Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Sean Randolph, president and CEO of the Bay Area Economic Forum in California, opened dialogue with East of England International, Greater Cambridge Partnership and other technology influencers on a visit last week.

The Oxford2Cambridge Arc area is the only region in the UK the forum visited and wishes to engage with in the first phase of its outward expansion strategy.

It is also the only UK region in an exclusive hitlist of six technology clusters worldwide that the Bay Area has identified as priority – putting Cambridge in an elite that also includes Shanghai and Bangalore.

Talking exclusively to Business Weekly, Randolph sang the praises of the technology talent and entrepreneurial dynamism he experienced in Cambridge. Although the scale of the Bay Area way outstripped that of the Oxford2Cambridge Arc, he felt that there were clear synergies in every other regard.

The Bay Area includes San Francisco and with an economy of almost $300 billion ranks 24th in the world compared to national economies.

On a per capita basis, it ranks ahead of all national economies – including the US – and has:-
• America’s largest concentration of national laboratories, corporate and independent research labs and leading research universities
• The highest density of VC firms in the world, with 32 per cent of total US VC funding invested in the region
• More Fortune 500 companies than any region except New York
• The highest economic productivity in the US – almost twice the national average

Randolph also revealed that the formerly insular VCs in the Bay Area were also casting their net much wider and Cambridge was very much on their radar following high profile acquisitions in this area by Californian technology giants in recent years.

So why the sea change in strategy from Bay area economic development chiefs? Randolph said: “We can’t afford to ignore the evidence before us. The world is changing and we cannot risk being left behind.

“Emerging economies like India and China are shaking up the economic power base and we have to engage with them. More specifically, no-one centre of technology has the whole field to itself any longer and we cannot afford to be insular in our outlook.

“Cambridge clearly has a terrific knowledge centre embracing hi-tech, Life Sciences and academic excellence and I have been particularly impressed at the way their clusters in segments such as wireless and biotech have progressed.

“We sat down and analysed things and realised that half a dozen large metropolitan areas outside of our own were becoming global hubs of technology. We knew we had to open up a pipeline linked to these regions.

“The Oxford2Cambridge Arc area is very similar to our own in many regards. We are dealing with a lot of the same issues; we have similar assets in terms of highly educated people, the talent pool generally – and on the downside, congestion and high cost of housing.

“A lot of our companies are investing heavily around the world now and a lot of UK investments are coming into our area. Out of the UK we came up with our own golden triangle that centred on Cambridge, Oxford and London.

“Over the last five years the VC firms in the Bay Area have begun to put out feelers globally to test the technology barometer in areas such as Cambridge, Shanghai and Bangalore.

“Like us, the VCs appreciate Cambridge’s focused approach to technology, the links to a number of world-class universities and research institutes and the dynamic entrepreneurship that exists in your region.”

Randolph said the significance of the approach to Cambridge should not be underestimated. “We might have done it 10 years ago but probably not 20 years ago and definitely not before that. In those days major centres such as our own tended to benchmark against other metropolitan areas in the US – now the benchmark has to be a global one.”