Pittsburgh: A Vibrant Entrepreneurial City
By Dr. Joanne G. Sujansky, CSP

When I launched my consulting business more than 25 years ago, my client base was concentrated mostly around the Pittsburgh area. It was a different city then than it is now. Steel making was the predominant industry, and most of the workforce was employed in manufacturing and industry.

Today, Pittsburgh leads the way in information technology, advanced materials, tissue engineering, automation, and other technologies that are changing the face of the business world. It is a busy, vibrant, innovative city that has continually reinvented itself, without ever losing the work ethic that first made it great.

Like the rest of the country, the Pittsburgh region has undergone dramatic changes over the past two-and-a-half decades. Many of those changes have been technological, others sociological. But even though the predominant employers in Pittsburgh today are the educational and healthcare sectors, the spirit that defined and made Pittsburgh a great industrial city lives on.

I think it's no coincidence that our people and organizations remain so competitive in the face of major challenges. Pittsburghers have the same type of resilient spirit and drive that I have seen in successful organizations that remain on top in competitive markets throughout the world.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked as a local, national, and international consultant with hundreds of non-profit and for-profit organizations as they have addressed critical issues related to change and effectiveness. The organizations that tackled the vital issues of workplace culture have positioned themselves best to succeed and grow. I call these types of high-energy, high-productivity organizations "Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organizations (VEOs)."

I have found that VEOs have five distinct characteristics. A VEO 1) shares the "big picture" that people need to take personal risks and hold themselves accountable . . . 2) exemplifies the new face of loyalty-i.e., two-way loyalty . . . 3) supports high productivity while minimizing stress . . . 4) produces a winning tradition . . . and 5) elevates communication to an art form. When all five of these elements flow together, an environment teems with innovation, creativity, energy, and passion. These cultural elements can be the source of higher productivity, but they can also drive greater levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty.

I believe these elements also account for the distinctive character of Pittsburghers. Throughout our region's history, Pittsburgh has been filled with innovative thinkers and dynamic leaders. Pittsburgh is, and has always been, a vibrant entrepreneurial city. Here's why:

A VEO encourages people to take personal risks and hold themselves accountable.

I think risk-taking is almost hardwired into the personalities of Western Pennsylvanians. From the beginning, we have been a region of immigrants who braved rugged, mountainous terrain, inclement weather, and hostile Indians to push inland from the Atlantic seaboard to found our city. Two major wars-the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion-were fought here before Pittsburgh was even incorporated.

The rich resources here drew adventurers like Lewis and Clark throughout Pittsburgh's rise. Those who stayed invented new technologies and processes that quickly made our city one of the leading industrial centers in the country. The production of glass, iron, steel, aluminum, oil, and numerous other building blocks of industrial society are rooted in the vision and energy of Pittsburghers.

George Westinghouse, a tenacious competitor of Thomas Edison, based his industrial empire in Pittsburgh. Likewise, other giants of America's industrial age-Carnegie, Frick, Heinz, Mellon, and many others-were Pittsburghers.

If the heart of entrepreneurship is risk-taking, then Pittsburghers have not been afraid to take risks and hold themselves accountable for the results.

A VEO exemplifies the new face of loyalty.

Pittsburghers are renowned for their loyalty. Just ask the fans of any team that the Pittsburgh Steelers play on the road when Steeler fans show up and wave terrible towels and cheer the Black and Gold on to victory!

Pittsburghers are known for staying in their old neighborhoods and keeping old friends forever. Pittsburghers patronize their favorite mom-and-pop stores for years. And they tend to stay loyal to their favorite brands and products.

Corporate recruiters have often told me that Pittsburgh can be a tough place to recruit new employees because Pittsburghers prefer not to relocate. A colleague of mine speaks about a consulting client who had six national regions, including one based in Pittsburgh. The company's top execs found the Pittsburgh region frustrating to deal with. Although their Pittsburgh managers consistently out-performed managers from the other regions in productivity and profits, they also consistently turned down promotions because they didn't want to leave the city!

Loyalty is a characteristic of VEOs, and Pittsburghers can always be counted on for loyalty.

A VEO supports high productivity while minimizing stress.

We can measure productivity in so many different ways that it can be hard to talk about it in the regional sense. Yet, when we look at Pittsburgh's historic and traditional role as an American industrial giant, it's clear that Pittsburghers know how to get things done.

Pittsburgh enjoys a well-earned reputation as a hard-working, blue-collar town. Our factories, steel mills, and manufacturing plants have been blessed with a workforce that rolls up its sleeves when there is work to be done. To be sure, many other American cities enjoy a reputation as a working-class town-Detroit comes to mind-but none can surpass Pittsburgh as the epitome of productivity.

In fact, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tracks the city's progress through an ongoing set of benchmarks and says that the "P" in Pittsburgh should stand for productivity ("Productive workforce, factories a Pittsburgh asset," by Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ).

Consider this: In one recent benchmark, Pittsburgh scored fourth in worker productivity, with average worker output at more than $55,000. Pittsburgh trailed only Seattle, Atlanta, and San Diego in total productivity. The P-G expects the city to move into third place next year, overtaking Seattle.

As far as stress goes, I don't know that life in Pittsburgh is less stressful than in any other city. But I know that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, one of the leading health research centers in the world, is researching lifestyle-related medical issues, including stress management.

So evidently, Pittsburghers know something about being productive and managing stress.

A VEO produces a winning tradition.

What can I say? After Super Bowl XL (yes, I was in the stands), the Steelers have become one of only three NFL teams to wear five Super Bowl rings. And let's not forget that they were also the first to wear four rings.

But Pittsburghers are used to winning traditions in all sports, not just football. At every level of competition, from grade school to high school to college and beyond, Pittsburgh-area teams boast winning traditions. The John Heinz Western Pennsylvania History Center has a large exhibit showcasing Western Pennsylvania's sports champions. A few years ago, we even had the national marbles champion!

Another way to look at it is how the Pittsburgh region has influenced the winning traditions of other cities. As the "cradle of quarterbacks," we have exported more than four dozen champion quarterbacks. Among them: George Blanda, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Willie Thrower (the NFL's first black quarterback), Johnny Lujack, Gus Frerotte, Babe Parilli, Chuck Fusina, Charlie Batch, Major Harris, Marc Bulger, and Jim Kelly.

Winning tradition? Need I say more about our City of Champions?

A VEO elevates communication to an art form.

What constitutes an art form of course depends upon the goals involved and the character of the artists involved. But let me tell you a story about what can happen when a group of people shares a common vision and works together to convey that vision to the world.

At the end of World War II, few people admired Pittsburgh or aspired to move here. The city was an industrial giant by any standards. And it was not overstating the case to say that America's victory in that war was largely won in the steel mills and industrial plants of the Smokey City. Nonetheless, Pittsburgh did not enjoy the respect that other cities did.

That was just the problem. Pittsburgh then was a dirty, grungy, hard-working mill town with few examples of noble architecture, lush parks, or a pleasant environment.

The city's air was a major problem. Pittsburgh was perpetually blanketed by a haze of low-hanging soot and smoke that choked the lungs and blinded visitors to Pittsburgh's true character. Fortunately, two great leaders, virtual political enemies with differing visions, worked together to pull off one of the miracles of twentieth century urban planning.

Richard King Mellon, the financier, and David L. Lawrence, the mayor and political leader, set aside their differences and formulated a plan to transform Pittsburgh into a clean, beautiful city that people wanted to visit and move to.

They knew that revitalizing Pittsburgh would spur civic pride and drive growth throughout the region. They also knew that to succeed they had to build consensus and support for the plan among the city's many businesses, institutions, clubs, groups, and citizens. Not a small task, given that these many groups were not known for working together cooperatively, most of the time. I like to call challenging tasks like this "pushing an elephant uphill."

Mellon and Lawrence first created an identity for their plan and called it "Pittsburgh's Renaissance." Next, they took their plan to the various groups in person and through the media. They involved citizen groups in forming petitions and making demonstrations where needed, especially around the hot topic of air pollution.

They involved business leaders and developers. They shared their plan throughout the country to attract new businesses and draw fresh blood to the city. They motivated hundreds of building owners to join the plan by scraping years of grime off their buildings and planting gardens. They communicated the plan to legislators, who passed clean air laws and arranged funding.

They even commissioned the publication of a major book about the history of Pittsburgh to inspire pride in the city.

Did they succeed? Anyone who has ever exited the Parkway West through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and been inspired by the sudden view of the clean, modern city that emerged from the haze knows they did.

Mellon and Lawrence pulled off the most successful urban revitalization in America right here in Pittsburgh by communicating their vision in the most dramatic and convincing ways possible. Truly, these two Pittsburghers showed us how to raise communication to an art form!

So you can see why I am as excited about Pittsburgh as I am about Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organizations. Both represent what I believe is best in the human spirit: our capacity to be inspired, engaged, passionate, and innovative.