Articles written by Matthew Neagle
Recently, we made an invitation to our fellow students at the Ross School of Business to take an evening out of their busy lives and come down to Detroit to learn about all of the amazing things happening in the city.
For most of our fellow students, who come from all over the US and the world, the only part of Detroit that they had voluntarily seen in the last two years was the strip of I-94 from Detroit Metro to Ann Arbor. Their perceptions of Detroit were not much different or better informed than the rest of the country despite being so close to the city. For most, they assumed Detroit had little of interest to them.
The evening was the kickoff of the two-day Revitalization and Business Conference hosted by the Ross School of Business. The R&B conference, which was the culmination of a series of events on campus, was a grass-roots student-driven effort to begin to shift perceptions of Detroit on campus at the University of Michigan. Its focus was on the opportunity and positive momentum in Detroit with a particular emphasis on the role that business, innovation, and entrepreneurship could play in the city’s revival.
Given it was the inaugural year, our goal was to involve 150 students in the event.
After we opened registration, we had 150 students signed up within a few hours and with more than 10 days to go, we ran out of room.
We completely sold out.
It was beyond our most hopeful and optimistic expectations.
All told, over 700 students ended up participating in the conference, include the 350+ who packed into the top floor of the College for Creative Studies on a snowy Thursday evening to hear an inspiring keynote from Phil Cooley (and enjoy some wonderful Slow’s BBQ). It was an incredible success.
The most common remark was “I had no idea…that is great”.
The immediate benefit is that these 700+ students now have a more positive and complete picture of Detroit. While most will leave the state, they at least leave equipped to tell a more hopeful and accurate story about Detroit. They will tell others and on occasion speak up on behalf of Detroit. It is a small but important start to shifting perceptions.
But, the longer term significance of this event holds more hope and potential. The fact that over 700 students participated was a clear sign that students are not only interested in what is happening in Detroit, they want more avenues to engage with Detroit. It was a clear demonstration of just how much untapped interest in Detroit existed at the University of Michigan.
Fortunately, as a result of the conference we see a number of signals that a larger shift is happening:
- A recruiter at a top firm in Detroit concluded that it was time to fully embrace Detroit rather than talk around it. For them, this means having more of their recruiting dinners in downtown Detroit rather than in Ann Arbor so they can show potential hires more of what Detroit has to offer.
- A key member of the Office of Career Development indicated that “We have to do even more to bring Detroit companies to campus given all of the student interest”.
- The University of Michigan Board of Regents has asked the R&B group to give a presentation on its efforts as it explores the ways the University of Michigan as a whole engages with Detroit.
- The R&B initiative is now fully established as a student group on campus and had over 25 students apply to be part of the leadership team next year.
We still have a long way to go but these are important baby steps in the right direction.
To learn more about the Revitalization and Business initiative, please check out the website at www.revitalizationandbusiness.com. We encourage you to check out the IdeaLab videos – 6-8 minute stories from individuals who are driving real change in Detroit.
No Comments • Read this story »
We all know that the internet represents a massive and fundamental shift in the way our economy operates. However, when we talk about what Michigan needs to do to transform its economy, it rarely gets a mention. A recent Google report provides insight into why the internet represents a huge economic opportunity for Michigan.
The fascinating report provides a state-by-state analysis of the economic impact of Google’s on-line advertising and publishing services, including the number of business and non-profits who use them. In short, the report provides an telling glimpse into how much Michigan is participating in this huge economic shift to the internet. The answers show hope and opportunity, but not without effort.
The hopeful part is that nearly 40,000 businesses/individuals in Michigan are using Google to either advertise on-line or generate revenue from traffic on their website. So, this means 40,000 businesses/individuals are participating in the internet economy. This is significant and this is widespread. These are businesses of all shapes and sizes and from all sectors.
The opportunity lies in accelerating Michigan’s participation in this economic shift and getting ahead of the curve. Using data from the report, the table at the end of the post calculates the level of Google’s impact as a percentage of state GDP and provides a ranking of states. This takes into account the size of a state’s economy and provides a reasonable state-by-state comparison. The data show that Michigan is in the middle of the pack. However, what is most interesting is a comparison to Washington.
Washington is a smaller state (6.6M vs 9M) with a similarly sized economy (264B vs 326B) yet Google’s economic impact in Washington is 4x greater, as a percentage of GDP, than in Michigan. This is a $2B difference in economic impact – no small change. And, that is from Google alone.
The key point here is that major parts of the economy have been shifting on-line – the question is not if or when, but simply how fast. States like Washington are moving faster and are getting the economic rewards. Not surprisingly, Washington shows up as the #2 state on the Kauffman Foundation New Economy Index and they have one of the highest percentages of population on-line.
Michigan can catch up and it can speed up. We now have leading-edge courses at Wayne State, MSU, and Eastern Michigan University that provide graduates with the on-line skills necessary to help our businesses grow and compete on-line. Michigan is also one of the states with the most non-profits taking advantage of Google Grants, Google’s in-kind advertising program.
These are positive signs but we need more of them and we need to integrate on-line competitiveness into our broader economic strategy. If you have ideas or examples of how to do this, I would love to hear them.
———————————————————————————————————————————————-
To
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No Comments • Read this story »
Didn’t get into Harvard? Well, it is good that you applied. Research highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article today about the value of a college degree indicates that future economic success may be better predicted by where you apply to college than where you go to college.
The reason – where you aspire to attend college is an indicator of your personal drive, ambition, and desire to learn. And, at the end of the day, those traits matters more.
In college application parlance, this translates into “having a reach school” – a top college where gaining admission may be unlikely but you want to try anyway.
A “reach school” represents an educational aspiration. We would learn a lot from a close look at the educational aspirations of the young people in our state. How many students applied to a “reach school” last year? How many middle school students can name a college they hope to attend?
For several generations, college was not necessary for a good-paying job in Michigan, influencing our culture and our collective educational aspirations. The reality is that the high-wage, low-skill jobs no longer remain but remnants of the culture do. We are below the national average in college attainment and this is hurting our prosperity.
We need to reset our educational aspirations. Right now, we are working on shifting from “higher education is not necessary” to “higher education is a must”. But, we should set our own educational aspirations higher. Our goal should be a reach school for every kid.
No Comments • Read this story »
One of the maxims of marketing is that it is always easier to retain a customer than it is to attract one. For Michigan, the question of how we keep our talented graduates in the state is a crucial nut to crack in our transformation.
Yes, having great places for young people to live matters. Yes, having a vibrant economy with opportunities matter. But, regardless of the progress on those fronts, we have to do a better job of matching our talent with opportunities in local companies.
The Kauffman Foundation reports that most new net job creation is in new and young firms (which are typically smaller in size). However, our recruiting machines at universities cater towards large and established firms. The reality is it can be hard for smaller and newer firms to access talent from our universities.
Here are 3 key reasons:
- Timing – the recruitment season takes place in the fall almost a full year ahead of a typical start date. New and smaller companies are not able to make hiring decisions a full year in advance, a large company can.
- Investment - to compete for student’s attention, companies will visit campus multiple times, send teams of employees to talk to students, and even sponsor events. Larger companies can afford to do that, newer and smaller ones can’t
- Priority – career staff at universities have limited resources too and it is much easier to work with fewer large companies who have dedicated staff for campus recruiting and who hire many students than it is to herd up a bunch of newer and smaller companies with maybe 1-2 openings.
The result is that most of what a student sees on campus are opportunities in large, often multinational, companies who primarily have operations outside of Michigan. So, naturally students end up in with jobs out-of-state.
However, recent efforts give reason for hope. The first is Intern In Michigan, a website dedicated to making it easier for Michigan companies to connect with Michigan students through internships that can lead to full-time employment. The second is the MPowered Career Fair, a student-organized career fair at the University of Michigan specifically aimed at new and smaller growth companies. Last year, it had 80 companies and over 1500 students attend. And, best of all, it was a grass-roots efforts by students who want these types of opportunities.
If we want to better match talent with grow, we have to recreate the university recruiting machine with new and smaller companies in mind.
2 Comments • Read this story »
The Kauffman Foundation recently had a Wall Street Journal Editorial on Friday that indicated all net job creation in the US since 1980 occurred in firms less than five years old. With unemployment over 15% in Michigan, we need new businesses to drive economic growth. Fortunately, evidence tells me that a major shift is happening in how students in Michigan are viewing entrepreneurship.
On Thursday, I attended a Center for Michigan community conversation organized by recent graduates of the University of Michigan who have stayed in Michigan. The group consisted of some of our best and brightest: students who led large student organizations on campus, were captain of varsity sports teams, and started non-profits, businesses, and student groups
At the end of the conversation, the group had a chance to vote on what they felt was working in Michigan. Their overwhelming answer – entrepreneurialism. In fact, the Center for Michigan facilitator remarked that this was her first conversation with young people in Ann Arbor and the first time she saw so much enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
As a former student at University of Michigan who is now returning to graduate school, I see a marked shift in entrepreneurial activity on campus. In the late 90s, I would say the university efforts to encourage student entrepreneurship were either non-existent or very poorly publicized. Now, one of the largest and most respected student groups on campus is MPowered, an entrepreneurship organization with over 600 members. On the same day of the conversation, I attended the official opening of TechArb, a university sponsored incubator for student businesses which has a student business earning over 1 million a year selling iPhone apps. The week before I attended an information session by the Zell Lurie Institute that showcased 4 different student business plan competitions on campus that would ultimately involve hundreds of student entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is cool on campus. Finally and thankfully. We need our talented young people involved in helping to recreate our economy – they may be the best positioned to do so.
No Comments • Read this story »
The revival of Detroit is happening, slowly but surely. The best indicator is the pulse of the so-called “creative class” that are typically the first to re-enter and re-catalyze an urban area.
This weekend, I met up with a friend who is a prototype of the creative class – an artist and musician who organizes underground music events, plays shows on tours around the country , and works freelance as a computer programmer. And, he has been living in downtown Detroit for almost ten years. He is living the pulse.
His response to why Detroit is a great place to be an artist – space, food, and time.
For 1/4 the cost of a renting a single room in Chicago or New York, my friend has a stunning and raw 1000 square loft with 20 foot high ceilings that he shares with one other person. For a quarter the cost, he gets 10 times the space in Detroit. He has all the room he needs to live, to create music and art, and to put on events in his space.
Untrue to the common gripe about no grocery stores in Detroit, my friend is within walking distance to fresh, local, inexpensive food 365 days a year at Eastern Market, the largest open air market in the country. In fact, this weekend, bell peppers were selling 5 for a dollar – can’t beat that.
Unless, of course, you are growing it yourself. My friend also had a vegetable garden outside his building, one of an increasing number of urban gardens and farms in Detroit. Detroit can now offer the cultural value of urbanity with the space and sustenance of rural living.
With less cost needed to sustain himself, he has more time for his creative pursuits. The economics of creative work, for those that want a raw urban experience, make sense right now.
And, more and more people are taking up the offer. My friend said the pulse is changing – Detroit is much better than it was 5 years ago and significantly better than when he arrived almost 10 years ago.
3 Comments • Read this story »
For a moment, set aside the challenging choices and drama unfolding in Lansing. The most hopeful news in the state today came from Detroit. No, I am not talking about the first ever global electric vehicle conference – although that too is hopeful news. I am talking about the diverse mix of curious people with big ideas that met today for TEDxDetroit, an independently organized local version of the acclaimed TED conference.
In summing up the problem that has faced Michigan, Matt Dugener quoted John Maynard Keynes, who said “Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.” In other words, Michigan got too comfortable and lost its desire to take risks and build new things.
Well, the situation today flips that on its head. We do not have the prosperity or the security any more and thus we need to create, build, and take risks again. And, we will begin to do this because for many people, they have little to lose by doing so.
The time is ripe and the lineup of local entrepreneurs and thinkers at the conferences gives reason to believe this is already happening and is happening in a spirit of collective renewal versus individual gain. To highlight just a few of the speakers who shared their visions in their 15 minute TED-style talk:
- Dawn Wells of Accio Energy has 30 patents to design a way to produce wind energy without the drawbacks of large spinning blades.
- Aaron Crumm of Adaptive Materials has created a portable fuel cell generator that produces 5x the energy of a battery of the same weight.
- Chaz Miller at Public ArtWorkz is using murals to soften hearts, open minds, and inspire change throughout downtown Detroit.
- Issue Media Group, the publishers of Metromode, Concentrate, Capital Gains, among others, is creating a successful media empire by highlighting the positive stories of growth, investment, and the interesting people behind it.
- Dan Izzo of Bizdom U is not only putting entrepreneurs through an intense 4-month program, they are also funding them with up to 100K in seed money – the only catch is that the business needs to be based in downtown Detroit.
If we are going to turn Michigan around, we need to celebrate the people who are actually taking steps to create and construct the future. TEDxDetroit did that today.
1 Comment • Read this story »
• Copyright 2009 • Twitter: #michiganfuture