Conversations with cluster maestras Karen Mills and Ginger Lew
I separately interviewed SBA Administrator Karen Mills and, on her recommendation, subsequently spoke with Ginger Lew from the National Economic Council on the topic of regional innovation cluster — past, present and future.
I've described Mills' role in cluster development frequently for Mainebiz (see "Catalyzing Clusters") and got a chance to ask about her sense of progress and process. When I inquired about the unprecedented cross-agency alignment in relation to her co-authored Brookings report, she credited Ginger Lew.
Ginger Lew is senior counselor to the White House National Economic Council. She provides economic policy advice on a broad range of matters that impact small businesses. In addition, she co-chairs the White House Interagency Group on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the Obama administration, she was managing partner of a communications venture capital fund and an adviser to an early-stage venture fund.
What follows is a co-mingled distillation of both women's perspectives:
Venture Builder: (to Mills) Since authoring the Brookings report on the federal government's role in cluster development in 2008, what's been your experience of the process and progress?
Mills: When I came on board in the agency, I had written the paper for Brookings and had some hope of beginning to bring that perspective to the work we were doing. I was very, very pleased by the energy and attention throughout the White House, both the National Economic Council and the domestic policy council, and in other agencies in joining together in this cluster effort.
We feel quite good about the progress that we've made and we have implemented a program for the SBA which does rely on some of the foundational work that we did for that Brookings paper. In addition, we've accomplished things that provide us more information about clusters: a cluster registry, which we referred to in the paper; and we've put together the Task Force for Regional Innovation Clusters, an initiative to drive interagency process around clusters and one for which I credit Ginger Lew.
(To Lew): Can you describe your experience in leading the TARIC initiative?
Lew: The president has vowed to make government more responsive and efficient. When dealing with smaller government, each agency has fewer resources. Agencies that tie their work to one another see greater impact making the sum greater than the whole.
The challenge I faced was how to operationalize a policy into practice, which really requires breaking down silos in agencies and programs — not easy. Getting a "coalition of the willing" to move forward on our focus on innovation development as a key to stronger regional economies was one key step. First we brought on the Economic Development Administration, then the science agencies [Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation] and SBA because small businesses are key to cluster development.
Our first multi-agency initiative was the Energy Efficiency Regional Innovation Cluster program, our largest initiative in 2010 led by the Department of Energy with the Department of Commerce, SBA and the Department of Labor. Following EERIC, we launched several other initiatives including the i6 Challenge from EDA (a competition to bring innovative ideas to market), the USDA's Great Regions, the Department of Energy's Innovation Ecosystem initiative and SBA's Regional Clusters program.
(To Mills): What are some of the challenges that lie ahead in the realm of clusters?
What we need now is to make sure that we have a sustainable structure for implementing and funding cluster activity. What we had found is that as these successes have come up in congressional communities; members of Congress and others have begun to ask for and look for the benefits of cluster-related economic development. So we know it's catching on but until now, funding has been done in traditional categories or programs. And we need to find ways — and there aren't many — to do interagency funding. So, we need to find mechanisms to support clusters that allow for some of their greatest benefits.
Clusters give a very good bang for the taxpayer buck. A small amount of money galvanizing a bottoms-up activity in clusters tends to lead to very vibrant regional economic development activity.
(To Lew): What are some of the challenges and opportunities you see in aligning agencies for cluster development?
We will continue to learn what works and improve the programs and collaboration among agencies. The more we can institutionalize this new behavior pattern, the less siloed our activities and the greater the efficiency and effectiveness of government in supporting regional innovation-based economic development. This initiative has strong bipartisan support.
It's clear that both Mills and Lew are powerful advocates for RICs. With Karen Mills as president of the administration's cluster strategy and Ginger Lew as her general in charge of implementation, the country is in informed and capable hands.
Michael Gurau, president of Clear Innovation Partners, a Maine-based cluster development organization, can be reached at mgurau@clearinnovationpartners.com. Read more Venture Builder here.
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