Innovations for Transformation: How Cities Can Reinvent Themselves for Economic Success (1)

By: William B. Rouse

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Synopsis: This book chronicles how four resort cities (Asheville, Aspen, Key West and Laguna Beach) addressed failing economic situations to reinvent themselves and prosper. The author explores bottom-up reinventions of local community value propositions, often driven by economic forces that require reinvention due to declining or disappearing traditional economic opportunities. The author foregoes broad national policies and focuses on a wide range of citizen groups, local institutions and businesses that coalesce to understand what is happening or has happened to their community. These cities then formulate future aspirations with new value propositions and experiment to determine what works. The investment becomes focused on emergent successes. The book addresses four community ecosystems and a spectrum of contexts—For example, mountains vs. oceans and venues for entertainment vs. thought leadership. These four ecosystems were reinvented creatively to enable great economic and societal successes. In particular, the energy provided by bottom-up innovation was crucial. The information presented in this book is drawn from two sources—First, historical accounts of such initiatives are leveraged. Second, and more substantial are findings synthesized from extensive interviews in Asheville, NC.