the last entrepreneur in Detroit.”
3) The quest for innovation should extend beyond the sectors that the government has bet on.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, a corporation set up as an agreement between state and local governments, has particularly targeted four industries as sources of transformation in Michigan: alternative energy, life sciences, homeland security and defense, and advanced manufacturing. But several of the people I spoke with believe that the quest for innovation should extend beyond those four sectors.
“I know what kind of impact the IT sector can have,” Song says. “We’ve just had a hard time adapting that to the culture here. You see a lot more emphasis on the four magic sectors, where there’s a chance of putting the manufacturing sectors to work. The challenge is that a lot of them have left or are leaving. Now you can outsource a lot of manufacturing; hardware companies are not even making their own stuff. The smarts are really in the software.”
Ann Arbor and southeastern Michigan have the danger of playing the role for California’s big tech businesses that Bangalore, India, has played for other U.S.-based companies—that of the call center and customer-service outpost, Song says. Even Google’s presence in the region supplies more sales-end jobs than technology and development, Song says. “People are grateful for the jobs, but that’s not what’s going to transform the region.”
Volz says innovation in less sexy areas could also help include those not trained in software and high tech. He hopes innovative ideas that transform traditional sectors—like the food and beverage industry or hygiene and cleaning in hospitals and labs—come out of the Blackstone LaunchPad at Wayne State. He’s looking to open the program to a diverse array of entrepreneurs—from those working on iPhone apps to those looking to develop biodegradable cleaning products. “I would like to be open to people who are interested in doing what’s the least glamorous thing you can think of,” he says. “The techie stuff would be wonderful. It just strikes me that everybody has clamored to that.”
