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SAN FRANCISCO-The big picture for Silicon Valley? It keeps reinventing itself. That comes from a recent presentation by Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley at Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank's recent forecast event here. He pointed out at the event that in the 1940s, the innovation was the Vacuum Tube, in 1950s, it was transistors. Fast forward to the '90s, and it was network computing, packet switching and internet search, and in the 2000s, it is web 2.0 and social media.
San Jose, CA, for example, is ranked as America's top patent generating cities in the United States. And five other Silicon Valley cities also come in at top 10, including Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Fremont, Cupertino, and Mountain View, said Hancock.
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But the valley's edge doesn't stem from innovation alone, said Hancock. “It also comes from entrepreneurship,” he said. Social media's Facebook and YouTube are leading the 2000s, Genentech and Genencor led biotechnology in the 1970s, and going back to the 1950s, it was defense electronics with Hewlett-Packard and Varian.
The Valley also generates new business models, said Hancock. There is internet-based commerce with Netscape, for example, free search, supported by advertising with Google and Yahoo, and music downloads with Apple itunes, to name a few.
The real story is Silicon Valley's small companies, Hancock added.
But having said all that, Hancock still warns that there are risks in the area, including the real per capita income and median household income among others. “Perhaps our biggest risk is our own inability to manage growth and come together as a region,” he said.
His summary is that Silicon Valley is hot and is going to get hotter. But the prosperity is not widely shared, he said. “There will be more stress and unrest. And we need to be as innovative in the public sphere as we have in the private sector.”
Stay tuned for more coverage of this event with thoughts from Phil Mahoney, EVP of corporate and institutional services at Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank.
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com and GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
