{"id":1984,"date":"2011-02-17T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T09:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/altlep.wordpress.com\/?p=38"},"modified":"2011-02-17T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T09:15:23","slug":"what-kind-of-innovation-capital-do-we-want-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2011\/02\/17\/what-kind-of-innovation-capital-do-we-want-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"What kind of Innovation Capital do we want to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/leedscityregion.gov.uk\/icp.htm\">Innovation Capital Programme<\/a> is at the core of the new Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). \u00a0(I am\u00a0still\u00a0struggling personally with the identification of a city region of 3m people being \u00a0conflated with local, but we live in\u00a0strange\u00a0times.)<\/p>\n<p>We are not talking &#8216;capital&#8217; in the sense of money, but\u00a0capital\u00a0in the sense of a &#8216;leading centre&#8217;. \u00a0These are not only strange, but also cash strapped times. \u00a0And LEPs are shaping up to be nothing if not politically pragmatic institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;vision&#8217; of the Innovation Capital Programme is:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A dynamic place, globally competitive and renowned for business, enterprise and innovation&#8230;<strong>An Innovation Capital<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is variously described as a roadmap, an agenda, an action plan. \u00a0The language perhaps is telling. \u00a0A chosen few, <a href=\"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/10\/challenges-in-community-development-the-vision-of-the-anointed\/\">The Anointed<\/a> showing the rest of us the path to the future.<\/p>\n<p>The language of the Innovation Capital Programme reflects its goals and its constituents:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Driving growth<\/li>\n<li>Faster growing business base<\/li>\n<li>Centres of excellence to support growth sectors<\/li>\n<li>Driven by the needs of business<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No questions about the role of business in our communities.<\/p>\n<p>No discussion about the merits of economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>The faster the better. It is an unalloyed good. No question.<\/p>\n<p>The engagement\u00a0strategy\u00a0focuses on businesses,\u00a0local\u00a0authorities, universities and &#8216;partner organisations that make our economy work&#8217;. \u00a0The cynic could reduce this to a conversation between those who\u00a0believe\u00a0in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.orionmagazine.org\/index.php\/articles\/article\/2962\/\">Gospel of Consumption<\/a> on how best to lead the congregation to economic redemption. \u00a0It is, to say the least, an &#8216;orthodox church&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>But what would happen if we framed the problem differently?<\/p>\n<p>If instead of asking &#8216;how can we help businesses to drive the\u00a0wealth creation\u00a0that is required for our region to thrive&#8217; we started to ask about how we engage 3 million people in the region in pursuit of their own well-being.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What if we opened up the challenge of &#8216;social progress&#8217; to anyone who\u00a0wanted\u00a0to play?<\/li>\n<li>What if talked about the role of innovation in\u00a0terms\u00a0broader than purely &#8216;economic&#8217;?<\/li>\n<li>What if we\u00a0believed\u00a0that universities,\u00a0local\u00a0authorities\u00a0and businesses were not the sole experts on the role of enterprise in our communities?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I suspect we would commission some very different activity, from some of the unusual suspects, and we may just get some different results.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise I suspect it will simply be <a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/p1lMwW-H\">more of the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If we talk about innovation it shouldn&#8217;t be about the mediocrity of having a bigger home or a faster car, but about building a wickedly better world.<\/p>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Management and the Start Up\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/02\/09\/management-and-the-start-up\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Management and the Start Up<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Are we learning? Or just looking good?\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/02\/09\/are-we-learning-or-just-looking-good\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Are we learning? Or just looking good?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Jack Welch on What Leaders Do\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/02\/09\/jack-welch-on-what-leaders-do\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Jack Welch on What Leaders Do<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Ayn Rand\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/02\/09\/ayn-rand\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Ayn Rand<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"What If Leeds&#8230;the video\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2011\/01\/28\/what-if-leeds-the-video\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">What If Leeds&#8230;the video<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Innovation Capital Programme is at the core of the new Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). \u00a0(I am\u00a0still\u00a0struggling personally with the identification of a city region of 3m people being \u00a0conflated with local, but we live in\u00a0strange\u00a0times.) We are not talking &#8216;capital&#8217; in the sense of money, but\u00a0capital\u00a0in the sense of a &#8216;leading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[214],"class_list":["post-1984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}