In last week’s Birmingham Post Rich List 2011 I noticed that, with the notable exceptions of the individuals who have made their fortunes in publishing, fashion and music, our burgeoning creative industries has yet to produce its first “Rich List” entrant.
So where are the digital industries, the gaming and software company moguls in this region?
Internationally, the digital sector is not without its share of staggeringly wealthy innovators. Even if your interest in the creative industries is limited to watching The Social Network at the cinema, you will know of the vast fortune of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.
Or you may be aware of the huge success of Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google.
Closer to home, Last.fm’s founders Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones each netted a reputed £19 million when they sold the site to CBS.
So why is there a disconnect between possible earnings in the tech sector generally and what happens here in Birmingham’s creative sector?
In this column I frequently extol the virtues of our creative industries. Indeed there are many wonderful people doing innovative and excellent work. But are they focused on creating “lifestyle” service-based businesses rather than scalable exit enterprises?
We clearly have clusters of talent, just like Silicon Valley. But there, the similarity ends.
There is¸ in the words Jake Grimley of Made Media (one of the city’s leading digital media agencies) “an endemic funding culture in Silicon Valley”.
Established networks of venture capitalists, financiers, academics and entrepreneurs have created a rich scene where high stakes and risk-taking reaps equally high rewards.
The Social Network gave an insight into the interplay between start-ups, bastions of academic excellence such as Harvard and Stanford, financiers with “old money,” internet millionaires (such as Napster’s Sean Parker) and talented individuals.
These components all contributed to the fertile soil in which innovative ideas could thrive.
It strikes me that the city needs to take connectivity, exchange and dialogue to a whole new level before the Post’s Rich List sees its first “new” creative industry millionaire.
Helga Henry is a consultant at Fierce Earth and board member of Creative Republic
