NorTech Action Plans Ohio 2006

October 10, 2006

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NorTech

The Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition

Mission

To align and leverage the region’s technology assets in order to achieve the scale necessary to build a globally-competitive economy in Northeast Ohio.

Vision

An innovation-focused, technology-based economy that makes Northeast Ohio one of the TopTen Places in the world to live, learn, work and invest by the year 2020.

Strategic Plan

By building consensus around a common vision of the future—one that enables individualorganizations to shape their technology strategies cooperatively while still maintaining their independence and uniqueness—NorTech has established the foundation for achieving itsmission.Our region has significant technological strengths. It also has significant gaps that must beaddressed. But it is the opportunities represented in emerging global markets that provide uswith the best way to focus our efforts. We are poised to address these markets throughinnovations within and especially at the intersections of our distinctive technology strengths.

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As a region we have the skills needed to develop new, advanced energy, power and propulsionsystems; improve both access to and the quality of healthcare; integrate advanced materials withcutting edge electronics and information technologies to meet emerging market needs; and offer training and lifelong learning opportunities to cultivate a skilled, entrepreneurial and innovativeworkforce that is equal to the challenges of technology-based businesses and higher-payingadvanced manufacturing jobs.The opportunities presented to us in global markets allow us to consider our strengths(individually and collectively) and determine the best ways to address those opportunities. Our truly distinctive competencies, however, will be found at the intersections of those strengths, andin the new markets they address and even create. NorTech recognizes that in a changing world the only certainty is change. Through our work onthe regional technology strategy we have begun to open up the lines of communications with anumber of organizations that share our passion and commitment to achieving the goal of making Northeast Ohio one of the top ten places in the world to live, learn, work and invest. But werecognize that in order to achieve this goal, our priorities and tactics will have to remain dynamicand subject to continual revision. Better communications and interaction with others arenecessary but not sufficient to achieving our goal.In order to build on the strength of our region’s diverse population we will specifically open onemore line of communication and interaction in 2007. We will convene, develop and support amulti-organizational Diversity and Inclusion Working Group to provide input regardingimplementation of the action plan that follows to ensure that our activities have impact on asmany of our region’s citizens as possible.Our interaction with other groups will have to evolve into inter

creativity

within and among thesegroups in addressing the region’s needs and in exploiting the region’s opportunities. This, morethan anything else, is our primary objective for the next five years: to foster, build, and supportthe high degree of intercreativity between groups, companies, and individuals that will enable the

NorTech Focus Area:Intersectionsthat addressGlobal Markets

Energy,Power & PropulsionAdvancedMaterials & ManufacturingBioscience& HealthcareElectronicsInformation & CommunicationTechnologies

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successful alignment and leveraging of our region’s technology assets and the

re

-creation of aglobally-competitive economy based here in Northeast Ohio. The specific tactics and actions for achieving our goal may change—and may change frequently at that—but our focus and our progress towards that goal will remain constant and true.In order to achieve these goals, however, we must focus our efforts in three key areas:

Talent,Investment,

and the region’s

Innovation Infrastructure.

Talent

We need to increase the level of educational attainment of the region’s workforce throughdevelopment, retention and attraction especially with respect to science, technology, engineering,and mathematics (STEM) at all levels—from pre-school through post-graduate. The tie betweeneducational attainment and per capita income is undeniable, and increasingly important intoday’s information-based economy. We also recognize the need to develop, retain andattraction more entrepreneurial skills and approaches to problem-solving in the region.

Investment

If we want to keep our existing highly educated workers in the region, we have to give themexciting opportunities worth staying for. Similarly, if we hope to attract new highly educatedworkers to the region, we need to be seen as a place where exciting new opportunities areemerging every day.To achieve this, we must increase the amount of pre-seed, seed, and early-stage investmentcapital to match the amount of deal flow and new company formation that is occurring in theregion. We also believe a supporting “tipping point” will be reached when more than $1B innon-corporate research is conducted in the region annually along side these investments in newcompanies in emerging markets. And, we must ensure that the region’s investments in new skilldevelopment and workforce training are being appropriately focused to prepare our citizens for our 21

st

century economy.

Innovation Infrastructure

Finally, we need to build connections and support boundaryless networks within and betweenkey technology and industry sectors, so that new ideas can be shared and new opportunitiesnurtured until they become the industries of tomorrow. Here, the region’s established firms havea critical role to play. As new products and services in emerging industries begin to achievecritical mass, the marketing, engineering know-how, manufacturing, distribution, and back officeexpertise of our larger firms become critical components for the continued success and growth inthe new markets of the 21

st

century.