Competing in a New Age

Computerworld - • The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, by Richard Florida (HarperBusiness, 336 pages, $25.95). For decades, the U.S. has reigned as the world's center for innovation, be it in high tech, science or entertainment. And as Florida astutely observes, "Of critical importance to American success this last century has been an influx of global talent," from Scottish-born steel titan Andrew Carnegie to the Hungarian co-founder of Intel, Andy Grove.
But as Florida, the Hirst Professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, argues, a combination of factors, including better occupational and educational opportunities in places like Singapore and India, are leading to a global war for creative talent -- a battle that he believes the U.S. is positioning itself to lose.
Tighter immigration and visa policies that have been adopted since 9/11 are leading an increasing number of foreign-born graduate students to enroll in non-U.S. universities and to work outside the country in more-receptive environments. But that's just one of the problems that's diminishing the nation's ranking as a key destination for creative workers, says Florida.
He also notes that 40 million people, or roughly 30% of the U.S. workforce, are members of what he terms the "creative class" -- people who are employed in industries ranging from science and engineering to the arts and white-collar professions such as law. But that leaves the other 70% struggling to survive in lower-paying manufacturing and service-industry jobs, a situation that Florida says is "exacerbating economic inequality."
Meanwhile, regions such as Bangalore, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Beijing are aggressively recruiting foreign technology companies and investing heavily in higher education and in research and development.
In this smartly written and well-documented book, Florida calls upon government, business and academic leaders -- as well as everyday citizens -- to develop something as large-scale as the New Deal to build a fully creative society. Even those readers who disagree with Florida's anti-isolationist views will find this well-crafted tome thought-provoking and worthwhile.

• The Rational Project Manager: A Thinking Team's Guide to Getting Work Done, by Andrew Longman and Jim Mullins (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 256 pages, $27.95). Savvy project managers know that the biggest roadblocks to delivering projects on time and within budget and scope are typically organizational inertia and people issues. The authors, who are consultants at Kepner-Tregoe Inc. in Princeton, N.J., do a deft job of addressing these topics while incorporating their organization's problem-solving and decision-making techniques.
They also provide a useful perspective on why today's projects are