Governance in innovative cities and the importance of branding.

With the establishment of the Central Manchester Development Corporation in 1986, however, a new strategic tool was employed in an attempt to restructure the economy, namely public- private partnership (PPP). Thanks to this cooperative strategy in which the private and public sector joined forces, major redevelopment projects in the city could be realised relatively rapidly. Successful PPP-projects were in infrastructure, notably the rebuilding of the Central Station and the first phase of Metrolink, but the strategy also included the creation of a new institution, Manchester's inward investment agency MIDAS, and the opening of a new cultural facility, the Urbis-museum. Ironically, the explosion of an IRA-bomb in 1996, which devastated the Victorian city centre, paved the way for the local authorities to rebuild Manchester's heart as well and to develop a new image of the city from scratch (Peck & Ward 2002).

Over the years, the economy of Manchester has improved. Less than one-fifth of the city's workers are now employed in factories; most work in service occupations, although these are often relatively low-paid retail, personal-service and clerical jobs. Business in Manchester is doing well and it is the fastest growing municipality outside London (Manchester City Council 2007). In the 1990s, the City Council also established Marketing Manchester to promote the 'new' Manchester. The branding campaign this body developed around the slogan 'We're up and going' was heavily criticized, however. This criticism came mainly from a group calling itself 'The McEnroe Group' after the famous tennis player McEnroe who used to say 'You cannot be serious'. One of these dissenters was the Mancunian designer Peter Saville, who took up the challenge to try better and in 2004 Manchester City Council appointed him as Manchester's city brander. Recently, Peter Saville--officially entitled 'Manchester's Creative Director'--has launched a new branding campaign for Manchester with 'original modern' as the organising concept (Manchester City Council 2007). This concept, which is meant to be more than a marketing slogan, draws on the industrial tradition of the city, but simultaneously tries to make clear that Manchester has shifted from an industrial city to an industrial city.

According to Saville in an interview with researcher O'Connor (2006):

The relevant city authorities have greeted the new branding strategy of Manchester with open arms. Manchester Knowledge Capital, a public-private partnership aimed at the promotion of the local knowledge economy, now makes use of the branding concept to stimulate innovation in Mancunian neighbourhoods, for example. In its policy the platform puts emphasis on applied 'real world science' rather than on fundamental 'rocket science' since for a local knowledge economy to develop, it is important that many people are involved and enthused rather than a small group of scientists. To stir up enthusiasm among the public, Manchester Knowledge Capital has started the so-called 'Innovation Investment Fund' that supports each Mancunian citizen who comes forward with a realistic and feasible innovative business idea. In this way, Manchester's authorities hope to attain the critical mass needed for the acceleration of urban innovativeness.

LESSONS FROM THE CASE STUDY EXAMPLES

Although the experiences in Austin, the Oresund and Manchester are 'one-off ' cases, it is possible to derive three general lessons from their experience. First, it can be just one person with the leadership skills to boost urban innovation, as Austin and Manchester teach us. Leaders with a vision and the drive 'to get things done' can be crucial for a city striving to re-invent itself, as Louvain (Louis Tobback), Lille (Pierre Mauroy) and Stuttgart (Lothar Spath) have shown.

Second, the popular saying that 'crisis is the mother of innovation' seems to apply for cities as well: due to deindustrialisation and intensified competition cities like Manchester and Copenhagen were more or less forced to re-invent themselves. This has freed policymakers to take leaps that could otherwise have been considered too risky. The local government of these cities took measures, such as putting a dissenter in a core position in the city and cross-border cooperation with a neighbouring city dissimilar in scale and population, that in a period of stability perhaps would be considered overambitious, risky or even foolish. In such a context local stakeholders, such as government and business are more inclined to join forces than in a stable situation--after all, in a crisis there is not much to lose and original projects (e.g. public private partnership) easily show up.

Finally, the case studies suggest how important it is to make the city well-known to the outside world. City marketing, by starting a campaign or by attracting free publicity, is necessary for cities that want to attract new talent. If knowledge workers think a city is not innovative or simply do not know that, they will not come. Governance of urban innovation requires a clear communication strategy beyond a policy of creating framework conditions that increase the chance for innovation. Branding is key.

CONCLUSION: GIVING CHANCE A HELPING HAND

In the knowledge economy cities still hold the future. History suggests that cities are the places par excellence where knowledge, creativity and innovation reach full maturity, although not every city has unquestionably good prospects in the knowledge economy. The winning 'innovative cities' will possess not only sufficient concentration, diversity and instability but will also project a matching image based on innovation and modernity. Cities that succeed in the current inter-city competitive have been able to use their creative powers to establish these framework conditions for urban innovation. But the unpredictability surrounding urban innovation means that a tailor-made, unambiguous creative competitive strategy for cities in the knowledge economy is not readily available. Authorities that want to boost urban innovation have some tricks up their sleeves, however. The cities of Austin, Oresund and Manchester suggest the importance of enabling visionary leadership, thinking in terms of a crisis situation and paying attention to a city's outside-image. In addition, public authorities should work together with local stakeholders in trying to increase the chance that creativity emerges. In principle, a more innovative city is possible if certain conditions are created and investments are made to make the city's name known to outsiders for new things.

But success is not assured. Local authorities wishing to give their city a place in the knowledge economy can only give chance a helping hand and try to improve the image of the city. Perhaps the famous chemist Louis Pasteur best expressed what a realistic urban knowledge strategy should be: when he was asked how he arrived at his creative discoveries and innovations, he said: 'Chance favours only the prepared mind' (cited in Florida, 2002). Similarly, the English writer and free spirit William Shakespeare was right when he asserted 'What is the city but the people?' (cited in Halliday 1964). And last but not least, the German writer Theodor Fontane put it all in 'It's all a matter of exposure' (cited in Grawe 1994). Indeed, in the end, a city can only be innovative if people perceive it like that. Taking into account the image of a city and taking branding measures to improve it is already winning half of the battle.

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