Although Cleveland is the birthplace of Superman, I would like to propose we adopt Spider-Man as our official hero and symbolic leader. I have my reasons why this traitorous act makes sense, but first, some background is in order.
Let’s begin with a question: How are you feeling about Northeast Ohio these days? If you’re feeling better, then we have something in common. Despite all the problems in this country and globally, I’ve had this feeling for months that things are looking up. I don’t necessarily have any proof, but people I meet have a sense of optimism that wasn’t there as recently as a year ago.
I became more convinced of this when I attended a Corporate Club at Landerhaven luncheon that featured civic leaders talking about Northeast Ohio and its future. Two panelists, Albert Ratner, co-chairman of Forest City Enterprises, and Barbara Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University, made similar points: The region is on the road again, moving forward on a number of fronts with a master plan in place. In other words, the future looks bright.
And unexpectedly, the audience nodded along. People were enthusiastically agreeing. I couldn’t help wondering, What was driving this newfound optimism? And what master plan were they talking about?
After making a couple calls, here is what I learned: There is a master plan of sorts, a number of economic development organizations are working the plan, and it is paying dividends already. Team NEO, NorTech, JumpStart, BioEnterprise, Fund for Our Economic Future and Global Cleveland, for example, are pursuing specific goals of their own yet have agreed on some basic principles.
Because Northeast Ohio’s nonprofits do a better job of executing than communicating, I will present my interpretation of the plan. Honestly, it is the best thinking I’ve seen on what we can do to move the region forward. And that is where Spider-Man comes in.
The plan is simple: It is all about creating clusters and webs. In the case of clusters, the object is to build a region around our current strengths and the strengths it is well-positioned to develop.
Health care, for example, is an obvious current foothold, while water technology would be a potential strength positioned to develop further. The goal is to enhance these place-based assets into clusters of companies and institutions that are global leaders at what they do.
Northeast Ohio can become a world-class center for heath care, advanced manufacturing, liquid crystals, flexible electronics, polymer research, and perhaps 10 or 15 more clusters.
The second part of the plan is where Spider-Man becomes our inspirational leader. By building strong webs of suppliers around these clusters, a safety net would be created so even if a company is sold, the new owner would have no reason to leave because it wouldn’t make economic sense.
Anyone who has seen a map of suppliers to the auto industry can’t help but be impressed by the hundreds of companies within a day’s drive of Detroit that support the Big Three. Jeff Immelt, chairman of GE, recently said on 60 Minutes that for every worker on the floor of one of his plants, there are 20 working in the plants of their suppliers.
Just as Spider-Man weaves webs allowing him to swing from building to building to catch the bad guys, we will build support companies to catch the good guys: the CEO’s running our world-class cluster companies.
This focus on clusters and webs addresses every need and aspiration we have to make Northeast Ohio a major center of business and culture in the 21st century.
One of our most important goals is growing our population. World-class clusters will attract the best and brightest to work here. The top scientists in the world want to work together, as do the greatest heart surgeons, entrepreneurs and musicians.
Nothing attracts people like success.
In the future, successful cities will focus on specialized growth and the elimination of duplication. Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Columbus can no longer afford to be the best at everything. There just aren’t enough financial resources.
What if the best knee surgeon in the world is in Columbus and the best heart surgeon in the world is in Cleveland? Would you make the drive? Of course you would.
Building unique world-class clusters and webs in nearby cities is an opportunity to increase the business we do with each other and substantially increase the business we do in competing global markets.
Our largest opportunity for growth and prosperity may be that we live in a region with the largest concentration of million-plus cities in the world — 15 in all. Think what we can achieve in a global economy by connecting the world-class clusters that call these cities home.
And we can’t ignore what the successful achievement of clusters and webs will do for our psyche. How much money have we spent in the past 40 years trying to convince the world and ourselves that Cleveland is not a mistake on the lake?
World-class clusters and webs are real. We won’t have to run campaigns to “Believe in Cleveland,” because we will believe in Cleveland and our strengths. In fact, the world will know too.
In today’s wired world, there is something humorous in building an economy Mother Nature’s way with a web of interdependence that connects us with those around us. But it’s just what we need.
Sounds like the perfect marketing job for Spider-Man.