Keep Your Eye on New Jersey

Many communities play their own version of "keeping up with the Joneses," with awatchful eye on other cities and towns to see how they compare. Sometimes it's aformal process of benchmarking, tracking demographics and economic statistics to seehow they stack up. In other instances, its simply envy when the community next doorgets a shiny new plaything and your hometown doesn't.

In both cases, being aware of what's going on somewhere else can be helpful, as canlearning from others' successes and failures. During the last few weeks I've beenseveral places that may not be capturing the public's attention right now, but you mightwant to keep an eye on them.

First is New Jersey. I'm not suggesting you watch New Jersey to see what elected officials Gov. Chris Christie or Sen.Cory Booker are doing or even to keep tabs on the cast of The Jersey Shore, but, rather, what is happening at the NewJersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. Leaders of the New Jersey Innovation Institute are launching a newinitiative called MarketShift that represents a new way of thinking about growing the economy and improving the qualityof life for those who live in the Garden State.

A subtle but fundamental shift is occurring. First, the folks in New Jersey are focusing on what they have, not on whatthey don't have. It's tempting in any community - urban or rural - to spend time fretting over what you don't have andignoring what you do have. Your existing assets are your very best building blocks for what's next.

What the folks in Newark do have - and what they are focusing on - are some amazing educational assets, allconcentrated within a few city blocks. Near NJIT you can also find Rutgers University, Essex County Community Collegeand a magnet high school focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. This area is an epicenter forbrainpower and 21st century talent.

MarketShift uses this brainpower to begin working closely with existing New Jersey businesses, rather than worrying toomuch about attracting new industry to the community - another example of focusing on what they have rather than whatthey don't. They are helping these existing companies accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship, launching their nextproduct or finding a new market for an existing product.

They are also working on making the NJIT campus a place where business people can connect with one another andwith the resources available in these educational institutions. They are also beginning to create a completely newnarrative about the exciting things going on there.

My travels over the last few weeks also took me to places very different than Newark. In Valdez, Alaska, and ruralKansas I saw elements of the very same things that are going on in New Jersey: focusing on brainpower, 21st centurytalent, innovation, and entrepreneurship networks; creating quality, connected places; and designing new narratives.

Valdez, Alaska, doesn't have a big university, but the brainpower they do have is embedded in generations ofcommercial fishing and decades worth of expertise in the oil industry. This is the brainpower they are leveraging.

This is the shift that is occurring in the strategies communities and regions are adopting to grow their economies or atleast stabilize the decline. I'm hearing less and less about attracting that next big employer or getting the multimillion-dollar grant from some federal or state agency.

What I am hearing from people - in places like New Jersey, Alaska and Kansas - is a growing recognition that nobody isgoing to swoop in and save them, but that they have sets of assets that are truly unique on this planet. And through thisrecognition they have the power to link and leverage those assets and create new opportunities.

So, want to learn from some pretty exciting communities? Keep an eye on places like Alaska, and Kansas, and yes,New Jersey. You just might pick up a thing or two.

Subscribe to the The Street Where You Live (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-street-where-you-live/id860825434) podcast.

By Scott Hutcheson, Asst Prgm Leader Econ Community Develop

It is the policy of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service that all persons have equal opportunity and access to its educational programs, services, activities, andfacilities without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, disability or status as a veteran. Purdue University is an Affirmative Action institution. This material may be available in alternative formats.

1-888-EXT-INFO • www.extension.purdue.edu

Purdue Extension615 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2053 USA765-494-8491

Sign In