Are Rural Communities (Untapped) Hotbeds Of Innovation?


Are Rural Communities (Untapped) Hotbeds Of Innovation?

 This is a great new article from Forbes.   January, 2020

 Based on new research for Penn State, this article speaks to the many untapped opportunities to grow jobs and economic development in areas outside the obvious tech hubs. 

 Non-urban areas across the U.S. and the world are home to businesses that may not be on the bleeding edge of tech but have supplied their communities with jobs and dignity for years.  Their progress isn't measured in patents but in small incremental improvements to process and products.

 I think this speaks directly to the kinds of businesses and consulting services that ageless entrepreneurs can launch to serve our communities, both urban and non-urban.  
"The way we traditionally measure innovation is very narrow, and focuses primarily on new products or processes that result in a patent or involve R&D spending.  This overlooks another kind of innovation—the incremental improvements that businesses make to their products and processes as a result of information they obtain from outside their firm," the researchers explain. "Our measure shows that this latent, or hidden, innovation is at least as important to local income and employment growth as patent-level innovation."

Ageless entrepreneurs can serve markets they know and love and communities that need their know-how.

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