America21 - Inclusive Competitiveness: Glossary of terms

Changing the Economic Narrative • Promoting Inclusive Competitiveness • Connecting the Economically DisconnectedEmail: [email protected] • Blog: http://blackinnovation.org

Inclusive Competitiveness: Glossary of Concepts and Terms The America21 Project (America21)

America21 is a nationally networked and regionally focused social enterprise whose mission is to inculcate a new 21st century economic narrative that connects disconnected citizens to Innovation Economy clusters, ecosystems and emerging industry sectors through STEM education, high-growth entrepreneurship and risk capital formation and investment.

The approach is grounded in principles of economic competitiveness and inclusion – Inclusive Competitiveness – and further extends proven innovation- and technology-based economic development strategies to seed the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and employees within urban communities and metropolitan centers.

Innovation Economy

The time period of the late 20th and early 21st centuries marked by radical socioeconomic changes brought about by further globalized commerce, democratized information and access, accelerated new knowledge creation and exponential growth in entrepreneurship.

Inclusive Competitiveness

Targeted metrics and strategies to measure and improve characteristic performance levels of diverse populations within innovation ecosystems and clusters, emerging industry sectors and other areas critical to overall economic competitiveness.

Inclusive Competitiveness neither alters nor replaces, but rather complements and enhances existing and emerging economic competitiveness metrics and strategies, exclusively focusing on the characteristic performance of diverse populations.

3 Inclusive Competitiveness Pillars

Inclusive Competitiveness is girded by three pillars:

education, specifically STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),

entrepreneurship, especially high-growth,

capital formation and investment, including equity, debt and credit.

“T.A.P.I.M.” Progression

Inclusive Competitiveness responds to the same needs and follows the same “T.A.P.I.M.” Progression that created the existing innovation ecosystems and clusters:

Thought, Advocacy, Policy, Investment, Market • New Thought and Advocacy produce a new economic narrative • New economic narrative breaks through to form new Policy • New Policy is adopted to attract new Investment • New Investment is offered to incent new Market reactions


Innovation Ecosystem

Like the natural world, everything in the Innovation Economy is connected. An innovation ecosystem is an interconnected, interdependent and balanced community of assets:

people and talent (entrepreneurs/management/workforce);

capital (equity/credit/debt);

education institutions (K-12/higher education);

research and commercialization resources (universities/corporations/tech transfer);

customers (marquee);

philanthropy (community wealth);

government (local/state/federal)

professional services (legal/accounting/intermediary organizations)

Assets within the ecosystem work together to create new enterprises, jobs, wealth and economic prosperity. However, unlike natural ecosystems that are organically created, innovation ecosystems must be intentionally created.

Inclusive Competitiveness Diffusion

As innovation ecosystems and clusters help create more economically competitive regions; Inclusive Competitiveness helps create more economically competitive regional innovation ecosystems and clusters by connecting Disconnected Citizens to new opportunities. Thus, improving ecosystem and cluster performance and leading to more successful overall economic competitiveness outcomes.

America21 Model for Diffusing Inclusive Competitiveness

Throughout Regional, State and National Economies, Into the Global Economy

State Economies

Enhance Competitiveness of . . .

U.S Economy

Which Enhances Competitiveness of . . .

Global Economy

Regional Economies


State Economies

Which Enhance Competitiveness of . . .

U.S. Economy

Regional Innovation Ecosystems and Clusters


Regional Economies


State Economies

Inclusive Competitiveness

Enhances Competitiveness of . . .

Regional Innovation Ecosystems and Clusters


Regional Economies

Law of Economic Competitiveness

No region can sustainably increase economic competitiveness without growing enough of the right people to create and take advantage of that increased economic competitiveness.

If your region’s economic competitiveness goals consistently outpace your growth rate in the right people, you simply will not – indeed cannot – build a resilient, economically competitive region.

Inspired by Packard’s Law of Hewlett & Packard Co-Founder, David Packard


Equity Citizens

Equity Citizens are Americans with economic ownership holdings or interests in the United States.

Equity Citizens are entitled and able to access an equitable proportion of the nation’s best opportunities to achieve economic empowerment. The term is used to distinguish from Constitutional Citizens.

Constitutional Citizens

Constitutional Citizens are Americans by birthright enshrined in the Constitution or by acquisition through naturalization. Constitutional Citizens are full and equal citizens under law, but do not necessarily have much, if any, underlying economic ownership holdings or interests in the U.S. They are entitled to, but not able to access, the nation’s best opportunities to achieve economic empowerment. The term is used to distinguish from Equity Citizens.

Economic Empowerment

Economic Empowerment is self-active, innovative and competitive, able to bring about a sustainable state of economic growth and development — rooted in education, capital formation and investment, entrepreneurship and employment.

Innovation Economy Squeeze

Innovation Economy Squeeze is the dramatically increasing level of U.S. business productivity, enabled by efficiency gains from new technology adoption and integration (and far fewer employees), combined with the increasingly “flat world,” (where competition for new jobs is global), that squeezes Americans in unprecedented ways.

Fewer Americans are needed to produce more goods and services; and billions of new workers around the world are now competing with Americans for new jobs in diverse geographic regions.

Connected Citizens

Connected Citizens are Americans with the awareness of innovation ecosystems, skills, competencies and access to economic networks, and characteristic performance levels required to successfully connect to innovation clusters, ecosystems and emerging industry sector opportunities.

Disconnected Citizens

Disconnected Citizens are Americans lacking some or all of the following: awareness of innovation ecosystems, requisite skills and competencies, access to economic networks, and characteristic performance levels necessary to successfully connect to innovation clusters, ecosystems and emerging industry sector opportunities.

Trim Tabbers

Trim Tabbers are persons whose capabilities provide the higher leverage leadership needed to turn a matter of importance in the desired direction. Their actions significantly increase the achievement potential of the group, considerably enhancing the probability of mission success — achieving exponential impact, rather than incremental outcomes.


Trim Tab Organizations Trim Tab Organizations are entities demonstrating an operational approach to mission impact based on aggregating key resources, organizing those resources into actionable, collaborative forms and highly leveraging them to achieve exponential impact, rather than incremental outcomes.

Trim Tab Movement

The Trim Tab Movement is a series of high-leverage, organized actions and events of national or global scale, yet local in implementation and impact, that take place over an extended period of time, working to achieve exponential impact, rather than incremental outcomes.

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America21 - Inclusive Competitiveness: Glossary of terms