Top 10 Ideas and Innovations in Manufacturing, Regional and Green Development

I'm wrapping up my 36 day "green business" development project, supported by the German Marshall Fund of the US and WIRE-Net, in Barcelona, Bologna, Essen, Stuttgart and Denmark with a few ideas and observations that have come to me as I've seen what our European counterparts are doing in their regions:

1. Firms that sell a product are moving into a service provider and systems approach in order to add value beyond the widget they make. 
2. Successful firms are constantly scanning and using new technology in their field, and use this focus as another element of value-add to their customers and owners.
3. Entrepreneurial and Urban Development:  Barcelona Activa's "best practice" model of entrepreneurial development marries the energy of start-up entrepreneurs with urban redevelopment in the @22 District in downtown Barcelona.
4. Stuttgart defines itself in terms of its strongest technology:  mobility (not cars).  They showcase the future of the mobility industry through their new downtown "e-mobility" showroom (see photo), which features the latest developments in electric, hybrid and fuel-cell technology for cars, public transport, and bicycles (Stuttgart is quite hilly).
5. The financial and economic crisis has thrown a damper on the emergence of the green economy, but everyone says it will be back stronger than ever.  This is a field with hundreds of opportunities for almost every company and region.
6. European regions have more experience in the green field, but it is still wide open and there is plenty of room for US based efforts to yield payoffs.
7. Energy efficiency is the tip of the green economic spear:  Cleveland has the tools to make its 1000 manufacturers among the most efficient on the planet, and 2011 is the year to make this happen.  This will create valuable links between Mayor Jackson's Sustainability 2019 Initiative, and the bedrock of our region's economy.
8. Design matters:  In Barcelona, Bologna, Stuttgart and Copenhagen you could see regional players getting good leverage from a focus on design.
9. We need more "Manufacturing Matters" true believers!  As a new colleague in Bologna put it, "here, manufacturing is a religion", and company leaders know and appreciate the resources the region invests in the producing sector.
10. It is fine to have a focus on bio-info and nano, but regions with an impressive legacy of making and designing things should not turn away from that asset.  I saw this expressed in Barcelona, Bologna and Stuttgart especially.  The Danes have realized they made a mistake in the 1980s as the dot-com bubble inflated, as did the European Union with its service economy proclamations.  They are turning back to a focus on their manufacturing expertise.  Without the ability to make things, the ability to drive innovation and high value services will be hamstrung.

Honoring the Ruhrgebiet's legacy of Fire, Industry and Art.