Creating Regional Wealth in the Innovation Economy: Models, Perspectives, and Best Practices

   

Government in Partnership with Business ” The Anti Model

The nature of the Cambridge environment, in the cultural sense of the word, dictates a special relational dynamic regarding its interaction with government. Due to the general penchant for close, personal contact and the importance of mutual trust, there reigns a suspicion of intervention from the establishment. As Lindy Beveridge puts it, "This is a small, huddly community where everything happens on a face-to-face basis. Cambridge has a completely neurotic hatred and suspicion of bureaucracy in the high-tech community! They will not have anything to do with government organizations. This goes back to the 17th century; Cromwell was, after all, MP for Cambridge!" Professor Gordon Edge of The Generics Group further explains the Cambridge mindset.

Gordon Edge

The government's role in getting things started? None.

As for the origins of the whole process, it was a kind of chain reaction. Outside of the university, there has never been any government money or any initiatives in this area. That marks it out as quite unique. You'll find that as you go around Cambridge, there is virtually no public sector activity, no defense activity, no European-type projects, practically none at all if you compare Cambridge with Sophia Antipolis, where there are a lot of EU projects. Such government intervention is a culture mismatch here.

Cambridge has always been very slow in terms of infrastructure. Many roads only have two lanes . The visions of the planners are very limited. We got involved in a planing battle with the Cambridge City and Cambridgeshire County Councils, as did the Wellcome Trust and the University Department of Animal Behaviour, but the city blocked all three applications. After three years and an appeal to the central government, we finally got permission to build according to our needs. The government appointed an inspector, who was independent and who came out with a very strong recommendation that we should be allowed to develop.

In general, whereas the government does express a great interest in what is going on, the question is, to what degree can it help us? People in Cambridge are very self-sufficient. They prefer doing it the hard way. They appreciate intellectual property, and generating cash flows, and not massive losses. It is not a culture of dependency.

   
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