Pittsburgh's Five Biggest Failures (That Led to Success)

I like talking about failure because I do it a lot.  I also like talking about failure because it helps me understand what needs to change in order to succeed.  As Thomas Alvin Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." As a region we don't talk about failure enough – it's like our crazy aunt kept hidden in the attic.  Sometimes we are too quick to pounce on failure, giving it a bad rap.  But we have to keep in mind that most successes are born of early failures. As any successful entrepreneur or innovator will tell you, failing, especially forward, is a great, healthy and necessary thing (at least that's what I keep telling myself every time I fail).

So here is my list of Pittsburgh's five biggest regional failures – all of which have led, in one form or another, to success!

The 1997 Regional Renaissance Initiative
"The what?" O.K. if you were here 13 years ago, you knew it as failed Stadium Tax referendum. Remember? It was a multi-million dollar campaign to build two new stadiums and a convention center that failed miserably, rejected by voters in all eleven participating counties. What a failure, right? Wrong!  It was an important debate and discussion we needed to have as a region.  Should we tax ourselves in order to make big project investments? Should we let those involved pay for it themselves, or should we just let the sports teams leave town?

As usual the answers lie somewhere in between. The failed passage of the referendum caused all our elected, civic, and private sector leaders to come up with plan B which called for all to pay part of the regional investment. As a result, look at the North Shore, riverfront development and the convention center today.  Not a bad failure, huh?

Forbes/Fifth Avenue Development
Who can ever forget the short-lived Lazarus and Lord & Taylor Department Stores that were the centerpiece of downtown revitalization? Huge amounts of resources and energy, along with a lot of angry debate, went into the original plans and development of the Forbes/Fifth Corridor.  Boy, it was ugly for a while. Less than two years after completion, both Lord & Taylor and Lazarus closed their doors. But was it really a failure? Think of this: it focused all of our attention on the development of two very key arteries in downtown Pittsburgh (and the region as a whole for that matter). It allowed the City and private developers to obtain enough key land in order to make meaningful developments. And look at how nicely plan C (which we may never have gotten to if we didn't start with Plan A and B) is coming along with all the downtown housing, new Market Square (be patient), fancy restaurants and new YMCA.  Pretty nice failure, right?

FORE Systems
Follow me on this one and you will understand why I put FORE Systems, a former, highly profitable local company in the Failure category.   In the late '80's while Dana Carvey was doing George H.W. Bush impersonations on Saturday Night Live, a CMU professor and three students were working above a hair salon in Squirrel Hill developing a faster network using something called ATM technology.  They were four foreigners: a Turk, Swiss, Brit and Californian!  Their product took off and was being used by large organizations and government entities. They built a modern office campus, hired lots of local people and were making money.

Then in 1999 right before the tech bubble burst (not to be confused with the current housing bubble burst) FORE Systems sold for $4+billion to a company called Marconi the GE of Great Britain.  At the time, newspapers, elected leaders and some economic development organizations were wringing their hands over how we could let a home grown success be sold off? What does it mean for the future?  Will the jobs stay here? At the time of the sell, FORE Systems employed 1,000. Marconi expanded to 1,500, but quickly went down with the bubble burst.  Today it is a shell of its former self in Pittsburgh.  Was this a failure for our region?  Absolutely not!

The FORE Systems story brought new talent, and created jobs, new startups and more philanthropy to Pittsburgh.  More than 300 new Pittsburghers arrived to work at FORE Systems and stayed.  The 1,000 original jobs pales in comparison to the number of jobs created as a result of numerous startups by FORE Systems alumni entrepreneurs such as Ron Bianchini's companies Spinnaker and Avere Systems, or marketing guru Dave Nelson's Co-Manage and Talk Shoe, or Atul Bansal and Laurel Networks and Neil Viljoen and Netronome Systems.  

Two of the founders of FORE Systems, Eric Cooper and François Bit, invested in startup companies like Landslide and in industrial parks like Tech 21 that houses the new Medrad facilities.  Both have also become generous players in the local philanthropic community.

So when a company like FORE systems grows and thrives and is then sold off, it may lose its original base, but that doesn't mean it was a failure. Just the opposite. In the long view, it's a win for the region!


Early Childhood Initiative
Not long ago, Pennsylvania was one of only nine states that did not invest in Pre-K or Head Start programs.  At the time, there was a national movement to provide quality preschool education to high-risk, low-income children.  Against this back drop the Heinz Endowments boldly launched the Early Childhood Initiative in 1995.  With support from the United Way, the business community and other foundations, ECI set out to serve 7,600 kids in 80 low-income neighborhoods at a cost of $4,000 to $5,000 per child. Two and a half years later, ECI ceased to exist. Costs ran high, funding fell short, implementation proved to be challenging and the State simply wasn't ready to recognize the importance of or adopt pre-K programs.

But did it fail? No. It just hit a bump in the road.  In 2004, with the persistence of the ECI folks, the local foundation community and the new governor's commitment to pre-K programs, Pennsylvania took the ECI model and established Pre-K Counts. Pennsylvania now ranks in the top 10 states for Pre-K funding. A three-year study of 10,000 Pennsylvania kids in the Pre-K Counts program, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital, found stunning results.  80% of the kids met the standards to move to Kindergarten, and Pre-K Counts five-year-olds exceeded peers nationally in school readiness. See the report.
 
City/County Consolidation
This may be a "failure leading to success" in progress.  It's too soon to tell. But what we do know is this: after three years of great fanfare and excitement generated from the release of the Nordenberg Commission report that recommended the full merger of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County into one new City of Greater Pittsburgh --and the enthusiastic endorsement of the report from both Mayor Ravenstahl and County Executive Dan Onorato--nothing in the report has yet been implemented.

Some critics blame the report itself for not being specific, and the lack of inclusivity in its development, and the lack of implementation planning and continued leadership on the plan's recommendations.  Some blame the Mayor and County Executive for not providing strong, consistent leadership on the issue while others point the finger at the State Legislature for dismissing the idea and report out of hand.

But here are some signs of success – the report's call to merge the two governments into one, although dismissed by many, has at least led to serious discussions about merging certain functions of the two governments, like IT services, purchasing, and HR.  And the report has at least provided sound arguments in favor of a full merger in terms of economic development and significant cost savings if and when our leaders are ready to engage in the debate.

Stay tuned. My fingers (and toes) are crossed on this one.

So, these are my five best failures (notice I did not include my everyday actions as a parent – that's a whole other article).  What are yours? Whatever they are, don't despair. Remember: past failures are guideposts to future success.

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John Denny is director of community relations at the Hillman Company. To read his article on 5 Things that Allowed Pittsburgh to Turn the Corner, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

Captions: The North Shore; Piatt Place, Downtown; Carnegie Library, Squirrel Hill; City-County Building

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen