lives here. There are a few basic needs that will set the stage for positive technology economic growth here on the North Coast:

1) Improve our local telecommunications to increase our capacity to move data, voice and video on the Information Superhighway. Ideally, we should have fiber optic connections, digital wireless connections and enough capacity to serve a growing technology industry.

2) Produce a qualified workforce by working with our local university, community college and public schools. In some respects, this is similar to vocational education, except that programming may be taught instead of industrial arts.

3) Promote land development to create technology "campuses" capable of growing small start-up companies that will expand when their markets do. This means smart-wiring, business support services and quality of life services such as gymnasium, day care and strong coffee.

With a little advance planning and the right attitude, the North Coast can join the burgeoning information economy and run with the big dogs. The creators, capitalizers and consolidators of tomorrow are likely shopping next to you at the local grocery store right now.