issue 1 - Roland Berger

30 percent of all workers in the united states are part of the creative class food for thought f
“ Cities need to develop into appealing places for talented
and creative people. They need to be tolerant, diverse and open.”
Professor Richard Florida
managers who abandon traditional thinking
and continuously reinvent their businesses.
“Besides being highly educated, these individuals
are also united by a great willingness
to move and are forever seeking new
stimuli and inspiring work environments,”
he says. Florida concludes that cities offering
the best living environment for trendsetters
can expect to have the highest level
of prosperity. His reasoning: This group of
individuals guarantees sustained growth
with high added value.
In his many talks, the political scientist has
already referred to the fact that this trend
transcends nations’ borders. That is a brief
first taste of the theme of his next book,
titled The Flight of the Creative Class, which
IT TAKES THE RIGHT MIX OF
MINORITIES TO DEVELOP A
VIBRANT ENVIRONMENT
will be published next spring. In it he discusses
the migration of the US intelligentsia
to more tolerant countries. In contrast to
traditional thinkers, who point to errors in
the system, Florida attributes this migration
to the laws of the free market. His thesis is
that global supply and demand also determine
where creative people settle.
It is therefore no longer enough, he says, to
concentrate solely on good schools and safe
streets. Instead, policy-makers should create
the conditions for a lively urban milieu that
assures a maximum degree of tolerance,
diversity and openness. “That’s the only way
to foster creativity and a fertile intellectual
environment,” he says. Florida claims these
two factors are the key drivers of economic
growth. In other words, emerging, low-wage
markets will not be the first to prosper;
rather, benefits will flow to the regions best
able to tap the creative potential of their
inhabitants and draw talent from around
the world. “Location now determines how
people and job profiles match up, and it will
become the central organizational unit of
the creative age, replacing the company in
that function,” he says.
Florida’s vision of the cities and regions of
the future is based on three pillars: technology,
talent and tolerance. What is important
is a distinctive lifestyle that delivers a rich
cultural existence, best supported by high
investment and the influx of people operating
outside the mainstream.
“In our focus groups we’re always hearing
that people want to move to a place where
they can simply be themselves,” reports
Florida from his consulting experience.
“That’s something particularly important for
inspired, entrepreneurial people.”
Based on these insights, he has drawn up a
map of creative cities in the United States.
The following characteristics were quantified
and compared with one another: the
number of inhabitants belonging to the
creative class, the number of homosexuals,
the economic power of high-tech industries,
and the number of patent applications per
capita. The findings: Apart from some
smaller cities in the Rocky Mountains that
can be counted as creative locations, the
phenomenon is primarily connected with
large cities. Vibrant, inspiring environments
emerge where there is a large concentration
of people who together constitute an
enthralling mix of minorities. Other key factors
are cultural attractions and universities,
RICHARD FLORIDA, 47, was a professor of
economic development at Carnegie Mellon
University in the former steel town of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania before moving to George Mason
University in Fairfax, Virginia, in the summer of
2004. Next spring Florida will publish The Flight
of the Creative Class, in which he examines the
worldwide competition for creative talent
between cities and regions. Florida studied at
Rutgers College and earned his PhD at Columbia
University. In addition to his academic career, he
heads two companies that he founded: the communications
company Creativity Group and the
consulting firm Catalytix.
described by Florida as “creativity hubs.”
At the top of the list are West Coast metropolitan
areas such as Seattle, Portland, San
Francisco, and the latter’s neighbor, Silicon
Valley. Ambitious cities such as Minneapolis
and Austin, which first developed a lively
subculture and then began to prosper, also
rank highly. In stark contrast to these are
cities of the Old South such as Memphis and
New Orleans. According to Florida’s criteria,
these are the least creative.
THE UNITED STATES COULD FORFEIT ITS
POSITION AS A LEADING POWER
IN THE CREATIVE SECTOR
Florida rates European cities such as
Dublin, Amsterdam, London and Munich
very highly. They have managed, he argues,
to become clusters for talent and technology.
In these innovative regions live creative
people attracted both by the high degree of
tolerance and by local acceptance of innovative
elites from in-country and abroad. The
pay-offs of such modern life-styles take
years to materialize.
However, success is in the offing thanks to
the energies that are releasing inspiration
and wellbeing. Consider Berlin. “The city is
a creative center with plenty of room for a
tremendously diverse group of people willing
to take risks,” says Florida. Still, the
German capital is seeing competition from
further north. Florida’s Creativity Group
recently expanded its analysis to 14
European countries. The figures suggest
that the epicenter of competition with the
United States is moving from traditional
strongholds such as Great Britain, Germany
and France to Ireland and Scandinavia,
where the creative class has been growing at
a peak annual rate of 7 percent since 1995. In
terms of creativity, Sweden has already overtaken
the United States. And if America fails
to pay attention, Florida concludes, it could
forfeit its position as a leading power in the
creative sector.
think: act 13