In a Plain Dealer editorial headlined “Wise Choices in 2010 Will Prime NE Ohio for Progress,” the question was asked: How do we position ourselves to be more competitive, not with people in the next town or the next county, but with people across the country and around the world?
It is an important question, and I couldn’t wait to read the answer. Unfortunately, in what was otherwise a thought-provoking article about a number of things that can be done to revitalize Cleveland, the writer forgot about competitiveness and forgot about Northeast Ohio.
However, that doesn’t change the fact the PD is raising the most important question facing this region. For anyone who lives and works here, the question of where we are going is more than a philosophical one: It is our future. We are either going to grow and prosper or whither and die. And at the moment, my guess is the odds are even.
This is the perfect time — with Cuyahoga County forming a new government and organizations such as the Fund For Our Economic Future weaving together the region for greater efficiency and success — to develop a vision of a future that will give us hope for growth and prosperity.
In the spirit of a helpful citizen trying to move his community forward, I would like to propose a future that satisfies the need to be competitive but goes beyond anything we could have dreamed several years ago. At the risk of sounding Pollyannaish, it would be a game changer.
As you may recall, John Austin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, came to town in 2008 to be the keynote speaker at the Commercial Real Estate Deal Maker Forum.
He presented just-completed research that shows the Great Lakes region (the 12 states and two Canadian provinces surrounding the Great Lakes) is the second-largest economy in the world — larger than the economies of Japan, India or China.
At the time, I thought the findings would prompt an explosion of creative thinking about how we could raise awareness of the Great Lakes’ assets in business, education, medicine and research and thereby increase the business we do in the world. Instead, there was nothing but silence.
Nevertheless, the Brookings research offers the opportunity to shape a vision of our place in a global economy beyond anything we could have imagined. Although economists usually don’t agree on much, they do agree on one thing: We live in a global economy, and the businesses that provide a product or service better than anyone else will be competitive.
What a wonderful opportunity for Northeast Ohio to take the lead in building the Great Lakes into a mega-region of world-class products and services and sell them to the world.
What makes this vision all the more powerful is the opportunity to connect Northeast Ohio’s world-class assets with those of other Great Lakes businesses and institutions and combine financial resources to maximize success. The possibilities for collaboration in research, technology, health care, education, manufacturing and trade are limitless.
The power of collaboration was brought to my attention recently at the conclusion of the Winter Olympics.
During an interview, the chairman of the Canadian Olympic Committee was asked how the Canadians had achieved such outstanding results — winning far more medals than ever before. He explained that the only change was to bring together the more than 100 organizations involved in the various events so they might allocate their resources to the events they thought they had the best chance of winning. You could tell the chairman was in disbelief as he said: “All we did differently was cooperate.”
Certainly, there are signs that Northeast Ohio has begun its journey to world-class. Individual companies, universities and medical centers are on the road to great success globally.
What we haven’t begun is the collaborative journey to connect like-minded organizations throughout the Great Lakes, an effort that would give us the financial clout to take our message to the world and be recognized for what we do better than anyone else.
So what are the benefits of this vision for Northeast Ohio? There can be just one measure: more business.
If we accept the goal of becoming a highly competitive region in a highly competitive mega-region, then the result will be more business, more jobs, more people and more money. Obviously, much-desired commodities.
One of the milestones in Cleveland’s history is becoming a Harvard case study on our turnaround. The comeback city made it to Harvard Yard because of our success in creating a public-private partnership between then-mayor George Voinovich, the city and the business community.
The collaboration initiated a period of growth and expansion that became a model for other cities.
It is time to take that show on the road. Let’s demonstrate what we can do for the Great Lakes by making reality out of what is already fact: This is the home of the second-largest group of bright and talented people in the world.
Hey, don’t take my word for it. Check with Brookings.