Let’s look at a place that has created over 3,000 jobs by growing new local companies, mostly high-tech in just 15 years.  These jobs are also high-wage, and one measure is that this community is fifth in all counties in the U.S. for per-capita giving.  There is a strong cultural and arts scene, with a new Arts Center and more restaurants per capita than San Francisco.  One shop in this community is the exclusive U.S. retailer for a vineyard in the south of France that was started by the Knights Templar in 1137 (the vineyard notes that Thomas Jefferson was one of their first customers in the U.S).  The community is also wired… almost all homes and businesses have high-speed Internet.

The businesses are not just “Mom and Pop’s” although there are a few of those.  This community is home to over 60 corporate headquarters.  Companies typical of this community is Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. which grew from 5 employees and $500,000 in revenues to over 300 employees and almost $200 million in revenue in just ten years.  One community startup was acquired by Reader’s Digest, their biggest acquisition ever!

The tools for growing businesses have been developed by the entrepreneurs themselves over the past 15 years.  Today there is a $60 million venture capital fund, and entrepreneurs’ association that sponsors educational programs and boot camps, and even the measure of entrepreneurship that every community wants… a business incubator.

Are you thinking. “Wow!  Sounds like a great place, but they probably have what we are lacking.!”  WRONG!  This community is 60 miles from the nearest interstate highway, does not have airline service, and has a total population under 10,000.  What they do have is the entrepreneurial spirit!  Most of the infrastructure for growth, from the local intranet, to the social networks, to the venture funds, was created by the entrepreneurs themselves.  What the community did was give them the leeway to develop their businesses, and kept asking “how can we help?” 

Here is an excerpt from http://www.fairfieldiowa.com/economic_bureau/whatsgreat.php

“Fairfield (Iowa) is sixty miles from the nearest Interstate and 120 miles from a major metro, Des Moines. Fairfield’s deep entrepreneurial roots date back to the late 19th Century when William Louden invented the modern dairy barn, the manure spreader and the single track monorail system used in nearly every factory in the world. Fairfield had the first Carnegie Library and established one of the first municipal utilities in the country. It boasts the oldest golf club, not only in Iowa. but west of the Mississippi River as well.

Fairfield is the home (past and present) of both Parsons College and Maharishi University of Management. (MUM). In 1974, MUM moved from California and took over the old campus of Parsons College. The campus covers 262 acres in Fairfield, is accredited at the bachelor's, masters and doctoral levels by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and provides the highest caliber of higher education to its diverse international student body representing over sixty countries. MUM has been an important catalyst in attracting bright, young professionals to the Fairfield community. Fairfield’s success can be attributed to a dramatic change in culture in the last twenty years. This has been a shift from stodgy conservative business values to recognizing an entrepreneurial endeavor, whether successful or not, is a stepping-stone to future innovation, growth and prosperity. Social entrepreneurs who are committed to developing a new $7 million downtown civic and convention center or creating a new foundation, (this town has thirteen), enjoy the same enthusiasm and support the business entrepreneurs do.”

For additional information, go to http://cityoffairfieldiowa.com/Public/Home/index.cfm and also view the video link (7 minutes) while you are there.  The Maharishi University of Management also has interesting information on its site at www.mum.edu including that it has brought over $250 million in research grants in physics, molecular biology, physiology, and preventive medicine to its 272 are campus in Fairfield.  Maharishi University added the “of Management” to its name in 1995 when it began to incorporate entrepreneurial educational components into all of its courses in recognition that management goes beyond traditional business education and is the key to personal and business success.

In the early days of motor racing, races began with the call, “Gentlemen, start your engines!”  Perhaps the call all communities should be making today is, “Entrepreneurs, start your businesses!  It certainly worked for Fairfield and it will work in other places as well.