The Lean Business of Place-Based Enterprise
Type
Policy Brief or Report
Year
2014
Level
City or Town
State(s)
All States
Policy Areas
Civil Rights, Community Development, Economic Justice
While big businesses dominate global markets, command the entrenched financial and banking powers and are incentivized by misguided government policy, emerging startups can disrupt the status quo and prove that local economies can compete successfully if they connect with their customer base and build capacity through local networks. The challenge for Lean Urbanism is to take charge at the association and neighborhood levels: to monitor, harness and replicate emerging local business successes and through bottom-up vigilance to influence top-down policy to change not just the economic dynamics of a region, but strengthen its cultural, social and built landscape.