Thanks to Twitter I was able to catch some of an interesting conversation on Rogers 13 with LOLA organizer Andrew Francis. He suggested that the fact London Ontario is not where it should be… should be seen as an opportunity (I’m going from memory here so forgive me if my interpretation is a little skewed).
Cultural, economic, and technological progress unfolds in such a way that up-comers can “leapfrog” more established players. Check out The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen for a bunch of examples in business.
Maybe the greatest business example of this is Google, which went from absolutely nothing to dominate the advertising market within a decade. It wasn’t by force of will (I mean, not only by force of will) and they weren’t just super clever either (I mean, it wasn’t only about smarts). Google thrived because the environment changed to accommodate disruptive new trends; Google managed to ride some of those trends while the TV networks and print publishers counterproductively worked to protect what they already had.
A more relevant example that comes to mind is cell phones. I used to work for Fido and got daily lectures from customers about how far behind in Canada we are, in terms o mobile phones. Well that’s because before cell phones came along our telecom industry was one of the most advanced in the world. Everyone had pretty good phone service. Meanwhile many Europeans and Asians were using shared public telephones; when affordable digital cell phones came along, many people quickly adopted them as a primary phone (and in a lot of cases, as a primary computer) while Canadian consumers were still in the mindset that cell phones were expensive supplements. Europe and Asia leapfrogged the North American telecom industry.
Another example that fascinates me is the cultural dynamic that generated Seattle’s grunge scene: the local music scene developed in relative isolation from what was happening elsewhere; it was affected by music from all around but in unconventional ways. As a community emerged, as bands continually re-formed and exchanged members — trading influences and habits — a new musical gene pool developed. Then one day it was 1991 and this thing was just ready to explode.
Actually, come to think of it, London has had a creative scene not-unlike that, a-way-back-when led by the likes of Greg Curnoe, Jack Chambers, James Reaney…
I’m no London historian so I’ll leave it at that for now — feel free to add.
Some Older, Related Posts:
- Social and Creative Capital in London
- Social Capital and Innovation in London
- Creating London’s Competitive Advantage
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