By Rob White
Yesterday, I had the distinct privilege to attend an event held by the UC Davis Center for Biophotonics Science &Technology (CBST) at Shriner’s Hospital in Sacramento. The Innovation Ecosystems Symposium included many distinguished researchers and technologist, as well as a keynote presentation by Greg Horowitt, Entrepreneur and co-author of “The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley“.
Though we can debate on what the title means and if the idea of another “Silicon Valley” is truly achievable or even the right vision for Davis, some of his more detailed points from his presentation are absolutely pertinent to the discussion of how we can improve Davis’ community dialogue.
Some of the ideas I wrote down included (and I am paraphrasing):
- Using the ecosystem metaphor, it is important to start with small positive changes that will ultimately cascade in to an evolutionary shift.
- Belief systems must be modified to create positive outcomes – People need to feel what they think.
- Systems are often Ego versus Eco – or command and control versus collaborative. People need to feel equal and important, no matter how large or small a part they play in the system. (Mr. Horowitt used the idea of a play to analogize this point… every part is equally important at the time it is being acted, and if not executed with precision, the entire performance can suffer).
- Trust is the currency of an ecosystem of people.
One point he made that struck me is that ecosystems of people need to be able to try fast, learn quick, fail small, and evolve rapidly in order to create a supportive ecosystem to entrepreneurial activity. This seems to mean that we need to give ourselves a little space to work things out together and not be afraid of small incremental failures on our way to larger success. Mr. Horowitt likened this to the fact that very few people are the ‘visionaries’ that can ‘see the future’ and that most of our world’s successes are deemed so after the fact. By example, Google was not funded in their first round of requests for capital because the venture capitalist could not understand what market Google would serve or how instrumental it would become.
You might remember that over the last weeks I have written several times about the university and the increasing efforts made by the administration, faculty, staff and students to increase entrepreneurial activity. This was again echoed today at the symposium as a primary driver for the university, especially as it relates to the ability to attract more partnerships, investment, grants and endowment gifts.
Last week I wrote about the recent research by Enrico Moretti, a professor of labor economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “The New Geography of Jobs” (Houghton Mifflin, 2012). His most recent article was published in the Wall Street Journal and entitled Where the Good Jobs Are – and Why: When a high-tech company hires one person, five other new jobs follow.
There was also a fair amount of discussion on the Vanguard about comparability of city size and scope, which are also great observations. But if you read the finer points, the article clearly states that Mr. Moretti used “data on nine million workers in 320 U.S. metropolitan areas” and that the “most important effect of high-tech companies on the local economy is outside high-tech.” This seems to indicate that the trends hold true in smaller cities like Davis and that high tech employment actually had a positive effect on sectors like eateries, professional services and retail.
It might be redundant for some, but it is probably important to take a quick stop at this point and talk about trackability of these economic factors. Though much data is collected by many different groups on transactions like sales and property taxes, credit card usage, energy consumption and rewards card shopping trends (to name a few), most of this info is completely anecdotal and aggregated is not tied to an individual. As an example, though city staff can look up what a specific sales tax might be for a quarter on a specific store, we don’t have data that tells me the single highest day of transactions. So if that store runs a sale, only the store manager really knows how they did based on their aggregated receipts from cash, debit and credit transactions for the day minus their costs. We might be able to anecdotally see that they had an uptick in a 3-month quarter and attribute that to a sale I know they had, but we can’t really see how they did at the end of the day.
Additionally, city staff only gets the total sales tax info as reported to the State on a quarterly basis about 6 to 8 months after it actually happened. So, we find out how well the Winter Holiday season was the following June or July. And only a few employees of each City have access to this data and we are forbidden by State law to share specifics with non-authorized individuals (in case you were wondering).
Back to the point about ecosystems… Whether you disagree with Mr. Moretti or Mr. Horowitt’s research, the basics of their suppositions hold some merit. If a high-paying tech job is created in Davis, it stands to reason that they will spend some of their money in Davis for groceries, gas, food and entertainment. If they also live in Davis, it is likely they will spend even more on home goods, garden supplies, etc. So they will be helping to support additional job creation for support services and retail throughout the city to some degree.
And if we have a university that is proactively creating the positive conditions for additional entrepreneurial activity, then we are likely to see continued (and possibly even significant increase in) creation of more companies like Marrone Bio Innovations and Gold Standard Diagnostics. And as these successes continue to build up the ecosystem, then vendors and supply chains begin to move in closer proximity to reduce costs of transportation and create closer linkages with their customers. We see this already happening in the research sector with seed companies moving in to Davis and surrounding areas to be in closer proximity to the university.
And as programs like CBST and the recently announced UC Davis World Food Center continue to grow and build at the university, additional researchers and their staff and graduate students will need services and support and things to do and places to eat.
As you can see, the economic resource cycle is not perfect, but it is already in motion and the university shows no signs of slowing down. So we are left with a choice in Davis.
So, let me propose that we need to frame our discussion in how we work with this change that is happening all around us due to this increased research and business activity (and primarily driven by the very entity that has given us definition for over a century). We can’t really stop it, and I am not sure why we would want to. A quick walk around downtown proves that change has happened over the past 20 years, much of it for the good. And the amenities like the improvements in Central Park can only be attributed to significant change. Even the Davis Farmer’s Market has evolved and improved.
Change can also lead to economic diversity. Several of us are working very proactively to make sure we have strong connections with the university and that we do our level best to plan accordingly for the growth in university startups and programs. This includes working diligently on joint plans for the Nishi property (south of campus), determining appropriate places for infill commercial and research lab development within the city, and identifying ways to keep companies in growing in Davis so we have the business diversity and job base that many university towns our size have enjoyed.
This in turn will help us create new city revenue and move on a positive trajectory toward municipal fiscal health. It will also assist Davis businesses in attracting new investments and cheaper financing. Investors tend to follow success and granting organizations are more likely to direct their efforts toward a healthy and vibrant community that has successfully used previously granted dollars wisely.
So let me propose this as my closing thought… how about we stop using the words economic ‘development’ and instead say ‘economic vitality’. Because if I am hearing the majority of you correctly, what we all seem to want is a positive community image that embraces a high quality of life and meets the needs of a majority of the residents. I would propose that we want a true triple bottom-line approach to change that fulfills our stated community values for the environment, the economy and sustainability. We really aren’t developing anything, but we are most certainly trying to support vitality.
If I am wrong, I welcome your corrections. But I would also challenge you to think not just of your own personal beliefs (which are important), but also of the more widely held community beliefs. Knowing that the university is on a pathway that will create significant changes to our region, how can each of us be a proactive community member that connects hearts and minds and leads to a positive outcome? We are a product of the university’s success and their continued growth means opportunity for Davis and the region. What will be our reaction to the changes around us (whether you view them as positive or negative) and how can we create a community response that leads to trust and sustained economic vitality?
I look forward to your thoughts and comments, and you can always email me at rwhite@cityofdavis.org.
[i]Systems are often Ego versus Eco – or command and control versus collaborative.[/i]
While liberals and old socialists like Jerry Brown get to command and control, you can forget real collaboration on developing a well-functioning economic ecosystem.
We are so far beyond any reasonable chance to develop trust, that is will take generations to repair.
Each level of top-down control that is thrown creates a greater ideological divide. Anger builds within those that can see the damage being wrought by those that cannot see, or do not care.
The news today that our state raised the minimum wage just ensured that even more people will be without work.
It is just another tax.
It is also the favored way to raise revenue in Davis for those that reject any reasonable growth in economic development.
The idiocy of this tendency to keep increasing tax rates on those that are the primary producers of tax revenue is astounding. But the people continuing to demand this as a perpetual solution to financial difficulty are not idiots. But because they are not, it implicates them as something much more sinister. Because they are not idiots we absolutely know that they know exactly what they are doing. And what they are doing is protecting their power to control others at the expense of those that they control. They crave the warm embrace of victim-saver codependency and have become addicted to it. They are like the alcoholic that can’t stop drinking even as his family crumbles around him. Got to keep drinking!
Collaboration? Nope. We are deep into a class, culture and social war that will become more and more acrimonious and hostile as our financial health and infrastructure continues to be destroyed by those willing to do so to satiate their own false high-moral and truly selfish ego.
We have met the enemy and it is us.
what does any of this screed have to do with rob’s piece? you turn every single discussion into a new version of your bizarre world view. you worried about a war? you’re the instigator of it.
It has everything to do with Rob’s piece. Rob is making the case for collaboration on a well-functioning economic ecosystem. But you and your ilk provide the constant impediment for it.
I am pissed off today because your governor just ensured that even more kids will be without work after having signed a bill to raise the minimum wage.
Your political class is on a tear to screw young people so you – the caring, feeling, altruistic, high-moral liberal progressive or socialist – can feel better about yourself.
Obamacare will increase healthcare cost for young people to fund the care of old people.
Brown increases the minimum wage to supplement the incomes of uneducated immigrants and our crappy-public-education-system illiterate residents – again, at the expense of young people that need a job.
Minimum wage jobs are supposed to be entry-level jobs. You want more money, learn a higher-paying skill. That is the way it is supposed to work in a robust and well-functioning economic ecosystem. It is called climbing the ladder of prosperity.
Liberals seem to think that everyone can get a college education and go work for government… a government funded exclusively by the primary source of economic activity… that liberals continue to tax and regulate to ensure there is less of it. The liberal worldview is one where you go get that impressive college degree and get a job that pays top dollar and allows you to retire at age 55 so you can then go advocate for all those less fortunate people that are STUCK in their low socioeconomic class. And more and more of them are stuck precisely because of the poor state of our crappy education system, and our crappy economic ecosystem brought to us by the very policies of liberals.
It is asinine.
Davis has serious budget problems. And your liberal progressive answer is to raise sales tax.
This “war” is caused by your inability to admit where your worldview is wrong and to accept the simple fact that the US, states, counties and cities only function will with a robust economic ecosystem. You give 100% attention to the natural world, while our economic world crumbles. And in the end the natural world will suffer too because it has been proven over and over again that poor people are the worst stewards of the natural world.
“One point he made that struck me is that ecosystems of people need to be able to try fast, learn quick, fail small, and evolve rapidly in order to create a supportive ecosystem to entrepreneurial activity.”
Not in Davis’ dna.
Rob, I feel for you. I hope you find a new gig soon and in the meantime, get a well padded helmet. That Davis brick wall seems to win, every time.
Biddlin ;>)/
“your governor”
what? you live in alabama now? you don’t think this polarity is part of the problem? and aren’t you at little bit hypocritical on the one hand relying on the governor for your sba loans to the point where you have to hide your name to post your screed, but disowning him on the other hand?
The governor has nothing to do with the SBA program. It was started by a great Republican president.
[quote]The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), created by President Herbert Hoover in 1932 to alleviate the financial crisis of the Great Depression, was SBA’s “grandparent”; The RFC was basically a federal lending program for all businesses hurt by the Depression[/quote]
The governor actually rejected my company for a state program to grow business because he didn’t like something I posted about him.
He is not my governor. He is the governor of our dysfunctional state.
Davis Progressive
[quote]where you have to hide your name to post your screed[/quote]
LOL, as you hide your name when you post your screed?
Veering off topic, folks.
Frankly
[quote]The governor actually rejected my company for a state program to grow business because he didn’t like something I posted about him.
[/quote]
Where was that post? Here?
Yup.
[i]Mr. Horowitt likened this to the fact that very few people are the ‘visionaries’ that can ‘see the future’ and that most of our world’s successes are deemed so after the fact. [/i]
Absolutely.
Ironically, in Davis, it is exactly this that is responsible for the prevention of the type of economic development that would support the creative destruction-advance process Mr. Horowitt is explaining. The inability to see the future, combined with general change aversion, lends itself to a blocking tendency.
People with high level of change and risk aversion don’t generally make good entrepreneurs. It seems that Davis has a high percentage of people having strong change and risk aversion. Davis also has a high percentage of liberals and left-of-center independents.
All of this would be acceptable if we could at least have consensus on the need for greater sales tax revenue that derives ONLY from a basis of economic activity.
But what our change-averse / risk-averse population seems to demand is that we keep increasing taxes so that they don’t have to develop any anxiety over their fears and concerns about change and risk.
That is like buying a box of Band Aids to cover the bedsores of an obese diabetic that would be permanently healed with diet and exercise.
So someone that posts here brought it to the Governor’s attention?
google
[quote]If a high-paying tech job is created in Davis, it stands to reason that they will spend some of their money in Davis for groceries, gas, food and entertainment. If they also live in Davis, it is likely they will spend even more on home goods, garden supplies, etc.[/quote]
This is true for any job. The higher-paying, the more they’ll spend, of course, but it isn’t necessary to put the ‘tech’ in front of ‘job’. All those new faculty and staff coming to UC will also generate the multiplier effect that jobs provide.
[quote]This includes working diligently on joint plans for the Nishi property (south of campus), determining appropriate places for infill commercial and research lab development within the city,[/quote]
It would be great to have reports on the progress on these efforts.
Thanks for your essays, Rob. They are always thought-provoking.
[i]So someone that posts here brought it to the Governor’s attention?[/i]
Just Google “Growth Izzue” and read what comes up.
Then assume that you posted with your real name.
Now think about yourself or a family member going through some vetting process for participation in some government-owned enterprise and being rejected because you wrote something critical of some politician having the power to accept or reject you or our family member.
In the private sector you may or may not be rejected for something posted critical of the CEO of the company depending on the value you would bring to the company.
In the public sector today, politics are always going to be more important than is making the best business decision. Although some politicians have thinker skin that others.
Two lessons from this.
1. Never post anything on the Internet using your own name unless you are willing to subject yourself, your family and your business to the wrath of politicians unhappy with your criticism.
2. Fight government taking control of private enterprise because government can oversee private enterprise, but nobody oversees government.
some politicians have [s]thinker[/s] [b]thicker[/b] skin.
accept or reject you or [s]our[/s] [b]your[/b] family member
Just fired my editor.
Thanks for the comments, Don. And you do make a good point, really any high-paying job has this impact. There was a day when manufacturing jobs were the high wages, then aero-space/defense, then… well you get the point. Right now its research, which is definitely in the Davis wheelhouse.
Biddlin – Helmet on, padded and reporting for duty. We are all in this foxhole together… I’m just hopeful that friendly fire doesn’t break out in to full on civil war. We need each other, and the diversity of views to create a ‘real’ innovation system. As it says on the Einstein quote on my office wall, “Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world”.
rob: all of this sounds good, but i’m kind of curious as to what you are doing to make it so? i’m not asking you to divulge sensitive information, but i’m curious as to your role and don’t get me wrong, i appreciate your participation here and support overall for the vanguard.
DP – that’s a great question, and probably deserves a subsequent posting. Here are some short answers for now (in no real order):
1. Increased City collaboration and networking with the UCD research community, with a goal leading to increased university-based startup activity and additional investment. That means relationship building with the colleges, faculty, institutes, grad students, alumni associations,
2. Support the entrepreneurs by connecting them with resources like facilities, programs, investments and networks.
3. Facilitate the existing Davis tech community by participation in orgs like techDAVIS, Davis Roots, HackerLab, SARTA, Innovate North State, Bay Bio, and the Bay Area Council.
4. Reconvening the Innovation Park Task Force
5. Starting a new advisory body for economic vitality (replacing BEDC), to be known as the Innovation Council. Will be an advisory group to me and city manager in the areas of innovation, tech, research and academia.
6. Continued positive brand development for Davis as a tech community, particularly through interaction with region, state, federal and international orgs and agencies.
7. Increased partnership with the County, Yolo cities and local orgs on topics such as rail relocation, new transportation tech, sustainability, and policy development.
8. Traditional economic development tasks, like city-wide business assistance, business outreach, new business attraction, business growth assistance, workforce development, and marketing of the city.
9. Coordination with other local and regional business orgs, like the Chamber, Downtown Assoc, Sac Metro Chamber and SACTO.
10. Assist other city departments on key proposals, like Nishi, Hotel/Conference Center, downtown densification, reuse of infill opportunity development sites, and development of research and commercial space.
Hope this is a helpful (though not fully comprehensive) list. Sarah Worley and I do the most we can with just the two of us, and our activity list is pretty long. But we are up for the challenge!
This came up on a prior thread: do you have a map that shows the vacant commercial parcels of land in Davis? The sites that might be suitable for commercial and retail? I can keep it as a reference and post it when we have discussions about these topics. So if one is handy, please email it to me at donshor@gmail.com, and I’ll save it.
“So someone that posts here brought it to the Governor’s attention?”
More likely someone who works for him searches for his name in articles and found a Frankly post that they didn’t like where Frankly gave away too much info about biting the hand…
Robb – Sorry for starting kicking off the comments with my heated tone.
Dang governor increasing minimum wage…
First, I want to thank you for your continued contribution to Vanguard articles. You are educating us all. You are doing great work. Please keep it up!
I was very pleased to see the term “ecosystem” applied to innovation and business. It an appropriate term in this context. In fact, it would be marvelous if those so fixated on ensuring the health of nature’s ecosystems would at least start looking at our private-public economy in a similar light.
As with most concerns about any nature ecosystem, balance is the key. The same is true with an economic ecosystem. Too much consumption and not enough production results in resource shortages that can harm the entity population. Conversely, under-utilization of resources can lead to system sub-optimization resulting from entity domination and subordination.
It is clear that Davis’s economic ecosystem is out of balance, sub-optimized and harming segments of the population.
But there is another argument seemingly lost on those in opposition of larger economic development.
The education value of a Standford degree is in large part due to the large number of corporate internships, and the existence of a large private sector business brain-trust that complements the university.
Basically the school feeds the local business sector, and the local business sector feeds the school.
It is a symbiotic relationship.
It is a similar opportunity that we Davisites deny our own world-class research university.
If we grow our private-sector ag-tech business, it will help the university raise the value of UCD education. That will be good for UCD, good for private-sector ag-tech and good for Davis.
Frankly – good point. It is a symbiotic relationship. We just need to figure out what makes balance happen on our side. One area we seem to all agree on is that we need additional dwelling units for students. Where, when and how, remain to be determined. But let’s all call that close to universal agreement progress for now.
[i]The education value of a Standford degree is in large part due to the large number of corporate internships, and the existence of a large private sector business brain-trust that complements the university.[/i]
The same is true for a Stanford degree.
[i]More likely someone who works for him searches for his name in articles and found a Frankly post that they didn’t like where Frankly gave away too much info about biting the hand..[/i]
Something like that. But then I don’t get the distinction.
Let me try to explain it to you.
Don Shor, Mark West and medwoman and I go at it like the Hatfields and McCoys. However, I would not hesitate to do business with Don for my garden landscape needs. I would not hesitate to work with Mark doing almost anything involving the wine business. And I would not hesitate to allow medwoman to work on my problem uterus if I had one.
And I am guessing if one of them needed a small business loan they would be confident coming to me for help.
This despite the fact that each of us has been significantly critical of the other from time to time.
There you have the difference.
“Dang governor increasing minimum wage… “
The nerve of those working poor demanding a share of the productivity gains that have flowed so generously to the stockholders and officers. Why at 10 dollars an hour they are going to be earning 1/1000th of what the CEO of McDonald’s gets in a year.
Frankly
[quote]it has been proven over and over again that poor people are the worst stewards of the natural world.[/quote]
I could not disagree more with you on this statement.
I grew up rural poor in Washington State.The men with whom my father hunted and fished to feed their families were excellent stewards of the natural world which we depended on for food. Likewise the small family farmers all around us. This was not true of the developers who came in and saw our town of two thousand as an excellent site for high cost luxury homes ( due to the view) and a picturesque harbor to be turned into a tourist town. There is no wild life and very few small farms remaining. There are plenty of car dependent communities,
roads, shopping areas, Targets, and the like. Stewardship of the natural world is now a moot point as there is precious little “natural world “left.
Likewise, in Arizona the bean farmers of the reservation were much more concerned with the stewardship of the natural world than were the more affluent town dwellers.
Those who live closest to the land frequently have less money, but a much keener sense of the need for ecologic preservation than their more urban and wealthier neighbors.
[quote]And if we have a university that is proactively creating the positive conditions for additional entrepreneurial activity, then we are likely to see continued (and possibly even significant increase in) creation of more companies like Marrone Bio Innovations and Gold Standard Diagnostics. And as these successes continue to build up the ecosystem, then vendors and supply chains begin to move in closer proximity to reduce costs of transportation and create closer linkages with their customers. We see this already happening in the research sector with seed companies moving in to Davis and surrounding areas to be in closer proximity to the university.
[/quote]
We are part of the regional economy and, if you like, the regional ecosystem. Davis is not an island unto itself, much as it seems at times. Innovation from Davis is a major driver of the regional economy. Many people who live here work elsewhere (including, it seems, much of the city council), and many who work here live elsewhere. Our housing situation affects nearby cities. Sales and shopping patterns are regional, not city-focused. We sell cars, and have boutique stores. Woodland has box stores and a mall. There is a symbiosis that many seem to want to ignore, but it isn’t unhealthy.
So as I’ve said before: each city locally doesn’t have to provide everything. We don’t all have to be the same. Each has unique strengths, and it’s probably less wasteful and more respectful of each city’s identity to play to our strengths, rather than to try to homogenize.