Interview with Dr. William Miller, Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and "father" of the concept «Silicon Valley's habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship».

After a first "White paper" about "Riding the Waves of Innovation", providing a model to shape a resilient region in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area of San Francisco, in North California, the Next Silicon Valley Leadership Group published, last June (2002), a new paper, titled "Preparing for the Next Silicon Valley: Opportunities and Choices". The main message is: the coming wave is a new convergence based in the three converging revolutions in biotechnology, information technologies (IT) and nanotechnology. In this new wave, innovation is likely to occur near the intersection of disciplines related to the three areas. We are assisting business opportunities in the emerging fields of bioinformatics, biomaterials, biochips, biosensors, nanorobotics,etc.. At the same time, nanotechnologies are being recognised as a foundation for both advances in biotech and IT. McKinsey estimates that the cumulative market for this new convergence could top $1 trillion in about a decade.

All the information at www.jointventure.org.
Dr. William Miller can be contacted by email: wmiller@leland.stanford.edu.

Interview by Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues, editor of www.gurusonline.tv

The core asset of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area of SF continues to be its "special habitat", as you mentioned once? The regional advantage, and its world uniqueness, as AnnaLee Saxenian once declared, continues or there are signals of decline since the bust of the New Economy?

The special Silicon Valley "Habitat" is still in place. The economic slowdown, especially the slowdown in IT, has greatly slowed down new business start-ups and dampened the enthusiasm for entrepreneurship. However, there is a great deal of technical innovation proceeding that will provide the fuel new business formation. Venture Capital investments in new start-ups has dropped to the 1998 level, although start-ups with good business plans and a good team of people are getting funded. The next upswing will depend on an upsurge in the public markets.

Due to the new globalisation path, this "habitat" was not "cloned" since the 80's, quite succesfully, in other places in the States and around some regions in Europe and Asia?

Other regions that are developing "Habitats" similar to that in Silicon Valley are Austin/Texas, Boston/Mass., and the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. In Europe most of the regions that are developing entrepreneurial cultures have not developed the specialised business infrastructure to deal with start-ups.

In the new "vision" for the Valley and the Bay Area, the magic word "Silicon" (coined by reporter Don Hoeffler in 1971) will be replaced by another buzzword?

I think the name "Silicon Valley" will stick in spite of the fact that we do not process much silicon here now.

What's the main difference from the new Forth Wave - the new simultaneous progression and convergence of bio, IT and nano - and the last Toffler's Third Wave that the Silicon Valley clearly lead from the 70's?

I think the third wave has not run its course. I view the new convergence of bio, nano and info as just an extension of the third wave which I describe as a knowledge intensive wave.

As we are now crossing the bottom of the economic cycle - and also living a transition from one long Kondratief wave born with the transistor in 1947 to another - do you think this decade will be a great period of innovation?

I believe that the pace of innovation is increasing not decreasing. The rate of patent grants has increased substantially both in the US and abroad. How well we will be able to convert these innovations into business opportunities will depend on the public equity markets becoming more vigorous.

«Nanotech should be viewed as more like the transistor than like the world wide web. The application opportunities are very large, leading to many new devices and components».

Do you think the SV and Bay Area has conditions to be again a resilient region and, as history showed, to lead another period of innovation?

Yes, I believe the Bay Area will become vibrant again, however it will likely be harder in the future. I expect we will return a situation similar to the situation in the 70's and the 80's.

What will mean in "practical" terms the greater "volatility" of this new Wave?

It will require greater agility on the part of managers, companies, and venture capitalists.

Nanotech should be viewed as an "enabling technology", as a new platform like the web in the 90's or the integrated circuit in the 60's?

Nanotech should be viewed as more like the transistor than like the world wide web. The application opportunities are very large, leading to many new devices and components

One of the characteristics showed recently by AnnaLee Saxenian is a new kind of "brain circulation" between the SV and the mother countries of high skilled immigrants. How this new kind of transnational networks can benefit the renewal of the Valley and the Bay Area? How this two-way "flux" can be a win-win situation?

The global networks are increasing in importance because the best innovations do not all occur in one place. In order to have competitive products in a global marketplace it is necessary to have the best technologies, best talents, and the best services wherever they are. This means that any region can participate in the global networks if they have the key talent.

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