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Category:
Published: October 2007
Michael V. Franchell explains the details of an "economic development engine" and how it can utilize local innovators to help grow our economy.
Imagine an economic development engine that harnesses existing, local innovators.
Imagine using local economic development funds to provide a nurturing growth system for emerging companies rather than the bidding wars we call economic development today.
Imagine the reemergence of well-paying manufacturing jobs in Upstate New York.
Imagine a proliferation of new companies with the need for the skills of recent college graduates, and not just those in high-tech disciplines.
Imagine a job engine which will use the wisdom and creativity of middle age and older workers while providing internships for high school students.
What you have imagined is the Community Based Business Incubator Center (CBBIC).
Here is what we must do:
Identify the community and location for the Incubator Center. Close proximity to a large college or institution is not necessary. In fact, the CBBIC concept does not require access to college laboratories, but will clearly benefit from collaboration with local colleges, universities, community colleges and high schools. As an economic development engine, the greatest benefits can be derived from location in a small city suffering from a shrinking business base, a description which fits much of Upstate New York. To house the CBBIC, local communities will be asked to identify a building, preferably off the tax rolls and in need of some renovation, and assist in the renovation of the property. With financial support from a Mother Incubator, renovations will result in space for approximately ten start-up companies and the locally-identified support they will need to grow into viable businesses.
Fill the innovation pipeline with creative people of all ages: students, inventors, business men and women. According to Promoting Innovation (On the Road to an Entrepreneurial Economy: A Research and Policy Guide) from the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation, "Innovative entrepreneurship cannot occur unless the innovation pipeline is full and incentives for commercializing innovation are in place." Unlike many existing business incubators which proscribe the industry to be supported, most often high technology, the types of services available at a CBBIC will be determined by the business innovation support needs of the local community. For communities with a strong agricultural base, the CBBIC will encourage the participation of area farmers, providing a mechanism for improving the viability of agriculture-based industry. Emphasis could be placed on new energy conservation technologies as well as expanded marketing of local products. The CBBIC pipeline will be open to anyone with an idea.
Involve the entire community in fostering and developing innovation in a transparent fashion. The first benefit of a CBBIC is the increased community interest and involvement, from local high schools that will have a medium for career exploration all the way to new and existing businesses that will have expanded markets, revitalizing the local economy. For too long, economic development has been the product of a single industry and local developers, as seen in the growth of warehouse distribution centers and in the much anticipated AMD plant. Innovation is not a hare-brained idea; every successful company started out as an idea. Xerox started in a kitchen. Why not provide an opportunity for a local entrepreneur to bring his or her idea from concept to reality, creating jobs for local residents? Why not provide an opportunity for a recent college graduate to get in on the ground floor of a new business? Why not provide a mechanism for mature workers and retirees to contribute their expertise and remain contributors to the local economy? The Mother Incubator will provide 75% of the funding, using State and private funding; local communities will be asked to contribute 25%.
Revive the local economy and create a vehicle for continued economic and educational development. The CBBIC is a true incubator. Ideas will evolve into baby businesses which will develop into viable, self sustaining companies and graduate out of the incubator, replaced by the next innovator in the pipeline. Each business will pay on a sliding fee scale, ultimately resulting in a return on investment. This return to the community can be in the form of new jobs targeted to local residents, investment options, and, of course, contributions to the business tax base. Local schools and colleges will be able to integrate formal studies with hands-on experience, thus increasing the employability of their graduates and maximizing the creative opportunities for invention and innovation. The CBBIC will put COMMUNITY first in economic development.
The Community Based Business Incubator Center model makes sense. It was first developed in 2006 and refined in preparation for my presentation at Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand's 2007 Economic Summit: Entrepreneurship and Growth in Upstate New York, on August 14, 2007. As word of the CBBIC concept has spread, I have been contacted by numerous economic development professionals and college administrators, who have offered their ideas and suggested future contributions and collaborations. True to the model I propose, I continuously revise and improve upon the concept.
I can be reached at:
I welcome all interested inquiries.
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