Our region’s economic future is under unprecedented threat. Metro, commercial real estate and Silicon Valley’s growing interest in national security innovation are just three examples of the significant challenges we have highlighted in prior columns and our work elsewhere. Yet, we are growing more concerned that our region’s leaders do not share our urgency, or at least seem unwilling to embrace the big changes that are necessary.
Why is that? One-on-one, or in small groups, we rarely find disagreement from leaders on the issues we highlight. So why are we not seeing policy changes that will make us more competitive? We think that local leaders are being constrained — by something that we describe in the business world as customer capture.
Customer capture causes a business to lock into its current customer base and avoid adopting innovations or changes that could disrupt existing customer relationships. Sometimes this phenomenon is described as the “Innovator’s Dilemma”…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
