Once upon a time, economic development happened when a region is able to offer the big multi-nationals a combination of cheap labour, low taxes, and reasonable infrastructure. Those days are long gone. Unless you are a region in China or India, you shouldn't be thinking about competing in that spectrum in the first place. If you are or plan on competing up high on the value chain, you already know that good people no longer follow jobs, it is the good jobs that go where the best and brightest are.

American professor John Eger described the push to lure big corporations and build big factories as a strategy of the past century. In this century, economic stimulus tools such as subsidies for footloose corporations and taxpayer underwritten industrial parks have given way to the pressing urgency to create attractive environments for the right talents. Thus, the modern formula to produce 'desirable growth are things like eclectic coffeehouses, a thriving local music landscape, large immigrant populations and bustling urban parks.' 

As Hewlett Packard CEO carly Fiorina once put it, "You can keep your tax incentives and highway interchanges; we will go where the highly skilled people are."