Step Up Tulsa

Economic Development Plan

The City of Innovation

 

 

Executive Summary

 

The Tulsa region has a rich and storied history of innovation and entrepreneurship. Step Up Tulsa proposes to build on our regional history and focus economic development efforts towards the creation of an innovation economy in the Tulsa region and specifically build an Innovation Park to serve the region and foster a greater economic impact by starting and growing home grown companies in high growth industries that link to our regional infrastructure in a collaborative model that will have the following characteristics:

 

  • Greater connectivity with industry
  • Eligible to seek federal funds
  • Emphasizes collaboration with higher education institutions
  • Interns, graduate students, and post docs are key personnel
  • Focus on cutting edge research in areas in which research institutions have current or emerging strengths
  • Routinely start-up of entrepreneurial companies

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An Innovation Economy is one that involves company creation, competitive jobs, increased productivity, greater regional economic growth and the creation of wealth for citizens. Further, it is an economy that thrives on collaborative research, an entrepreneurial culture and organized sources of risk capital.

 

Innovation parks have proven to be a vital economic driver in other parts of the country and can provide a focal point for technology-based activities. In some communities and states, innovation parks often are directly or indirectly linked to universities, involve corporate participation and provide a variety of services and linkages including proof-of-concept and seed capital, Executives-in-Residence programs, launch space and business assistance for innovation based start-ups.

 

The creation of a regionally positioned Innovation Park is proposed that would be dedicated to impacting our economy and provide a central location for:

 

·         World Class Grand Central Library

·         Corporate R&D Partners

·         Private entrepreneurial companies commercializing technologies

·         Research foundations collaborating on technology advancements

·         Collaborative University Research Components

·         Start-Up Company Launch Space

·         Innovation boot camps for K -12 and Collegiate students

·         Networking Entrepreneurs, Investors & Service Providers

·         Organizing Regional Entrepreneur and Capital Sources

 

 

The Innovation Park would build on best practice factors learned from sister cities such as Vancouver, Pittsburg, Peoria, Palo Alto, Austin and St. Louis and achieve critical mass in the region by:

 

·           Building entrepreneurial cultures with networking across industry sectors

·           Providing capital at all stages for firms serving global market opportunities   

·           Having engaged universities with active leadership

·           Discretionary federal and other R&D funding

·           Workforce and talent pool from technician to Ph.D.

·           Access to specialized facilities and equipment

·           Patience and a long-term perspective

 

Innovation Economy Ingredients

 

An innovation economy requires three key ingredients; technology, talent, and capital. In order to compete, regions must focus on the elements of the three key ingredients which include:

 

Technology:

 

Technology is important for several reasons:

  • Industries either emerge directly out of research or need to connect to research centers
  • Product lives becoming shorter, necessitating constant innovation
  • Intellectual property and innovation economies grow around research centers whether federal labs, research universities or private research centers

 

Talent:

 

Developing programs that focus on building an Entrepreneurial Culture, Skilled Workforce and increasing the regional Quality of Life is important for several reasons:

 

  • Innovation economies and technology-based businesses depend on talent for competitive success.
  • Young talent is relocating to where they want to live and to areas where jobs tend to be growing.
  • Older regions were based on waterways and natural resources; newer regions are where quality of life attracts talent.
  • Retaining talent is easier than bringing it home again!

 

Capital:

 

Innovation-based businesses require a different type of capital than traditional industries. A focus on the types, developing organized sources of each that are easily accessed in the region is a critical success factor to a thriving business. Types of capital typically needed are as follows:

 

  • Research and Development Grants
  • Proof-of-Concept Funding
  • Seed Funding
  • Angel Capital
  • Venture Capital

 

The output of these ingredients is an Innovation Economy with the following economic drivers:

  • Company creation
  • Competitive jobs
  • Increased productivity
  • Greater regional economic growth
  • Creation of wealth for citizens

 

Background and History

 

The region is at an economic crossroads. Other regions of the country are making significant and meaningful investments in innovation economy based programs.  For example, Kansas has committed $500 million for bio/life science entrepreneurial programs with the investments targeted in and around the Johnson County area. This one example illustrates the commitment needed to impact a region and focus on the creation of high impact, collaborative companies that retain and develop local talent and create a sense of innovation in the region.

 

Innovation based economic development has proven in other regions to:

 

  • Solve groups of industry problems/needs
  • Build sustained business-to-business connectivity
  • Invest and assist groups of firms in ways that build synergy and economic impact
  • Build Opportunity Pipeline from Childhood to Adulthood
  • Grow population to the highest level of success

 

Recent data from Oklahoma’s i2E reveals that innovation based companies started in our region in the last five years pay an annual average salary of $72,000 across software/IT and healthcare industries. A focus on programs that create innovation based companies in the Tulsa region would have significant impact to our economy.

 

Planning and Implementation Actions

Central to this proposal is to learn best practices from sister cities across North America to allow the detailed planning to move forward efficiently and not start from scratch.   The planning will require three key actions:

  • A Plan for the region. Numerous cities such as St. Louis, Vancouver and Peoria all benefited from having gone through a four- to six-month process of self-diagnosis leading to a consensus game plan for building an innovation-driven economy. It will be critical to identify the appropriate sister cities and pick the best elements from each.
  • Identify leaders and champions. It will be critical to have active, engaged leaders committed to an entrepreneurial-driven innovation economy. This will require leadership able to look to the future and issues driven by technology, capital, and talent and less driven by location, costs and real estate.
  • Develop an implementation and investment plan. To be successful we must put in place a detailed implementation and investment plan at the operational level to measure accountability. This will require funding an outside service provider to prepare a proper, fundable business plan.

 

Evaluation

 

Measures of success would include an ongoing suite of programs and services focused on creating home-grown businesses.  Once created the following items would be have a specific impact on company creation, internships, research grants and access to capital:

 

•          Innovation Park Created

•          Grand Central Library Built

•          K-12 Innovation Program Enrollment

•          R&D Companies Housed in Park

•          Launch Space Utilized

 

Conclusion

 

Creating a sense of place for innovation in the region would be a catalyst for entrepreneurship, corporate and university research and development and ultimately company creation that will have a profound impact on our economy. 

 

Identifying and learning from sister cities that have already focused on innovation based economic development could shorten our time to completion and strengthen our ability to impact the following critical success factors:

 

  • An enhances Research and Development Base
  • Access to all stages Risk Capital
  • Technically Skilled Workforce
  • Entrepreneurial Culture
  • Technology Infrastructure
  • Mechanisms for Knowledge Transfer
  • Quality of Life