Karen Merrick of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, in recent discussions about the alleged decreasing Iowa workforce, implied that one way to bring more employees to the area is to increase innovation in the area. This is probably true, but what exactly counts as innovation, and what can we do to foster its growth in Cedar Rapids?Perhaps unfortunately, not a lot of innovation tends to come out of established companies, and even more rarely does it come out of the more junior-level employees at such companies. Why? Established companies work by known formulas with their primary goals being reliability and profitability. Innovative work, on the other hand, is often out on the fringes, and is more risky to implement. For this reason, innovations in technology tend to come out of small startup companies rather than large established companies.
So here’s a suggestion for Cedar Rapids: the city, or the city with help from local companies who wish to encourage innovation, could fund the creation of small technology startup companies in the city, a la Paul Graham’s Y Combinator. The grand total cost to the city would likely be around $150,000 each year, depending on the details. Would some of the startup ventures fail? Probably. But some will also likely succeed, and the very opportunity to participate in such endeavors may draw innovative people to Cedar Rapids, to do innovative things.