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UTB-CBIRD Report: “At the Crossroads” Conclusions & Recommendations 163
community challenges or to launch a new company. Every dynamic process
needs fuel, and here the fuel is capital. Capital, whether human, social or
financial, is the catalyst that empowers regionally-based public-private
partnerships.
Know-how is the ability to leverage talent, knowledge, and capital with innovative
and creative solutions that overcome cultural, social, organizational, and
institutional barriers and challenges. Such know-how is often referred to as
“smart infrastructure” and is considered a critical component in achieving
success in regionally-based growth. Know-how includes public policy, legal,
academic, and business oriented expertise.
Leadership in regionally-based initiatives can come from a range of participants
and from a variety of levels in business-academic-government sectors. The
crucial issue is to identify and motivate true champions/influencers for the
chosen initiative. Being a successful boundary-spanning influencer is a
considerable challenge within and across sectors that traditionally do not reward
(if they do not discourage) such efforts; however, there are “guidelines” that have
been identified by those that have been effective in such a role and they
include: 1
⇒ Understand the concepts of power and status
⇒ Have enormous reservoir of patience
⇒ Work very hard
⇒ Don’t throw your weight around
⇒ Help those that follow
⇒ Be tenacious
⇒ Ignore a lot and be very flexible
⇒ Trust to luck
⇒ Don’t take your self too seriously
⇒ Believe in your intuition
Community-based assets are leveraged through entrepreneurship that facilitates
networking and the forming or regional visions and strategies for success.
Committees are not collaboration. Collaboration is meaningful knowledge
sharing and targeted leveraging of resources (i.e., financial, intellectual, and
physical) to overcome specific challenges. For such collaboration to be realized
it needs to be action oriented with metrics for success (short- and long-term) for
all participants. Community-based influencers and champions need to
communicate across academic, business, government, and other regional
sectors. Where there is a synergistic grouping of such influencers, there can be
creative and innovative problem solving, accelerated economic development,
shared prosperity and an enhanced quality of life.
Institution-based excellence – whether it be academic, business, or government
-- is NOT sufficient. What is required is public-private leveraging of regional
assets to overcome regional challenges to accelerate regional development.
How effectively Cameron County and Matamoros and other border business,
academic, and government sectors collaborate, coordinate, and cooperate will,
in large part, determine the region’s ability to accelerate economic growth and to
create high value jobs while sustaining and enhancing an accessible quality-oflife
for all: One region – Un Futuro.
1 Ronya Kozmetsky presentation in Harlingen Texas on May 8, 2002 and Women in Business:
Succeeding as a Manager, Professional, or Entrepreneur, by Ronya Kozmetsky, Texas Monthly Press,
1989. pp 142-144.
One Region, One Future
Community-based
assets are leveraged
through
entrepreneurship that
facilitates networking
and the forming of
regional visions and
strategies for success.
Public/private
committees are not
collaboration.
Collaboration needs to
be action-oriented with
metrics for success for
all participants.