Dynamic Villages.

A few years ago I enjoyed an early morning walk around a beautiful lake in the heart of Hangzhou, China. A remarkable and affluent city in the Zhejiang Province with over 10 million people, Hangzhou is several hours inland from Shanghai and a dynamic city that is home to a large number of Chinese billionaires- and many of the most powerful and innovative companies in China, including Alibaba and Geely. It was a calm and peaceful morning. The birds were chirping. Large groups of elderly people were doing their early morning Tai chi. I was enjoying a good cup of coffee. And the sun was rising. Hangzhou—and many places like it- are becoming the new global epicenters of innovation and technology advancement. If you haven't heard of this city, chances are you will in the future. American cities are often leading the way on many fronts, but things are changing. It makes me think about the way some old and new cities are creating centers of innovation excellence and reshaping our futures. Reshaping the future for our children. There are specific places around the globe where innovative people and organizations seem to meet and multiply. Places where they seem to flourish. Dynamic villages. Places where ideas spark and new technologies are born. Where are these cities? What role will they have in our future? What about the cities that fall behind?

What a difference a hundred years can make. Take a look at the stark contrast between modern-day San Francisco and Detroit: There are more than 39,000 technology companies sprawling along the San Francisco-San Jose corridor, and the area has become the undisputed innovation center of the world. In fact, some economists say that the innovations out of Northern California in the last three decades have literally saved the U.S. economy from severe economic depression – and maybe even disintegration. Detroit on the other hand is bankrupt on so many levels: financially, physically, emotionally, and morally. Companies have left. Families have fled. Communities have been destroyed. Leadership and hope are in very short supply. That is harsh, but true. At the turn of the 20th century, Detroit was arguably the most important innovation and manufacturing city on the planet. The industrialists of Michigan reshaped both the U.S. and global economies. Things changed dramatically over the years. Even though there are currently a number of impressive business and political leaders and initiatives trying to create renewal in the Motor City, it is never going to catch San Francisco. At least not for another hundred years. Probably never. In our modern world, your leadership position in technology and economic prowess is not guaranteed. New technology and better leadership can disrupt and knock down the secure walls to your castle, and the game can change quickly. Especially when your leaders lack imagination, energy, and the ability to create the conditions for innovation, collaboration, and change. 

Silicon Valley is famous, although many people outside of California don't know exactly what Silicon Valley is - or where it is located? Journalist Don Hoeffler first coined the term “Silicon Valley” when he wrote a series of articles in 1971 titled, Silicon Valley USA. San Jose, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto are cities located in Santa Clara County, and this area is now often referred to as Silicon Valley around the world. The moniker has stuck. More than 39,000 technology companies stretch “along the valley” and drive the global economy. Google. Apple. Facebook. Tesla. Intel. Oracle. HP. And countless others. To use a car-metaphor, Silicon Valley/Northern California is like a global economic engine - a powerful V8 engine with 707 horsepower and 650 ft-lbs of torque. Fast. Intimidating and seldom challenged. Bold. Innovative. Diverse. Connected. Powerful. Focused on the future.

Some places are simply more interesting and unique – and important-- than others. Eric Weiner has done a brilliant job in his book, The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley, 2016), illustrating how the world’s most creative places over the last couple thousand years have moved from places like Athens, Greece and Florence, Italy, to Silicon Valley (California) and Silicon Wadi (Israel). There are more than 100,000 technology companies clustered mostly in 150 high-tech centers on the planet according to a CITYLAB article (The New Global Start-Up Cities, June, 2013). There are approximately 50,000 cities on the planet, so consider that a very few number of cities (150/50,000 =.003%) are driving the $77 trillion global economy. Is your city one of them? (Over the next 25 years, our global economy is projected to expand to $200 trillion. China is now $11 trillion and the U.S. is $18 trillion. Some say China will soon eclipse the U.S. I say no. China has the most rapidly aging population in the world, they suffer from a tyrannical and incompetent central government, they deal with severe pollution in their cities, are plagued with an unstable banking system, suffer from a weak educational system, and face widespread corruption that limits all Chinese from realizing their full potential. Just like Japan sparked and then lost its competitive edge in the 80s and 90s, so will China be limited over the next few decades.) Some cities simply drive global innovation: Of course the San Jose-San Francisco corridor is home to those 39,000 technology companies. That is awesome. Other key centers are New York, L.A., Boston, Chicago, Toronto, London, Paris, and Berlin. And new emerging centers of excellence in places like Denver-Boulder, Austin, Tel Aviv, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Seattle, Miami, San Diego, Bangalore, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney, Osaka, and others.

I enjoy walking the campuses of inspirational places like major universities and corporate headquarter campuses such as Microsoft. Over the years many great ideas have stirred when walking the campuses of Stanford, Harvard, and Tel Aviv University, and some 100-plus other campuses across multiple continents. Sometimes late in the evening after my young children have slipped into a deep sleep, I go for a long walk in my Denver-area neighborhood to wind down from the day and think about priorities for the next one. I routinely walk across the Western Union HQ campus on my walk. It is an interesting company. Shortly after Samuel Morse invented the telegraph in 1837, Western Union was formed in 1851 and transformed human communication. This company has its "technology DNA" across countless companies and industries to this day. It sent the first intercontinental telegraph in 1861, and introduced the first stock ticker in 1866. When the Dow Jones Transportation Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven all-American companies tracked. It is a unique company that has adapted and thrived through all the technological and political changes over the years. Impressive. I often think about the important innovations this remarkable company has made over the last 160-years and the role it continues to play in our city. Our dynamic village. During this quiet walk at night the village is sleeping. The world appears calm and peaceful for a moment. I think about the dramatic changes that have happened over the years. And the ones about to unfold.