Recently, I’ve had an interesting discussion with two colleagues in Dresden, Germany who are trying to create their own Silicon Valley.  They’ve started an online game and want to leverage it to jumpstart tech startups and local economic growth.  Our discussion:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/RalfLippold/posts/176224045808378?notif_t=share_reply

How does one leverage the cloud to catalyze local economic growth?  This is perhaps the biggest challenge facing a Great Recession global economy, not just Dresden.  Those innovators who figure it out will be the new 21st century entrepreneurs.   Here are my thoughts on some ways to jumpstart local innovation using the cloud:

- Silicon Valley is not a place; it’s now a mindset and philosophy about work and life, so it can be built anywhere.  Think memes.  Focus on relationships and markets, not building brick-and-mortar initially, which can come later.

- Leverage online technologies, including social media, mobile apps and cloud services.  They’re faster, cheaper (often free) and easier to deploy.  Think bottom-up grassroots initiatives by individuals and small groups, like the Arab Spring and Occupy, not top-down and formal government programs only.

- Connect and partner with Silicon Valley and other regional groups and individuals.   Think “of the world, by the world, for the world” to build global ventures, not just locally.  Avoid “the blind leading the blind” trap of local chauvinism.  Be open and think globally from Day 1!

- Launch B2B entrepreneurship blogs, websites, mobile apps and groups on Facebook, Linkedin, Eventbrite, Meetup, and Twitter to connect entrepreneurs, service providers, investors, universities and regional promotion agencies.

- Use free cloud services by IBM, Amazon, and other service providers aiming to attract small businesses.

- Use crowd funding sites like IndieGogo, Kickstarter, and others to raise your seed round.

- Shoot promotional and training videos for distribution on Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo and other social video sservices.

- Organize online contests using existing service providers.

There are hundreds of other practical, short-term and cheap/free ways to launch and build startups and a critical mass of entrepreneurs, so explore them and share them with your community.  Rome (or Silicon Valley) wasn’t built in a day so you need to think long-term, start now and be patient!

Best wishes in your journey and post your progress on this and other sites.

Many cities and regions try to clone Silicon Valley, but I think it’s a waste of time copying a rather unique region.  Silicon Valley has many attributes that most regions lack:  an open society, talented immigrants, world-class research universities, great weather, an entrepreneurial try-it culture, heavy Pentagon spending in leading-edge technologies, thousands of angel investors, hundreds of venture capital (VC) firms, etc.

So how can regions develop their own Silicon Valley?   Bangalore has shown that it’s possible to build a “Silicon Valley of software” by investing heavily in infrastructure and partnering with Silicon Valley via TiE.org.  Fortunately, India has a plethora of top IT college graduates and, even then, it’s better at outsourcing than original software design. But it has succeeded in creating many jobs.  East London, Cambridge, Oxford, Barcelona, Stockholm, Shanghai, Beijing, New York City, Boulder (Colorado), and Austin, Texas show it’s possible to cultivate startups by creating a supportive ecosystem.

What’s the magic formula?  Here are my tips:

- Leverage your strengths.  Find your strongest areas of education, technology, marketing, distribution and finance where your region can become world class.  In the 1990s, Nokia leveraged its digital technologies from the military to build a global presence.  Today, Rovio is building on Finland’s fascination with online and mobile gaming.  Entrepreneurs in East London and Berlin are taking advantage of cheap rent to build grassroots tech clusters.

- Transform your weaknesses into strengths.  Chinese cities are leveraging their pollution problems to create a solar energy and other green industries, which is a good example of the principle:   Necessity is the mother of invention.  Find your biggest problems and figure out affordable solutions that can be sold worldwide.

- Connect with Silicon Valley professional organizations.   The valley has hundreds of tech organizations, colleges, research centers, and incubators that are open to global collaboration.  Just Google them to find suitable partners, offer to collaborate, visit the valley, then establish ongoing programs and projects.  It’s easier than you think.  The big groups are Tie.org, Monte Jade, Asian American Multitechnology Association, Keizai Society, Silicon Vikings, and Hispanic Net, but look for others.

- Visit Silicon Valley.   Visit us or at least send college students, entrepreneurs and research professors here on tours and sabbaticals so they can meet valley organizations and people.  The valley is very informal so it’s easy to connect with people.   See article, which has a very good description of Silicon Valley values and culture. How can you extend this openness extend to your region?   http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/74008/Visiting-The-Valley-Why-It-s-A-Special-Place-For-Startups.aspx

- Set up an online business network.   Showcase your local talent and connect it with Silicon Valley organizations and universities.  Direct, informal people-to-people communications is the fastest and most effective way to network with Silicon Valley and other emerging tech regions.

- Organize a contest or online game.  Involve Silicon Valley and other regions to participate in your local contests and online games.  Make it fun and challenging and you’ll get millions of visitors and many participants. “All the world’s a game.”

The key is to have fun, pick easy challenges initially, network with Silicon Valley and other regions, and just go for it.  Bottom-up grassroots initiatives, like the Arab Spring or Occupy, are much faster and more effective than slow, bureaucratic, top-down government programs.  After all, Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture is led by entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats.  So loosen up, connect and have fun!   Then you’ll succeed faster than you can imagine.

Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the greatest American businessmen because of his ability to innovate and reinvent so many industries – after failing and losing face in front of the world.   Much has been written about him, but as a Silicon Valley insider who has co-launched a half dozen startups and advised corporations, here are the most impressive lessons he taught us:

Design for users.   Silicon Valley is an echo chamber where new ideas are repeated and copied endlessly, but most of this noise is marketing hype.  Steve Jobs focused on designing products for average users, not engineers.  In a world where complex “technologies in search of solutions” reign, he focused on average user needs and simplified the design so everyone can use Apple products.  As Silicon Valley shifts from U.S. enterprise markets to global consumer markets, this focus on user-centric design will become even more important. For stagnating or developing regions, it’s the best way to develop appropriate technologies.

Seek uniqueness.   In an era of fast, cheap copycat products made in China, innovators have become rare.  Don’t follow the herd.  Seek out your own path.  Be different. Be original. Be unique.  Just don’t be boring.  Delight your customers!

Keep it simple.  The essence of great design is simplicity.  Steve Jobs’ study of Zen and Japanese design are apparent in the Zen-like quality of Apple products – no muss, no fuss, no extra frills, just clean, functional design.  Most companies gunk up their offerings with useless features.  K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid!   That could be Steve’s enduring slogan.

Keep your own counsel.  With the Internet and smartphones, too many businesses today drown in a flood of information and advice and end up copying each other out of desperation to keep up.  The me-too herd mentality has gotten worse, especially with the rise of China and other developing nations trying to copy Silicon Valley.  Copycats have become so rampant that true originality and innovation have become scarce, thus the rise of patent wars.  Business schools and most “experts” are only making it worse, focusing on short-term profits and “best practices”.  If you want to innovate, turn off everything, take long walks, daydream, sketch and brainstorm ideas over coffee, and do anything to find your own voice and style.  Otherwise, you’ll just add to the noise.

Develop a thick skin.  If you’re truly innovative, you’ll be laughed at, belittled, criticized, and dismissed by most people.  Ignore them and focus on realizing your vision and dream.  Building a venture is like playing World Cup football; only truly committed players with thick skin and endurance survive and have a chance to win.  Steve Jobs had incredibly thick skin, so he managed to retain his hopes, dreams, delight and awe in the face of harsh criticism and numerous setbacks.

Build an A-team.  Find the best talent who share your goals and build something together.  If you hire a B-class person, that person will recruit C- and D-class people in order to look good and your company will sink into mediocrity overnight.  One A-class person is worth a half dozen B-class people; they work faster, cheaper and better, and you’ll avoid lots of useless meetings.  Look overseas for talent, not just at home, since the top talent is worldwide, which is where most startups fail.  Most Silicon Valley startups have a few co-founders in California, with most of the team overseas, which is easy to do with the Internet and Skype.  Steve Jobs recruited John Ive and Frog Design to get the top design talent.

Resilience is all.  Steve Jobs failed repeatedly – with bad products, in his relationships, in his management practices – but he never quit.  He learned from his mistakes and came back stronger, wiser and more determined than ever.  He’s like the “Daruma” in Japanese lore:  down seven times, back up eight times.  That’s why he’s one of the most brilliant business people of all times; he never, never gave up.  His resilience and persistence in the face of adversity are legendary.  How many people do you know who fail repeatedly, are laughed at and scorned, yet manage to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and perform even better, indeed brilliantly, as though nothing happened?   That is indeed a rare talent.

Pursue your passion.  That resilience came in large part because Steve Jobs ignored the advice of others and did what he truly loved doing – creating great products.  In his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Steve said it best:   “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”  As Socrates said:  Know thyself!

Keep the fire alive.  When most of us grow older, we lose our original passion and fire.  We accept the status quo, mediocrity, and stale ideas and people.  We basically give up on life.  In Silicon Valley, we call it “the walking dead.” Even though he was successful beyond belief, Steve Jobs never fell prey to entropy and despair.  He did everything within his power to stay alive, alert, open, clear and driven like a child, which is why his last decade of life was the most creative and totally transformed the world with the iPod, iMac, iPhone, iStore, and iPad. As he said:  “Stay hungry.  Stay foolish.”  He knew he had to stay hungry like people around the world who are always hungry for great products, services and inspiration.  Even at the end of his life, he was awed by beauty, saying:  “Oh, wow! Oh, wow! Oh, wow!”

Maybe you be constantly awed by life like Steve and keep his fire bright and alive in your own life and business.  If you do, you will have learned the best of Silicon Valley.  You will be a mover and shaker in your world and make it better for all of us.

I’m finishing his e-book, “In the Valley of Digital Dreams” (2012).  You’re also welcome to join my groups:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/109971182359978/, https://twitter.com/#!/SheridanTatsuno, www.dreamscapeglobal.com