{"id":8643,"date":"2015-05-20T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.prd.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/?p=8643"},"modified":"2015-06-12T16:09:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T16:09:54","slug":"inside-the-it-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/inside-the-it-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the It City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call it buzz. Call it sizzle. Call it Music City mojo. By almost any measure, Nashville is an It City. Publications from The New York Times<\/em> to GQ, Southern Living <\/em>to Rolling Stone <\/em>and Bon Appetit <\/em>to Business Insider <\/em>have sung its praises.<\/p>\n

\"Downtown<\/a>
Revitalized shops and restaurants along historic Broadway reflect in a panoramic view of the new growth in downtown Nashville.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our branding may still have country music at its core (and given the long, loving establishment shots airing weekly on the ABC series that bears its name, who\u2019s complaining?), but it now includes professional sports, the health care and automotive industries, world-class education, fine dining, upscale downtown living and an explosion of entrepreneurship. Combine those with a reputation for safety and civility, and you\u2019ve got everything any convention and visitors bureau might want.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all the assets of a growing, vibrant city,\u201d says Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern, EMBA\u201904, \u201cand we\u2019ve been able to hold onto the intimate business environment we had before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a>
Sarah Trahern, EMBA’04, says that the tie between business and the music industry is one of Nashville’s strong points.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Owen Dean Eric Johnson<\/a>, who returned to the city after 14 years at Dartmouth College, says the changes were almost like Rip Van Winkle falling asleep. \u201cIn coming back, everything was dramatically different,\u201d he says. He cites the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans, both of which began play in Nashville in 1998, as well as the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, opening five years later, as among the keys to a re-emergent downtown. The 1994 lifting of a ban on most downtown residential development contributed to transformations like that of 12 South, which Johnson saw go from \u201ca pretty unsavory place\u201d into \u201cthe hottest, coolest thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson came back to a business school whose people and programs are an integral part of the city\u2019s transformation. After all, while affordability, climate, far-sighted governance, and attractiveness to a young, upscale demographic all play a part, a great business climate is crucial. A recent Gallup poll ranked Nashville in the nation\u2019s top five metro areas for job growth, and CNN Money called it one of the five \u201cbest cities to launch a startup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s health care manager<\/h4>\n

A key component is health care, and there are few stronger examples of synergy than Bernard Health, conceived by Alex Tolbert, JD\/MBA\u201907, in a health law class. The Nashville-based company offers health care planning and advice to individuals and corporations.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>
Alex Tolbert, JD\/MBA’07, combined two of Nashville’s strengths, health care and entrepreneurship, when he founded Bernard Health.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attracted to the city while visiting his brother, who attended Vanderbilt, Tolbert \u201cgot really passionate about the misalignments in health care\u201d while at Owen. He focused on health savings accounts, and when someone asked how he could start a business without raising initial outside capital, \u201cI said I would get my insurance brokerage license and start calling on employers in Nashville to help them understand how HSAs might work for them and their employees,\u201d he says. Bernard became a reality during his last year at Vanderbilt, and he is quick to praise the school\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it should be discounted, having an environment that really encourages entrepreneurship and experimentation,\u201d he says, \u201cand having cheerleaders among the professors, who bring students together with entrepreneurs who tell stories about how they did it. That\u2019s a really big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nashville area is home to more than 300 health care companies that extend the city\u2019s reach nationwide, Johnson says. The dean, who also is the Ralph Owen Dean and Bruce D. Henderson Professor of Strategy, says, \u201cMany cities have world-class health care, but what\u2019s really different about Nashville is that we\u2019ve become a city that manages health care for the whole country, in a quiet way that the average person in Columbus or Kansas City really wouldn\u2019t think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health care strategy is a must for businesses and individuals alike, and the Owen School\u2019s role in preparing industry leaders since launching its Health Care MBA in 2005 makes it a key player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fundamentally believe that health care has become a topic that\u2019s important for all managers to understand,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWhether you work at GE, Exxon or Amazon, you\u2019ve got to know something about it because the health care equation in the U.S. and what it means for corporate America is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The industry\u2019s reach and buzz help feed Nashville\u2019s attractiveness to the best minds, Tolbert says. \u201cInteresting people like to work on interesting problems. We\u2019re attracting and keeping people here, and I like to think our growth and success are a good thing for Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Continued below slideshow.)<\/em><\/p>\n