In search of a unifying vision
Creating the kind of economy that opens up opportunities for a range of marketable skills requires a unifying vision among business and community leaders — something Pittsburgh was lacking in the wake of the steel bust.
A report commissioned in the mid-90s, known as The White Paper, noted that there were more than 200 separate economic development organizations working for their individual constituents.
Yet in addition to such harsh truths, the report also cited strengths of the region, such as its innovation capacity and strong universities, health care and engineering bases.
“Pittsburgh had all the fundamental tools to rebuild its economy but lacked a shared vision and common sense that, ‘We are all in this together and we have to work together to be successful,’” Flanagan says.
The report led to the creation of a roadmap that not only consolidated economic development efforts, but also helped leaders identify five key sectors to focus on: manufacturing, finance, energy, information technology and health care.
Officials from 10 counties formed an alliance to establish the Pittsburgh region itself as a competitive product. Instead of sending separate, competing development proposals to state leaders for funding support, participants of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Growth Alliance would offer a single list of priorities.
“As a result of the growth alliance, there were several counties among the 10 that got their first state, capital investment in their history because they never had the wherewithal to pitch Harrisburg by itself,” Flanagan says, whose own organization entered into a strategic affiliation with the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Economy League of Greater Pittsburgh a decade ago.
An innovation makeover
In many ways, the report formalized what was already happening in the business and education communities. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University — where they have had a 3-D printer for more than two decades — opened in 1979 and has led Pittsburgh’s makeover as a tech hub.
Carnegie Mellon is ground zero for innovation in Pittsburgh, drawing the attention of Bill Gates, Apple, Intel and Disney.
Today, Google’s 350 Pittsburgh-based employees inhabit 140,000 square feet of the old Nabisco factory. The company announced Feb. 3 that it plans to add another 60,000 square feet to its Steel City empire.
The Pittsburgh makeover was, perhaps, symbolically complete when the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) signage was installed atop the U.S. Steel Tower.
Though U.S. Steel is still headquartered in the building, UPMC is among the top employers in the region, with more than 40,000 employees. Other notable Fortune 500 companies based in Pittsburgh include FedEx Ground, H.J. Heinz Co., PNC Financial Services Group and Westinghouse.
The business activity has helped to bring people back to downtown. Since 2000, the city’s population has grown by 40 percent and the residents are getting younger.
No longer ‘hell with the lid off’
Lunak is among the beneficiaries of Pittsburgh’s shared vision. While the economic strategy plans were still in the early stages of development when he joined the startup community, the regional collaboration helped spur new business growth.
The startup Lunak joined — Automated Healthcare — was bought by McKesson Corp. in 1996. He served as head of McKesson’s automation division before joining Innovation Works a decade later, to help foster the local startup scene.
In 1868, writer James Parton famously described Pittsburgh as “hell with the lid taken off” to describe its smoke-filled, blackened air. Today, the city is looking to its golden future.
“Pittsburgh is very different than it was back then,” Lunak says. “We are starting to develop a much more thriving ecosystem.”
This article is republished with permission from FreeEnterprise.com. Free Enterprise is produced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and highlights the successes and challenges that face our nation’s business community.
http://www.freeenterprise.com/economy-taxes/pittsburgh-s-reinvention-steel-city-tech-hub
