This is a more positive followup to yesterday’s post, trying to work out what the key idea or shared ethic might be for London’s economy.
I’ve already expressed doubts about the “transporation hub” idea here and here. It isn’t a bad idea to beef up London’s transportation capacity as one specific part of a broader plan, but as the central component it will ultimately fail to do what we need our plan to do in the long-run, which is to create an identity we can rally around and sell to the world with one voice.
Unless you already spend a lot of time thinking about transit and local economic development — i.e. unless you’re a municipal politician — you’re unlikely to be very turned-on by a “1-2-3-Transport Hub!” rallying cry.
We need a common, compelling, comprehensive, and coherent concept that engages and inspires Londoners to invest themselves more deeply in support of the local economy and community. We need a plan that centres-on one simple theme that people just intuitively grasp and identify with — like putting a bunch of little flames together to make one hot fire for boiling a lot of bigger pots.
Some of the more thoughtful local leaders have been talking up the need to “beat our own drum” and “sing from the same hymn book.” The music metaphors are very appropriate. In the same way that some songs just stick in our head, some ideas just seem to naturally generate interest and action.
From Made To Stick to Animal Spirits, there’s been no shortage of great arguments for a more human-centric approach to promoting business and economic development.
So what’s the idea for London?
The more I think about it, the more I keep coming back to livability.
It’s hardly a new idea, the term is habitually bandied around the political scene. Every Londoner ought to have a natural affinity for it – as if everyone who moves or stays here is pre-wired to like it. Think of people who pick London as the ideal city to raise a family, or the most comfortable place to retire, or (somewhat at-odds with the other two) the place with the best student experience.
And think of the businesses we’re known for. Off the top of my head I can’t help notice that a disproportionate number of prominent companies founded in the London area have embodied a “life”-oriented ethic — or at least image.
The first that come to mind are GoodLife Fitness, and of course London Life with their famous “Freedom 55″ campaign. Then think of Canada Trust’s fit-to-your-lifestyle brand (which was adopted by TD after the merger). Now Libro Financial has been growing, largely thanks to their similar, people-centred, ‘liberating’ value proposition.
Regardless of how closely those firms adhere to their purported values (I’m not in a position to verify one way or another), they demonstrate that those values resonate with people here — or at least, people who build successful businesses in London tend to project a human-centric set of values — perhaps more critically than other cities.
So it doesn’t have to be just about London being a place to live more sustainably & generatively (i.e. more “livably”); beyond that — and this is where our immediate concerns about jobs and growth begin to be addressed — it can be about selling London as a natural location to establish and grow more progressively positioned enterprises.
In other words, this is our pitch for attracting entrepreneurs: this is where the good, human-centric enterprises succeed.
It doesn’t matter if the business is manufacturing, high-tech, service, healthcare, whatever… it’s the values that will distinguish London’s economy.
And here’s the kicker: since the start of the global economic crisis, these more humanistic, sustainable & generative values have generated a ton of buzz. There’s a lot of mainstream brainstorming on high-level concepts like resetting the global economy, creative capitalism, humanistic capitalism, constructive capitalism, etc.
We can assume that even more entrepreneurial activity and investment in these areas will follow… here???
I don’t know — maybe this is ridiculously ambitious, but what’s the harm in thinking and talking about it?
Perhaps it’s just a dream that London could ever prosper as a centre of “a new economy for living”… but I’ll tell you this: if such a centre ever did develop — anywhere — I’ll want to hop on the next train there.
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