Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rating Take-Aways
8
8 Importance • Rust belt towns can revive themselves by becoming “brainbelts” – hubs of innovation
and “smart manufacturing.”
9 Innovation
8 Style • Transforming a rust belt into a brainbelt requires at least one college or university.
• “Brainsharing ecosystems” produce products and technologies using robotics, 3D
printing, the Internet of Things and other advances.
Focus • These collaborative ecosystems foster the creation of “smartfactories.”
• Albany, New York, became a brainbelt for developing “chips and sensors.”
Leadership & Management
Strategy • Akron, Ohio’s history of tire manufacturing led to its success as a “new materials”
Sales & Marketing
brainbelt.
Finance • Wearable sensors and advanced medical devices developed in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Human Resources are changing life sciences such as biotechnology.
IT, Production & Logistics
• Measuring a brainbelt’s viability and productivity will require developing new metrics.
Career & Self-Development
Small Business • The United States needs a national set of “innovation guidelines.”
Economics & Politics
Industries
Global Business
Concepts & Trends
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Relevance
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What You Will Learn
In this summary, you will learn:r1) How failing rust belt towns can become revived “brainbelt” towns instead, 2) What
types of collaboration yield successful innovation and revitalization, and 3) What stakeholders should consider before
embarking on a brainsharing project.
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Recommendation
Residents can transform languishing rust belt towns into thriving hubs of innovation, according to authors Antoine
van Agtmael and Fred Bakker. They depict communities worn down by economic decline that reinvent and
revive themselves as “brainbelts.” Community leaders and those who provide adjunct services – attorneys, cultural
resources, designers, marketers and investors – will appreciate these local sagas. Inquisitive readers should flip back
to the “notes” section, where the authors include data and background materials. This insightful guide is a big hand up
for anyone who believes in the productivity of the “multidisciplinary sharing of brainpower,” including entrepreneurs,
inventors, higher education administrators, local government officials, and managers or owners of established and
start-up companies.
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Summary
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Of Rust Belts and “Brainbelts”
The town of Akron, Ohio, once the world leader in tire manufacturing, suffered as jobs
moved overseas. It became a rust belt town, one of many declining “former industrial
citadels…hit hard by offshoring.”
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“In every brainbelt
and innovation zone… To revitalize its commercial life, Akron launched a major turnaround, becoming a hub for
we caught glimpses of
the new way of making
polymers and new materials. Akron now boasts 10,000 manufacturing businesses, including
things: smart, fast, 1,000 start-ups, that employ more people than the four major tire producers did during the
cheap, customized, city’s glory days.
creative, complex,
amazing.”
getabstract Akron and other towns and regions in the United States and Europe have become “centers of
innovation and smart manufacturing" called "brainbelts.” Each one demonstrates practices
and principles other regions can adopt and tailor to their own strengths to re-emerge on
the global stage. “Brainsharing ecosystems” can revitalize stale areas and generate income,
jobs and positive attention.
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“The brainbelt Brainbelts are tightly knit ecosystems that “involve specialized technical research and high
phenomenon involved
connecting people complexity.” Each focuses on a single – or just a few – economic goals and builds a culture
in a new process of sharing. The presence of universities differentiates brainbelts from “industrial clusters.”
(brainsharing) as
well as connecting the For example, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a crucial partner in the Hudson Tech Valley
digital world of IT, data brainbelt in the Albany, New York area. Its companies focus on the semiconductor industry,
analytics and wireless
communications with using contemporary technology to gather an abundance of data and working together to
new and old ways of make the most of it.
‘making things’ to
create new technologies
and products (smart Each cohesive brainbelt has a “connector” who unites its participants. Luis Proenza, then
production).” president of the University of Akron, was the connector in Northeast Ohio. When he came
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to the university in 1999, he wrote visionary plans for economic development. He tapped
the area’s existing base of knowledge about rubber, synthetics and steel, and he united the
getabstract Medtronic, founded in 1949, eventually formed a partnership with the University of
“Unlike the low-
cost, just-in-time Minnesota (UMN). The two organizations developed various devices, such as an insulin
factories of the past pump, through the UMN’s Medical Devices Center. Their partnership anchored the
several decades, smart
manufacturing focuses incubation of similar businesses near Minneapolis, where the number of life-sciences
on customization, companies grew from 450 in 2000 to 2,500 in 2014. Former researchers at Medtronic went
localization, complexity
and quality.” on to found St. Jude (the world’s largest heart-valve company) and Cardiac Pacemakers.
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Portland, Oregon, home of the Knight Cancer Institute and research center, is a bioscience
brainbelt success. The state’s $4 billion bioscience industry employs 15,000 people, about
40% of whom work in the field of medical instruments. Charles Weissmann, the academic
and entrepreneur who founded Biogen in 1978, served as the connector who helped spawn
the Zurich, Switzerland, bioscience brainbelt. Its collaborating organizations include the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
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“Factories can be
small, clean and Brainbelt Characteristics
great places to
work for people Brainbelts evolve uniquely, with distinct participants, relationships, support and outcomes.
with creative minds, They share nine traits that help them develop and thrive:
genuine contributors
to a positive urban
environment.” 1. Brainbelts address “complex, multidisciplinary and expensive challenges” –
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Contrary to the concept that innovation comes from geeks in garages or from solitary
wunderkinds, brainbelts take on tasks that are too unwieldy for a single firm or person.
2. A connector drives the group – The connector is usually an individual, but can
be a group. A connector launches a project by infusing the brainbelt with energy,
vision, diplomacy, networking and relationship building. The connector’s working style
influences the growth of the brainbelt.
3. The “collaborative ecosystem” relies on a network of contributors – Research
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“The medical-device universities often form the core of these alliances. Other participants include established
industry would not exist and start-up businesses, governmental agencies, vocational schools, community
without the sharing of
brainpower between
colleges, and teaching hospitals or related health care groups.
top-notch universities 4. “Focus” is essential – A brainbelt usually targets a single activity or sector.
and world-renowned 5. Each participating body shares knowledge – Participants foster openness by knocking
hospitals.”
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academia or even among areas of academic focus.
6. “Physical centers” provide a central location that facilitates collaboration – Towns
often establish incubators and start-up spaces in renovated warehouses or factories.
7. A brainbelt creates “a magnet for talent” – The area pairs local business and
institutions with attractive “nonwork” resources, such as quality schools, viable housing,
and dining and entertainment offerings.
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“Utility companies 8. Brainbelts “have capital available” – Towns need money on hand for initial
will…have to re- investments in “start-ups and spin-offs…facilities and incubators.”
evaluate their missions,
structures and
9. The leaders of each center understand their area’s past economic hardships –
processes…to survive Brainbelts arise in regions that have been hit hard economically in the past. Participants
in a world in which recognize that threats may arise again and create brainbelts to foster economic stability.
their consumers are
also their business
partners.” The Resources of Your Region
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Globally, almost all countries have “a set of innovation guidelines and objectives,” designed
to support and promote innovation. Surprisingly, the US lacks such a policy. An attempt at
crafting a national innovation policy foundered, despite support from the National Science
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About the Authors
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Antoine van Agtmael, the principal founder and CEO of Emerging Markets Management, is now senior adviser at
the public policy firm Garten Rothkopf. He coined the phrase “emerging markets.” Fred Bakker recently retired
from the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, where he was deputy editor, editor in chief and CEO.