Branding Clusters and Cities

Economic development is an important part of keeping the nation moving forward on its economic and social goals. The way in which clusters and cities are branded is important for helping its citizens understand their place within it all while helping people of other places formalize a concept of the area. A paper by Brian Crombie discusses the benefits of branding cities and clusters for greater growth (2011).

Clusters are branded in much the same way as products and services. Branding can apply to any mass communication that include companies, political parties and nations to create success on the market (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy, 2000). Branding is a process of creating greater awareness of the offerings of an area. Such brands should do the following (Crombie, 2011):

-Target opportunities in high growth sectors such as life sciences, sustainable technology, life sciences, financial resources or advanced technology.

-Create a supportive business environment.

-Provide a brand that attracts business, investments and jobs.

A strong brand is, “distinctive by its positioning relative to the competition, and by its personality, which comprises a unique combination of functional attributes and symbolic values” (Kavarvztiz, 2004, p. 65). It provides an extra nudge to ensure people are aware of its businesses, cluster, and opportunities.

Brands should give a name and image to the social system and social capital within the area (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy, 2000). People should be able to formalize what an area stands for and what it can provide on different planes such as core competencies, its people, and its lifestyle. When done well it creates a total image of the area that can be useful for helping people believe in that brand.

Each cluster and city has an image. Some images are well known while others are not known at all. Each brand should accurately reflect the area but also push to enhance those aspects that are most beneficial for growth. When people can formalize the image of an area and have adequate information to understand that area they are more likely to invest, grow businesses, and train people around that image.

Crombie, B. (2011). Branding cities and clusters for economic development. ISM Journal of International Business, 1 (3). 

Kavaratzis, M. (2004), From City Marketing to City Branding: Towards a Theoretical Framework for

Developing City Brands. Journal of Place Branding, 1

O’Shaughnessy, J. & O’Shaughnessy, N. (2000). Treating the nation as a brand: some neglected issue. Journal of Macromarketing, 20 (56).

Service Industry Not the Cause of Wage Polarization

Wage polarization is a growing concern among both academics and government officials. Wage polarization is an occurrence where lower skilled workers and higher skilled workers are vastly different in their earning potential. Research by Author and Dorn (2013) discuss the reasons why such polarization is occurring and which industries are raising lower skilled employment opportunities.

The advent of technology is here! Computerization of routine tasks is apparent and those who have not mastered new skills are finding their jobs displaced. The past 25 years have experienced a decline in lower skilled earnings and employment opportunities. The authors indicate that changes are likely to occur across four dimensions:

1.) Greater adoption of information technology;

2.) Reallocation of low-skilled workers from routine tasks to service occupations;

3.) Larger increases in both employment and wages at both the highly skilled and lower skilled labor markets;

4.) Larger inflows into both the high and low skilled labor markets.

The news isn’t all bad for lower skilled labor markets. Service industry workers have an easier time finding employment and higher wages. Between 1980 and 2005 the share of hours worked in the service occupations rose by more than 50%. Real wages also increased 11 log points significantly exceeding every other low skilled industry in the country.

The reason why this phenomenon occurs is because routine tasks are easily replicable by computers while the skills of communication and flexible customer care cannot be easily programmed into strict computer processes. The ambiguous nature of handling customers and their needs requires people who can make decisions on a constantly changing basis.

Who is capitalizing on new technology? Higher skilled and educated workers can use computers to complement their creative, abstract, problem-solving, and coordination skills. This is raising their productive power in society and naturally raising their compensation. A greater divide between the lower skilled displaced worker and the higher skilled worker is apparent.

The service industry is helping employ a greater proportion of displaced workers. It will be necessary to train low skilled workers to find value on the market and raise their market earning potential. Some will be able to move into the service industry while others will need to move into training programs. Those that do neither are more likely to enter the chronically unemployed market.

How Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing is Helping Find Asteroids and Planes

Open innovation and crowdsourcinng are concepts that have taken the research and strategy gurus by storm. NASA and DigitalGlobe are using similar concepts to help solve problems such as finding a missing plane and developing better asteroid algorithms. Using and hedging knowledge to solve problems, improve services, reduce costs, and be more effective is the main goal. The organizations have put forward two different but interrelated programs.

NASA and Planetary Resources Inc. have teamed up to put more eyes on the sky. They are offering $35K in prizes to citizen scientists that can improve upon existing algorithms for asteroid hunting. Participants can sign up on Top Coder . The goal is to help NASA find, derail, or destroy asteroids that could threaten Earth. 

According to Tom Kalil, the deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology, "I applaud NASA for issuing this Grand Challenge because finding asteroid threats, and having a plan for dealing with them, needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort. (2)"  Citizen scientists have a lot of knowledge and helping them engage in important.

NASA hopes to find better patterns in the data. By analyzing information people naturally see different things based upon their problem solving schemas and personal abilities to connect information. Some will see patterns where others see only a bunch of numbers and data. Bringing in multiple perspectives helps raise the chance of finding something new. 

NASA is not the only one using open innovative concepts to solve problems. Colorado based DigitalGlobe (3) is using crowdsourcing to help find the missing Malaysian Flight (4). They are asking participants to scour 1,200 square miles of ocean to find objects on the water’s surface that may indicate the location of the missing plane. 

Each participant picks an area covered by satellite photos. They look through these pictures to find items that may indicate wreckage. If an area is scattered by floating debris they can alert authorities. Their process takes corporate citizenship to the next level. In previous projects, volunteers have highlighted up to 60,000 items.

There is a difference between open innovation and crowdsourcing. Open innovation is using stakeholders and other individuals an entity doesn’t normally engage with to encourage greater product development. Those who have knowledge to offer are generally invited. Crowdsourcing focuses more on using the power, skill, and knowledge of a crowd to improve upon a concept or problem. Crowdsourcing is generally open to anyone who desires to participate.

Dean of University of Oklahoma Honors College Discusses Higher Edu Change

A recent video dean David Ray of the University of Oklahoma Honors College discusses the value of higher education and how that education will need to change to encourage greater skill development in students. He talked for nearly 20 minutes on TEDxOU to discuss the changes in higher education, how that education is viewed by students and faculty, and where it should move. 

The discussion includes information on past recessions and when the economy recovers most employers began to hire again. More modern recessions, including the Great Recession, have seen a jobless recovery. This means that it took 12 or more months for employers to start hiring and this in turn created a shift in the type of jobs and skills employers are looking for. 

This shift has created a need to encourage more rigorous academic standards. Students read about half the amount they did in the past and engage in college much less. There is a lack of motivation from students while the job skill requirements are increasing. Students may be graduating from the unchanged academic system not being prepared for the working world. More radical change is needed to make it work again.

Technology affords some changes and benefits in education. Content rich information that helps students understand and apply concepts is important. However, these content rich formats need to include reading and writing as part of the coursework. Without the skill to write well it is difficult for students to formalize concepts and express them accurately. 

Because of a lack of motivation MOOCs have not done as well as originally thought. Free classes mixed with an instant culture and lack of motivation means that 90% of students either fail or drop out. There are 10% of students that are highly motivated and they are willing to learn on their own and use the MOOC system to enhance that learning. 

The speaker offers a suggestion for engineers and scientists in the audience to go read about Iliad. For those with Liberal Arts Degrees they should take a MOOC on math to develop their skills. This type of humanities balanced with analytical skills helps people understand the development of greater lives and societies.