Business Facilities - February 2008 - (Page 10)

COVER STORY By Brian Donahue American cities are in the midst of a battle for today’s best and brightest workforce. M emphis, TN had a new kind of blues. Despite its rich history and amenities, and strong economic engines such as the FedEx headquarters, the city was losing annual job earnings, mainly because it could not hold on to young, bright talent. The 2000 census showed that Memphis’ population grew by 6,000 since 1995, but its net income had dropped by $90 million. City and business leaders knew a change was needed if they were to keep more young professionals in town. “Memphis was kind of an old network town, where if you were not in the right circle, or if you didn’t have the right last name, you didn’t have access to anything here,” says Christopher M. Allen, executive director of Mpact Memphis, a nonprofit formed in 2001 with the goal of recruiting and retaining young, creative workers. In Memphis, and in cities across the United States, leaders were realizing that their cities’ economic futures FEBRUARY 2008 hinged not so much on luring new companies to town or on economic development strategies of the past, but on their ability to engage the next generation of professionals. Any city that wants to improve its economy and compete in the Creative Age should look at how it stands with the three T’s of economic development—technology, talent, and tolerance. Author, professor, and consultant Richard Florida has given this new generation a name—the creative class. This includes “creative professionals” who work in healthcare, business, and finance, for example, and the “super-creative core,” which includes scientists, engineers, and innovators, as well as artists, designers, writers, and musicians. This class, Florida says, is the core force of growth in our future economy, and will add more than 10 million jobs in the next decade. Though the creative class represents only a third of the workforce, alongside the manufacturing and service classes, it earns $2.1 trillion, or 50% of all wages and salaries in the U.S., according to Florida. Indeed, today’s economy is powered more and more by human creativity on the part of those who work in industries from automotive to fashion, and from food products to information technology. “In today’s economy, creativity is pervasive and ongoing,” Florida writes in his book, “The Rise of the Creative Class.” “We constantly revise and enhance every product, process, and activity imaginable, and fit them together in new ways. Moreover, technological and economic 10

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Business Facilites - February 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Texas Capturing the Creative Class Green with Energy Automotive Opportunities in a Green Economy Corporate Moves: Wyoming Metro Spotlight: Overland Park, KS Metro Spotlight: Long Island, NY Get Ahead in Alabama Indiana: Sending Tech Messages How to Successfully Negotiate a Lease in Today's Real Estate Environment Legislation Spurring Innovation in Kentucky New Center will Propel Ontario's Automotive Future Virginia's Vital Signs Eating Well in the North of France Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - February 2008

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