by youngrobv (Rob & Ale)

Throughout history, countries that have shipped their raw materials to other counties for processing have lost out to the converters. The further along the conversion process a company is, in adding value, the more viable it is through time. Nations, and the businesses in them by and large, become stable and wealthy because they can make and provide goods and services, not because they own a source of basic commodities. Even with soaring international prices, the amount of income generated by mineral resources in a modern advanced economy remains relatively low compared to the converted products into which they are made. The tendency is to seek efficiencies for a competitive advantage, leaving other nations and businesses to make the real wealth off the resource. This is a losing strategy in the long run, and the long run is getting closer every day. More

 

 

Photo by Rich Lem

When Malvina Reynolds sang about “little boxes on the hillside,” she was describing the monotony that is created when our homes and neighborhoods fail to reflect the essence of people in a unique place. While the song illustrates this with the image of a housing development, the same observation holds true for businesses.

People intuitively react negatively to big chains that give no consideration to a local community and its distinctiveness. Many cities fight back, trying to stop the flood of commodification of their communities that box stores bring. It is often said that this fight is about losing local businesses, but it may be better said that it is about losing the “essence of place” with which local businesses are more connected.

Communities are fighting valiant battles. These battles would be more effective if they focused not only on slowing or stopping the pace of commodification of their towns and villages, but also on beginning to attract and build what is distinctive to their place.

This is done by growing what we call Developmental Economies—economies based on the unique “Story of Place” for where you live. Growing a Developmental Economy begins with assessment, integrating the diverse aspects (social, cultural, and natural) that make your place unique into a narrative framework that all can understand.  unique It then uncovers the unrealized potential implied by that assessment, and sets out to develop the capacity of local business and community infrastructure to cultivate it. This creates an inspiring and engaging framework from which businesses can grow, and with which economic development councils and city councils can hold people’s feet to a fire that warms then, instead of scorching them.