Re: Homeless
From: Max More (max@maxmore.com)
Date: Sun Sep 10 2000 - 12:08:44 MDT
At 03:17 AM 9/10/00, Emlyn wrote:
I've got to ask a really naive question.
Similarly, why is silicon valley the place to be? Why would I set
up
business there, with all the attendant cost, if I was running an
essentially
whitecollar (knowledge work) business? Is it so important to be
geographically close to my complementors, and my
competition?
Emlyn, I found a lead to an answer on a really useful site:
www.manyworlds.com
by putting "clustering" into the search box. Great site, huh? ;-) One of the two results was this:
11/01/98 Clusters and the New Economics of Competition
Harvard Business Review by Michael Porter; This HBR article by Michael Porter addresses the economics of clustering. Even in the new economy we still see the power of clusters, with clusters such as Silicon Valley and Hollywood providing advantages to resident technology and entertainment businesses respectively. There are dozens of other examples as well. The fact that clustering exists serves to emphatically answers the question: is it better to locate where there are competitors for one's intellectual capital (particularly people), but also enhanced access to the best intellectual capital, or to attempt to remain more isolated? The answer in general is that it is somewhat paradoxically better to be located where there is greater danger of intellectual capital leakage, because the positive feedback from the competitive ecologies tend to outweigh the negatives.
Max
Max More,
max@maxmore.com or more@extropy.org
Senior Content Architect, ManyWorlds Consulting
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: Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:37:36 MDT