MAPPING THE MIDWEST'S FUTURE
September 29-30, 2014
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

On behalf of the conference organizers, University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competiveness, we want to thank you all for attending the Official Launch of the new U.S. Cluster Mapping website at Mapping the Midwest's Future: Regional Innovation Clusters and Competitiveness.

To recap, Day 1 focused primarily on the launch of the U.S. Cluster Mapping website. Michael Porter discussed how it can be used to map industry clusters and enhance regional competitiveness. Day 1 also focused on the transportation and logistics cluster in the Midwest and the role of public/private partnerships in knowledge creation and education. On Day 2, the emphasis was on the food-water-energy nexus as well as clusters and international trade. Day 2 ended with a next steps discussion about plans moving forward for the Midwest region. Other featured speakers included Matt Rose, executive chairman of BNSF Railway, and Doug Baker, chairman and CEO of Ecolab, Inc., as well as business, policy, and academic leaders.

This memo captures observations from these sessions, and points toward potential areas for follow-up action. It is a subjective view on some of the key insights and action priorities that emerged from the discussions with cluster development practitioners and policy makers. It does not intend to provide a comprehensive summary of the discussion or the broader literature, and should not be seen as reflecting the positions of the participants or the organizations they represent.

We hope this is a helpful recap and if you have any follow-up comments or questions please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] or submit a feedback form.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lee Munnich, University of Minnesota, Humphrey School

Burke Murphy, University of Minnesota, Humphrey School

Christian Ketels, Harvard Business School, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness

Sarah Jane Maxted, Harvard Business School, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness

 

  • Today, far too often important economic development decisions are being made with a lack of transparent, comparable data and analysis.
  • Economic development decisions are made in a variety of ways including the method of "build it and they will come" or "big-game hunting" with financial incentives to attract companies to a region.
  • While these models have had some success, there is a need to adopt a different model for regional economic development that starts with open, transparent data and analysis. This will allow for better understanding of the relatedness of industries (clusters) and the general business environment that impacts their respective growth and strength.
  • What the Midwest Conference highlighted was that the conversation has now successfully move beyond whether cluster-based approaches are the right tool for economic development, and is now, how to do it effectively.
  • The U.S. Cluster Mapping website takes one key step in the direction of bringing together state of the art research in clusters combined with 52+ economic indicators into an online open-data, open-source platform that allows practitioners to make more informed decisions about economic development, both in the U.S. and abroad.
  • While there is still a need to refine and enhance our economic development models and approaches, this website will allow practitioners to more sensibly take that step.
  • The future of the U.S. Cluster Mapping website is limited only by creativity and commitment to move this agenda forward together.
  • There is clearly a strong need to develop metrics of success, lessons learned from old models as well as drive and incentivize partnership across the cluster landscape. As part of this, there is a need to better organize and connect the community of practice engaged in cluster-based efforts.
  • The U.S. Cluster Mapping website is evolving to serve as the national portal to track cluster-led economic development efforts, identify best practice, and diffuse new data and insights.
     
 
  • Minnesota has a big medical device concentration, but it also has a diverse portfolio of other clusters, including marketing, IT, financial services and insurance.
  • Minnesota ranks well in labor productivity and business creation, and really well in patent generation, but is lagging other states in exports.
  • Transportation and logistics, particularly freight rail and air transport, are critical in linking Minnesota's clusters to U.S. and global markets.
  • The key to higher-wage jobs is for regions in the U.S. to build clusters of companies that sell in the global marketplace and win there.
     
 

Full listing of videos, presentations and documentation of Mapping the Midwest's Future by University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. A summary report of the cluster mapping and transportation and logistics presentations is being prepared by the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies and will be posted on this web site when it is available.

Key Presentations:  





 

Surveys were handed out Day 1 and 2 for registered attendees. Attendees from government agencies and policy organizations were well represented among respondents, as well as university employees and region- and cluster-specific practitioners.
  • The majority of survey respondents plan to use the website's data to promote their regions, develop material for policymakers and business leaders, and to inform their organizations' planning and programs.

    • Organizing information by region, cluster, and keyword was seen as key, as was the creation of custom regions based on counties.
  • Respondents found the following to be the most valuable aspects of the website: open data, ease of use, visual design, breadth and quality of the data available, and the exportation and sharing capabilities of the tool.
  • Respondents surveyed were eager to see the following enhancements:
    • More recent and international data sources
    • Comparison dashboards for clusters and regions
    • Identification of key success metrics 
    • Stronger search capability by NAICS code
    • Predictive analytics

All respondents rated the demo of the Cluster Mapping website Good to Excellent -- and hoped to see the demo on YouTube. Please click here to see a webinar demo of the site, presented to SelectUSA on October 2, 2014!

 


 
Co-sponsored by


 
Supported by

Greater MSP, University of Minnesota Office of University Economic Development, 
Minnesota Department of Economic Development (DEED)