Ed Morrison · The Next NEO: Third Frontier Investments

May 23rd, 2008

In case you missed them earlier this week, Ohio’s Third Frontier Commission announced some significant investments in the NEO region and the state. Here are some articles to get you up to speed:

You can learn more from the web site. You can download the Powerpoint presentations mentioned in the articles here and here. 
Jim Cossler reports from Youngstown: 
Syncro Medical Innovations, a portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator, has been awarded a highly competitive $350,000 technology commercialization grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier program.  

The funding will be used to help bring to market the company’s proprietary medical feeding tube technology which utilizes external magnets for tube guidance and placement.

Read more from The Vindicator.

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Category: Economic Development
4 Comments »

4 Responses to “The Next NEO: Third Frontier Investments”

  1. John Ettorre Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Excellent news. The grassroots legend of Jim Cossler and the YBI continues to grow. Are you paying attention to the power of this example, dear Jumpstart? What’s been the real ROI on that incubator? Whatever the numbers are, they’re mind-boggling, and WAY beyond anything that’s been done in the Cleveland area. Isn’t it about time that we reverse-engineer the lessons that can be applied from it and figure out how we could do some of that here? But here’s the real challenge. It flows mostly from…not money or other kinds of financial leverage, or even traditional smarts, but from extraordinary emotional intelligence. How can we inject more of that into our economic development institutions?

  2. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 am

    John:

    You have gotten to the nub of it. In an economy based on networks, collaboration and trust are strategic assets. The soft stuff is the hard stuff.

    If you study Cossler’s model closely, you see how he has used this insight to his advantage.

    Cleveland’s economic civic leadership still operates with an overwhelmingly industrial, command-and-control mindset. They think that by building up big regional organizations with heavy overheads, they will transform the economy. It will not happen.

    The approach does, however, provide extraordinarily high paying jobs to a relative handful of tourism, chamber, economic development, foundation, and workforce development staff. Their incentive: Job stability.

    Sadly, not very many of these people who promote themselves as regional strategists for NEO have much successful experience with regional economic development at all.

    What’s worse, the civic leadership in Cleveland is insular and self-centered. The Cleveland+ ad campaign — pitched as a “regional” campaign illustrates the point.

    Worse still, civic behavior in Cleveland characterized at times by the thuggish behavior of a handful of individuals. My personal favorite for unacceptable behavior: the Greater Cleveland Partnership. (Sadly, the local foundations, the County Commissioners, and the mayor’s office are not immune from this incivility. As the economy continues to slow, we will likely see more examples of civic vandalism, like Commissioner DiMora’s incomprehensible outbursts.)

    In contrast to Cleveland, as I saw this week, the Milwaukee 7 understand the insights of collaboration and leverage in their strategy. They are moving ahead with some exciting re-alignments. Their model: Denver.

  3. Douglas Craver Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Someone once told me that Cuyahoga County has over 7,500 non-profit orgs, second only to San Diego County. And I suspect the majority of the County’s non-profits are based in Cleveland.

    The non-profit sector has to be one of the fast growing industries in Cleveland which I find ironic as the tax base continues to dwindle as more people move out of the county everyday vs. come in.

    It is difficult to pull yourself out of the economic gutter when your tax base continues to decrease and developers get tax abatements.

  4. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    Well put.