Columbus is deeply committed to being a welcoming and creative community.

It used to be that people would move to a region to find work.  In a curious reversal, instead of people moving to jobs, companies are moving to or forming in places that have skilled people.  Many say that we now live in an “information” or “knowledge” economy.  But what’s more fundamentally true is that we now have an economy powered by human creativity.  And in order to harness creativity for economic ends, you need to harness creativity in all of its forms.

The philosophy of Columbus is to be a creative society which is based upon the following core values:

• Individuality and Meritocracy
  Creative communities focus on a person’s strengths. They do not try to fix the weaknesses.  They don’t try to perfect each person. Instead, they do everything they can to help each person become more of who they already are.  Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible.
  
  

• Diversity and Openness
  Variety flourishes on the fertile verge between something and something else.  According to the Global Research Monitor, the most entrepreneurial nations in their study—the United States, Canada, and Israel—are all immigrant societies.  Without diversity, there can be no innovation; Without innovation, there can be no new wealth.
  
  

• Intrinsic over Extrinsic Rewards
  Peter Drucker said at the zenith of the so-called high technology new economy, that bribing the knowledge workers in these industries is a fundamental mistake; it will not work.  He says you have to treat the people in your organization as if they were de-facto volunteers, with strong ties and intrinsic motivation.  This is an effect of living in a post-scarcity, post-materialist society. Once a society moves above subsistence level, its members start seeking more than just material rewards from their work. Many people come to value intrinsic or creative opportunity over financial opportunity.
  
  

• Thick, Horizontal Labor Markets
  Americans now change jobs on average every 3.5 years.  Companies once provided not only economic security but social identity.  Today workers carry risk that companies used to absorb, as the same companies now would rather add, drop, and contract with people as needed.  Due to these realities, many workers have traded security and stability for greater autonomy, often accepting far greater levels of personal exposure and risk.
  
  

• Authentic Cultural Assets over Generica
  Many people may disagree about spending more money on the arts or focusing our attention on designing better buildings. But in a remarkable letter posted on the wall of the clubhouse of the Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus, J. Irwin Miller explained why a great golf course is just as important to a successful community as spending the money on charities, churches or schools. 
  
  “…we would like to see this community come to be not the cheapest community in America, but the very best community of its size in the country. We would like to see it become the city in which the smartest, the ablest, the best young families anywhere would like to live…a community which will offer their children the best education available anywhere…a community whose citizens are themselves well-paid and who will not tolerate poverty for others, or slums in their midst. ...Our concern is to help get the most for our dollar, to help build this community into the best in the nation. And we are happy to pay our share, whether in work, or in taxes or in gifts like this one.”
  
  Mr. Miller believed that greatness is found in all aspects of a community. And greatness inspires greatness.