NashvillePost.com has learned that a June 2006 report by consultant New Economy Strategies, obtained only this morning after an open-records request, found widespread belief among business, government, academic and civic leaders that Tennessee has "a shortage of entrepreneurial-minded people and an absence of an 'entrepreneurial culture'," with the State's "current culture... viewed as parochial and conservative."
In related news, Tennessee dropped two notches to 36th among U.S. states competing for a share of the global knowledge economy, according to the recently released "New Economy Index" from the Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology Innovation Foundation. Rob Atkinson, lead researcher for the index, told NashvillePost.com today that this year's slight drop probably reflects improved measurement, rather than actual erosion.
For good or ill, it's now clear: That index is but the tip of the economic iceberg Tennessee faces.
The New Economy Strategies report — commissioned by the Tennessee Technology Development Corp. (TTDC) and entitled "Tennessee Innovation Road Map: Building Tennessee's Technology Economy" — warned that private sector leaders must collaborate as never before and must roll up their sleeves "and get to work without any expectation that the Governor and/or the Legislature are the drivers."
The Bredesen Administration announced last fall it plans to launch a new public-private organization, Innovation Tennessee, to pursue implementation of the roadmap recommendations, but that organization is not yet operational. Last fall, Gov. Bredesen also announced the launch of a new venture fund to help launch technology ventures.
At the same time, the report describes such private-sector groups as TTDC and the Tennessee Biotechnology Association as inadequate to the challenges facing Tennessee. Both groups are known to have recently begun implementing substantial changes in board composition, leadership and other areas, but unknown is the extent to which they may have been spurred into action by the roadmap report. Spokespersons for these groups have not yet returned queries placed this morning by NashvillePost.com.
The report also cites the state's universities, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other institutions as possessing great leverage in advancing the state's knowledge- and technology-intensive industries. However, the report repeatedly stresses the need to improve commercialization and transfer of campus-born innovations into new ventures.
A key recommendation in the roadmap is that five sub-state regions focus on region-specific sectors and then serve as hubs for statewide innovation, development and collaboration in those sectors: Nashville, says the report, would focus on "Healthcare Management/IT"; the Knoxville/Oak Ridge focus would be nanotechnology; Tri-Cities would aim at drug/medical products; Memphis would take on advanced manufacturing, design and logistics; and Chattanooga would leverage energy, environmental and transportation technologies.
Other ECD reports have suggested Nashville might enjoy additional advantage in the digital delivery of music or in software for managing the music industry's intellectual property. Other than that reference, and a reference elsewhere to development of learning technologies, the state's information technology is generally regarded as growing in terms of sales and delivery of services and software; but, generally laggard in innovation, patent development and other new-economy measures.
Other gleanings about Tennessee from the New Economy Index 2007:
The state fared relatively better on:
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