The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation

by Antoine van Agtmael, Fred Bakker

Overview

The remarkable story of how rustbelt cities such as Akron and Albany in the United States and Eindhoven in Europe are becoming the unlikely hotspots of global innovation, where sharing brainpower and making things smarter -- not cheaper -- is creating a new economy that is turning globalization on its head

Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker counter recent conventional wisdom that the American and northern European economies have lost their initiative in innovation and their competitive edge by focusing on an unexpected and hopeful trend: the emerging sources of economic strength coming from areas once known as "rustbelts" that had been written off as yesterday's story.

In these communities, a combination of forces -- visionary thinkers, local universities, regional government initiatives, start-ups, and big corporations -- have created "brainbelts." Based on trust, a collaborative style of working, and freedom of thinking prevalent in America and Europe, these brainbelts are producing smart products that are transforming industries by integrating IT, sensors, big data, new materials, new discoveries, and automation. From polymers to medical devices, the brainbelts have turned the tide from cheap, outsourced production to making things smart right in our own backyard. The next emerging market may, in fact, be the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610394369
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Antoine van Agtmael is a senior adviser at Garten Rothkopf, a public policy advisory firm in Washington, DC. Previously, he was a founder, CEO, and CIO of Emerging Markets Management LLC; a deputy director of the capital markets department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector oriented affiliate of the World Bank; and a division chief in the World Bank's borrowing operations. He was an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center and taught at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Van Agtmael is chairman of the NPR Foundation, a member of the board of NPR, and chairman of its Investment Committee. He is also a trustee of the Brookings Institution and cochairman of its International Advisory Council. He is on the President's Council on International Activities at Yale University, the Advisory Council of Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Alfred Bakker, until his recent retirement, was a journalist specializing in monetary and financial affairs with Het Financieele Dagblad -- the Financial Times of Holland -- serving as deputy editor, editor in chief, and CEO. In addition to his writing and editing duties he helped develop the company from a newspaper publisher to a multimedia company, developing several websites, a business news radio channel, and a quarterly business magazine, FD Outlook, and was responsible for the establishment of FD Intelligence.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Introduction: Welcome to the Brainbelt: The People, Places, and Practices That Are Turning Globalization on Its Head 1

Chapter 1 Sharing Brainpower and Smart Manufacturing: How a Rustbelt Becomes a Brainbelt 23

Chapter 2 Connectors Creating Communities: Hives of Innovation in Chips and Sensors 53

Chapter 3 Making a New Movie of an Old Story: Dramatic Scenarios of New Materials Development 93

Chapter 4 White Coats and Blue Collars: Cross-Boundary Collaborations in Bioscience and Medical Devices 131

Chapter 5 A Smarter World: How Brainsharing Can Meet the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century 177

Chapter 6 Awakening the Beauties: Could Your Region Be One of the Smartest Places on Earth? 205

Conclusion: We Meet at the End 253

Acknowledgments 267

Notes 271

Bibliography 291

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

01/25/2016
In their debut work, journalist Bakker and international finance expert van Agtmael team up to show how onetime rust-belt areas in the U.S. and Europe are emerging as new centers for innovation. After observing examples of this phenomenon, they set out to understand it, with the idea that perhaps “making things as smart as possible,” rather than “as cheap as possible,” might be the way of the future. Through extensive travel to places ranging from the SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Nanotech Multiplex in Albany, N.Y., to Akron, Ohio, to Dresden, Germany, to Eindoven, Netherlands, they discovered common themes among these unlikely “brainbelts.” These include innovation sharing between research universities and corporations, physical spaces that encourage collaboration, and environments that attract talent. The authors make a strong case that a renaissance in the development and manufacturing of “chips, new materials, and biosciences” is happening not in tech or major urban centers, but in reclaimed factories and settings like the revitalized American Tobacco Campus in the North Carolina Research Triangle. For anyone looking at trends in technology or manufacturing, or at the future of global business, this insightful work will provide food for thought. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This book upends conventional wisdom about how the global economy works and which places are primed to thrive and prosper. Van Agtmael and Bakker capture the complex market dynamics that are revaluing the formidable assets of U.S. and European older industrial cities: advanced industries and networks of universities, companies and governments that collaborate to compete. These are refreshing insights that build on real world experience and evidence rather than antiquated group think."—Bruce Katz, Brookings Institution Centennial Scholar and co-author of The Metropolitan Revolution

"The authors offer a compelling and insightful look at how companies and communities are turning ashes into silicon valleys."—Harold L. Sirkin, Senior Partner, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

"The riveting story of how failing rustbelts in the Unites States and Northern Europe have transformed themselves into emerging brainbelts through the triumph of collaboration and ingenuity to become promising models of bottom-up innovation."—Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, Founder and Chairman, Strategic Investment Group

"Energetic.... Offers a hopeful perspective on how imaginative economies can become pacesetters in the fast-forward Knowledge Economy.... Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, SMARTEST PLACES is receiving well-deserved attention among corporate leaders and financial strategists - and it ought to be required reading for every would-be policymaker."—WorldBank.org

"The book contains an abundance of insightful information.... A strong selection for those interested in high-tech industries or community economic revival."—Library Journal

"The perspective here on the transformation of 'rustbelts' into 'brainbelts' has an outsider's freshness toward America and an international expansiveness...Akron glitters like never before in these illuminating pages."—Kirkus Reviews

"The authors make a strong case that a renaissance in the development and manufacturing of 'chips, new materials, and biosciences' is happening not in tech or major urban centers, but in reclaimed factories and settings like the revitalized American Tobacco Campus in the North Carolina Research Triangle. For anyone looking at trends in technology or manufacturing, or at the future of global business, this insightful work will provide food for thought."—Publishers Weekly

"In every chapter of economic history, unexpected places have cultivated the dynamism that transforms society at large. Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker describe how the next generation of emerging hotspots are located in unlikely places, as industry connects with the energy of universities and academic medical centers to transform rustbelts into 'brainbelts.' This scouting report will interest students of the future taking shape today."—Dick Brodhead, President of Duke University

"This eye-opening account of innovation in unlikely places will raise the spirits of anyone discouraged by the gurus who keep telling us the future belongs not to the established democracies of the capitalist world, but to emerging powers mostly in Asia. No, Van Agtmael and Bakker tell us, the 'smartest places on earth' may be in little-heralded cities in the United States and northern Europe, where business people, scientists and creative managers are inventing smart new products and ingenious new ways to manufacture them. They tell us that many of the old economies of the developed world 'are entering a revolutionary new phase' because 'the global competitive advantage is shifting from cheap to smart.' I found their arguments, and the facts they have gathered to support them, both intriguing and convincing. And their book is fun to read."—Robert G. Kaiser, former Managing Editor of the Washington Post

"An absolutely fascinating tour of cities in the United States and Europe that were once traditional centers of manufacturing which are now reinventing themselves as hubs of innovation. If you want to understand how economies at the local level can transform themselves, this is the book to read."—Liaquat Ahamed, author of Lords of Finance

"van Agtmael and Bakker paint an exciting picture of the future based on progress made possible by cooperative processes they call 'brainsharing.' Citing unheralded developments in specific places and specific industries, this extraordinarily well researched book challenges the conventional view of a developed world in relative decline. The authors make a compelling case for the role of connectors, who bring together a diverse collection of players required for collaborative success. This compellingly argued and lucidly written book is a must read for anyone who cares about the future of the planet."—David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer at Yale University

"A lively, lucid story of innovation and transformation powered by brainpower and business, academe, and regional governments working together.... The smartest book on one of the most important and promising trends in the American and global economy."—Strobe Talbott, President of The Brookings Institution

From the Publisher

02/15/2016
This book by investment professional van Agtmael and financial journalist Bakker is about so-called "brainbelts," i.e., rust belts that have revived owing to collaborations among companies, colleges, and other entities. Brainbelts focus on complex products rather than cheap ones. According to the authors, the industries involved are chips and sensors, life sciences, or new materials. The partnerships are born of necessity to energize a locality and are made possible by the participants focusing on specific products and services, and thus not competing with one another. Visiting a number of brainbelts in the United States and Western Europe as well as researching others, the authors provide descriptions and analysis, pointing out similarities and differences among the various communities. The narrative tone tends toward breathlessly enthusiastic, which can become tiresome. Despite this, the book contains an abundance of insightful information. Near the end the authors seem compelled to address broader issues such as job loss and privacy concerns regarding the vast accumulation of customer data that is typically a part of brainbelts. This section is relatively weak and lacking depth. VERDICT This is a strong selection for those interested in high-tech industries or community economic revival.—Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Library Journal

Narrator Christopher Lane projects the enthusiasm of the authors, who see a future in "brain belts," places where universities, governments, and investors team up for technological innovation. Who wouldn't be intrigued by their output— things like smart greenhouses and particle accelerators? Examples of such places include Akron, Ohio; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; and Dresden, Germany. Lane does a good job of bringing listeners up to speed on ideas they may have read about briefly, such as "the Internet of Things." However, this book is meant to influence opinion on a business future the authors envision, and, as such, it sometimes bogs down as its thesis is reiterated. Even so, it’s a good primer on the topic. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

2016-01-05
An economist/public policy adviser and a financial journalist envision a transformative resurgence in industrial regions that had threatened to rust from within. Van Agtmael and Bakker find hope where others have seen decades of decline, as cities from Akron to Dresden have awakened from industrial obsolescence. "That's because, like the fairy-tale Sleeping Beauty," write the authors, "they have lain dormant for a long time—doomed to a state of inertia by the evil witches of policy or (lack of) leadership or faulty analysis—and have been given up for lost by entrepreneurs and investors." Continuing with the fairy-tale motif that (thankfully) doesn't pervade the rest of the book, they write, "the awakening beauty develops new capabilities, particularly the ability to adapt to new circumstances and to refocus its energy on new areas of activity." No, the old jobs are never coming back, and the old factories will billow their smoke no more, but there are now collaborations between corporations and universities, an embrace of technology, and a shift from the primacy of a traditional liberal arts degree toward "vocational training, which…had almost disappeared, especially in the United States." All of these changes have accompanied a global shift in emphasis from cheap labor and products toward "making things as smart as possible," with quality and ingenuity. Van Agtmael was principle founder of Emerging Markets Management, and Bakker is a Dutch journalist and editor specializing in financial affairs. Though the former, also born in the Netherlands, has lived in the U.S. since 1968, the perspective here on the transformation of "rustbelts" into "brainbelts" has an outsider's freshness toward America and an international expansiveness. The authors acknowledge areas of concern, such as monopolization and loss of privacy from consolidated data, but they suggest that the rewards far outweigh the risks. Akron glitters like never before in these illuminating pages.

Kirkus Reviews