Manufacturing Leaders in Innovation

Does a state's policies lead to manufacturing innovation?

Followers of our blog are typically highly educated, as they are maintenance, engineers and manufacturing managers. Educated readers tend to put more weight on facts and stats, analyze them and look for trends, then draw conclusions accordingly. (Can you say 'SPC'?) The above map shows 4 out of the top 5 high-tech innovative manufacturing states are northern. I wonder, could the commonality that drove these states to lead in manufacturing be liberal policies that look to the future? Could it be there state policies embrace change as opposed to clinging to the past?  Could it be these state just had more money to invest in education and innovation? Or is it just that cooler weather yield higher production and innovation, LOL? Or could it be they do not have a common driving force, each one excelled for totally unrelated reasons?

So my question to our intelligent readers, whom I value your opinion, is ...

• What do you think could be a common element that allowed these state's manufacturing to surpass the rest in using high-tech innovation?

Use the comment section below to give me your thoughts, it will be interesting and much appreciated.     

Don (Follow me on Industrial Skills Training Blog and on Twitter @IndTraining .) Be sure to add me to your Google+ circles to stay on top!