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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
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.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
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 timedoomed to a state of inertia by the evil witches of policy or (lack of) leadership or faulty analysisand 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, whichhad 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Choice Review
The book illustrates the underlying mechanisms that have transformed a variety of Rust Belt regions in the US and Europe into innovation hotspots. These regions are leading the charge to solve some of the biggest challenges that our world faces today. Agtmael and Bakker's book provides a series of well-researched case studies that emphasize how these newly formed innovation ecosystems, or brainbelts, rely on big thinkers and connectors in order to bring together industry, policy makers, funders, and universities through an open exchange of ideas. The authors emphasize that global innovation relies on the importance of brainsharing and collaboration. They further give recommendations on how other dormant regions may become part of the global problem-solving powerhouses, which ultimately--together--will have to tackle the most important challenges of the 21st century. The book presents a complex phenomenon across a variety of local case studies in an illustrative and easy-to-follow manner. It may serve as a great starting point for anyone interested in new and innovative practices in transformative and collaborative economic and workforce development. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Christoph Winkler, Baruch College
Library Journal Review
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 © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
