2024 Winter Issue of Urban Land - 32

MARIANA MAZZACATO
The Way Forward: Building New Partnerships
and Entrepreneurial Systems for a
Post-Pandemic World
KAREN JORDAN
mariana mazzucato, an ItalianAmerican/British
economist and
academic, and author of The Big
Con: How the Consulting Industry
Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes
Our Governments, and Warps Our
Economies, says that the time has come
for businesses and governments to take
a new approach. By design, she asserts,
everyone is in a reactive mode.
" We need a new economic theory,
a new economic practice, but [we
especially need] new partnerships, new
ecosystems, entrepreneurial ecosystems, "
Mazzucato said Thursday, during
ULI Fall Meeting's " General Session:
Inclusive and Sustainable Economic
Growth: Moonshot Approach. " " Instead
of obsessing about entrepreneurship
in garages in Silicon Valley and over
glorifying individuals or companies, what
does it mean to actually work together
in a more entrepreneurial way? "
To that end, according to Mazzucato,
we must embrace taking risks as well
as living with the uncertainty that
" underpins all the collective investments "
needed to handle crises in a proactive
manner. She pointed to COVID-19 as
one example. Mazzucato said that the
pandemic should have served as a
" huge wake-up call. "
The beginning of the crisis-when
governments clearly failed to deliver
basics, which led to some early
deaths among medical professionals-
emphasized her point, she said. There
was a widespread lack of personal
protective equipment, even in
industrialized nations.
Mazzucato, who was born in Italy,
said that her home country especially
suffered because it was 100 percent
dependent upon Chinese personal
protective equipment.
Italy resorted to using a wartime
tool, like one that was also then used
in the United States (the Defense
Production Act), to galvanize investment
in companies to produce what was
needed. As a result, Italy was able to
produce, within just three months,
100 percent of its personal protective
equipment through Italian enterprises,
according to Mazzucato.
Although COVID-19 woke up the
country, Mazzucato said that it has
since fallen asleep again, as wartime
procurement is no longer being used.
Italy's experience is just one example of
a lesson that should have been learned.
Economist and academic Mariana Mazzucato told
attendees during the Thursday General Session,
" We need a new economic theory, a new economic
practice, but [we especially need] new partnerships,
new ecosystems, entrepreneurial ecosystems. "
Focusing on " pandemic preparedness "
is important for countries worldwide, as
the world could face another lockdown
in the future, Mazzucato said. Many
other challenges also loom.
The crux of her book, cowritten
with PhD student Rosie Collington,
" was to blame the governments, " not
consultants, Mazzucato said. " These
challenges: net zero, healthy cities,
gender parity, " she added. " These are
problems that need to be governed.
Policies need to be implemented.
We need partnerships. We need
ecosystems. "
Otherwise, in her estimation, we will
meet even greater difficulties when
tackling such issues.
Mazzucato said that there are lessons
to be learned from the NASA-led Apollo
program, which she refers to as a
" massive private-sector innovation, " as
NASA focused on designing public and
private partnerships that collaborated to
make its missions happen, according to
Mazzucato. They worked together on
the clear goal of traveling to the moon
and returning in a brief span of time.
Mazzucato called participation vital.
All parties must be willing to work
collaboratively to reach a successful
32
URBAN LAND WINTER 202 4
ULI/ALTIMIRA
2024 Winter Issue of Urban Land

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