Tech Haute - Elevating Technology
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
The vision of Tech Haute is to help organizations leverage technology to create global business opportunities.
So what does this mean? Web Technologies? Automation? Hardware/software? The answer is all of the above. Obviously this statement seems like a no-brainer for nearly every community in the United States, but how do we get there? How do we get from our current state of stagnation to growth and prosperity? How can we leverage our expertise and resources to compete globally? What strengths does our region possess that aren’t readily available to other regions and what technologies can we use to leverage these strengths?
The chart represents the life of a community. This chart could potentially span over hundreds of years. The left of the chart represents the birth of a community and the right represents the death. Unfortunately for the Midwest we see many communities in either a stagnant or decline state. These are towns built on the backs of manufacturing or local economies. While these types of models worked very well when our world was economically much smaller and not as geographically competitive, it isn’t working in today’s global environment. Low cost labor in developing nations along with low barrier to market entry are leveling the playing field between the poorer and richer nations.
Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley are no different. The community, region and state are built on the backs of manufacturing. In the pre-global economy this served us well as we were able to use our geographic location as an asset, but now we find ourselves at a cross roads to either brace or die with the new global rules. The goal of Tech Haute is to leverage our community and region strengths and take advantage of our local resources to ensure growth for today and in the future.
The Wabash Valley is the main hub of western Indiana and central Illinois. Our historic and current strength (in terms of outside capital generation) lies with manufacturing. Our facilities and infrastructure have benefited from significant capital investment.
Educational facilities are a strength in and around Wabash Valley. Terre Haute and surrounding areas benefit from the strength of 5 universities and colleges. Additionally, healthcare is a major employer and resource within the region.
Today we are operating on the most level business playing field in the history of the world. No longer are we confined by the geographic barriers that have defined how our cities and towns were formed. Along with not longer having the constraints of geographic barriers, we also no longer have the benefits of geographic insulation to competition. The internet along with mobile devices allow access to resources and customers from all parts of the world.
Many communities struggle with the infrastructure needed to support businesses looking to innovate and create better things and newer products. These communities at their core lack the prime resource to create innovation. At it’s core the key starting point to this infrastructure has to be initiative followed closely by education and resources to apply this education.
Terre Haute and surrounding areas are in a prime position to not only support businesses, but to excel in this area. Our educational facilities both in and around the area are abundant and ready to be engaged to give us a foothold in innovation for a number of industries and businesses.
Our vision is to ensure our community is on the left of the previously mentioned bell curve and not on the right. In other words we are looking to continue growth and not face decline or stagnation. The community and area has many resources not afforded to others in the region to innovate and grow in a global economy. Most notably this resource lies in education, innovation and initiative.
Creating, maintaining and attracting new businesses with the expertise in emerging technologies will be key to this vision. Our existing resources along with our ability to energize and engage individuals with diverse backgrounds lends itself to fertile innovative grounds.
While we can’t afford to neglect our existing manufacturing influence within our community, we need to conclude that this is a growth strategy that has worked well in our past, however holds less potential to give us growth in our future. We will never win the battle to compete with global competition due to lower labor rates. Additionally, advances in logistics have given new global competitors a level playing field, just as a internet has given local business this same advantage. Our advantages and barriers we enjoyed due to geographic barriers are no longer applicable. The future of our region will not rely on having the ability to make the product, but rather on the creation of new and innovative products.
Communities in a region can be compared to buckets sitting on a sidewalk collecting rain. The buckets represent business and rain represents capital. Some communities have larger buckets than others. In a global economy the buckets are used to collect rain (capital) from outside the region. The size of the bucket is determined by how many businesses bring outside capital into the community. The larger the bucket the more water you can gather and hold. The goal of any community should be to bring as much outside capital into our region. This “outside capital” raises the value of the community and enables programs that create innovative cultural possibilities. Cultural advantages such as parks, museums and investment in the arts. These are critical to communities because they inspire innovation deeper thought and are attractive to the types of people that create innovation and value to a community. A community of innovative creators will become the foundation of business growth in the new global economy.
Business within a community can be categorized into two categories. These two categories are Outside Capital Generators and Recycled Capital Generators. Both categories are equally important, but to survive in the global economy, communities need to focus energies on creating and maintaining Outside Capital Generators (OCG’s).
Outside Capital Generators (OCG’s) are a vital component to the survival of any community. They are a leading indicator to a community either shrinking or growing. Examples of OCG would be a manufacturing company that sells more that 50% it’s products to individuals or businesses outside the region. Another example would be a tech company that sells a mobile app to the world. The latter is an example of a growth market. The prior is an example of a market that is drastically affected by global competition today.
Recycling Capital Generators (RCG’s) are businesses that are equally vital to the sustainability of a community. They provide services and/or products that directly affect the immediate quality of life for residents. The services and reaction to those services are realized quickly by the end users. These reactions create the constant positive influence that is necessary for a community to show pride and feel good about themselves. It also allows communities to “put it’s best foot forward” to outsiders or those unfamiliar with the community. Additionally RCG businesses are critical supporters of the OCG business.
We should focus energies on creating and sustaining OCG. Due to low barriers into technology markets and our advantages of educational facilities and initiative, we can pursue this is by starting, promoting and maintaining tech start up business in the Wabash Valley that can leverage the level playing field created by the internet and technology.
Tech Haute was created with the long term vision to help start, aid, maintain and create technology based businesses and to ultimately create OCG business to add value (capital) to our community. More capital = opportunity.
This association is founded on business minded entrepreneurs who understand the strategies to create capital. Many times we can take local practices and apply newer technologies to create businesses on a global platform to create OCG opportunities.
We can easily replicate technology and programming. What isn’t easy to replicate is culture and more specifically innovation. Business minded people who think through problems logically; creating innovative solutions that work is key. Technology based businesses can take existing micro structures, apply newer technologies and create global business opportunities.
Through a number of seminars and general discussion we have expanded our group to 90 members. Many of these members are small business owners, nonprofit organizations and innovative minds that are hungry to learn and create. Our short term goals are to create a more formalized group that can offer resources and support to our business members to help them succeed. These resources include monthly seminars, a directory of providers and user forum to help businesses learn and understand the technologies available today.
Tech Haute has many options. How do we most effectively create an nurturing environment where OCG businesses can be created and flourish?
A formal structure capable of providing support full time seems appropriate given the amount of positive comments we have received. Within a formal association structure we can effectively organize ourselves to better communicate best practices and resources to local businesses to help solve technology gaps and suggest solutions using emerging technology. We would continue to hold seminars for businesses to learn about emerging technologies that can give our region a competitive advantage over other regions. We can partner with local educational facilities like Rose-Hulman to aid in solutions and outcomes that are beneficial for all.
Beyond a formal association we can continue to create opportunities for those businesses and individuals seeking opportunities via technology. These opportunities should focus in areas such as business incubators and co-working spaces.
This incubator would allow potential business ideas to flourish while adding the components of investors and advisors in a formalized structure. A co-working space would further enable collaboration and discussion to happen between individuals or groups of individuals who might not otherwise have these opportunities.
We should also focus our energies to make the Wabash Valley as tech business friendly as possible. Programs that should be considered would focus on hurdles that concern new businesses from starting. Things like healthcare (benefits), legal hurdles and working spaces. Regional investors, lawyers and healthcare coalitions can all benefit from enacting such local legislation that make the Wabash Valley a tech friendly community.
We rename our region Tech Haute. We take a leadership role in the region and announce ourselves as the place for small tech companies to locate. The Wabash Valley should create an atmosphere where it is considered tech company friendly with incentives and support systems for those businesses like advisors and health networks. By renaming the region to Tech Haute, we are essentially saying to the world, “We are changing with the economy. We are progressive and looking to create something special. We are not defining our selves by traditional community borders, we are defining ourselves by common interests and the drive to succeed in today’s global economy.”
Tech Haute isn’t just a group of people, it is a movement by a region. It is a vision to be better through collaboration and innovation by using existing business models and applying current and future technology structures. It is about competing in a global market and winning. It is about giving a better life for all our residents by gaining access to outside capital and infusing it into the community to create opportunity for the future.
