Overview
Chancellor Donde Plowman opened the second day of the inaugural "Competitiveness Conversations Across America" with a compelling vision for the future. Addressing a gathering ripe with potential collaborators, Plowman highlighted the significance of place in cultivating an innovation ecosystem. "Place makes a difference," she affirmed, emphasizing the transformative synergy of people and partnerships in Tennessee.
Key Session Insights
Plowman shared an enlightening personal revelation about her past teaching experiences with business strategies, notably with frameworks from the Boston Consulting Group, underscoring an underappreciated connection between Tennessee and historical strategic thought. "I taught business strategy for 20 years using their (Boston Consulting Group) matrix, and I did not know anything about the amazing story that Senator Hagerty shared with us last night," she reflected, underscoring Tennessee’s role in jumpstarting two of the world’s pre-eminent business consulting firms, and showcasing Tennessee’s potential as an emerging role as America's next great innovation hub.
Facing the assembled leaders, Plowman posed a pivotal question: “How do we sustain momentum?” Her response outlined a focused strategy: celebrating incremental successes while keeping an eye on the broader goal of establishing Tennessee as a national leader in innovation.
She detailed her strategic blueprint, termed the "Three Ps": People, Partnerships, and Place. Plowman stressed that innovation is fundamentally about people who are empowered across all levels of an organization. She called, for example, for leaders to push forward a workforce collation of more than 100 organizations to foster broad-based innovation in advanced mobility—a pillar for future innovation and competitiveness.
“We are going to become the next great hub of American innovation right here in Tennessee. And it is because we have the people, we have the partnerships, and we have the place. We are the place.”
Donde Plowman
Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Partnerships, she argued, form the skeleton of Tennessee's nascent innovation ecosystem. Plowman praised the day’s gathering of industry and academic leaders as an achievement that would have been improbable five years ago, illustrating the state's growth in collaborative capacity. She advocated for using the University's expertise in building research coalitions to enhance partnerships across communities, funding agencies, and industries.
Lastly, Plowman celebrated the unique attributes of Tennessee as a place, noting, "Co-location makes a difference." She envisioned outsiders perceiving the state not only as a hub of top-tier workforce and infrastructure, but as a community offering connectivity and an appealing quality of life.
With a blend of reflective insight and forward-looking enthusiasm, Chancellor Plowman’s opening remarks set the tone for a day dedicated to exploring and expanding Tennessee’s innovation landscape. "We have all the pieces. Let us keep building," she concluded, positioning her address not just as a commentary, but as a clarion call for continued growth and collaboration.
