It is a little ironic that my first thought it writing this entry was the title "tough choices"...
It's also the title of a book - Tough Choices: a Memoir by Carly Fiorina - former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. I'll mention why later in this post (so keep reading).
The "tough choice" is whether or not I should write on political issues. But this is very important - and after all - this is mikefullerblog.com - so why wouldn't I talk about it?
So here is the thing... This is a reaction to a post written by Richard Florida.
P4P along with Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board and Three Rivers Development Corporation sponsored a presentation by Richard Florida in Corning after the first Pipeline 4 Progress Summit in 2006.
It was great having Florida (Richard, that is) in Corning and being able to exchange ideas. His recent blog post made me revisit one of the ideas he had mentioned. Check out his entry - Global Pop.
The interesting point from his blog was the role non-Americans play in pop culture. That got the wheels turning to creativity, culture and diversity...
...and the extreme importance it plays in fostering a community.
I remember Florida mentioning that our community and region could benefit from a program that attracts and retains non-Americans. He is right.
It is not just pop culture... look at any creative hot-spot around the country - and world - you see diversity, culture and openness to foreign born citizens. I think it is worth while for our region to take a closer look at the statistics and see what we can do.
Let's examine some local innovative companies... I sat on a panel at the Chemung County Economic Forum a few years ago with Guy Aminsano of Salient Corporation. The question of talent came up - Guy remarked that he looks for talent all over world.
A good friend of mine who works for Guy is from Ecuador - he came to the US to go to Cornell, married someone from the area and is now working internationally for Salient.
The same can be true and said of Corning, Inc. - while the company is all over the world a small portion of the workforce is in the Corning area - not every employee being American or from the region. At the 2006 and 2007 Summits we heard from Corning employees from India and other parts of the world.
It is important that we are able to attract and retain a diverse and global talent pool. This is not only important for our local businesses and economy... But we need the diversity and culture to spill over into our communities to make this a fun and interesting place to live, work, play and learn.
OK... So going back to my Carly Fiorina thought I started with... In Florida's book "The Rise of the Creative Class" - you should read this book - he quotes then Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina speaking to the nation's governors: "keep your tax incentives and highway interchanges; we will go where the skilled people are"....
Economic development - today - isn't about bricks and motor. It's not about sites. Taxes. Infrastructure. It's about workforce. About skilled workers and talent.
And that talent needs to come from all over the world.
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