Entrepreneurs in Michigan can reinvigorate the economy by doing what innovators do best: using existing resources to create new value. Here are three resources Michiganders can leverage:
1. Michigan’s world-class universities—After the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, universities filled the void with new technology start-ups. The University of Michigan is one of the top 10 universities in the nation for commercializing cleantech research. Two university start-ups, T/J Technologies and Sensicore, were recently acquired, despite the economic environment. Michigan’s dozens of universities provide partnership opportunities and a well-educated workforce.
2. Michigan’s existing manufacturing base—Manufacturing overseas poses expensive new problems, including intellectual property theft, environmental costs, unreliable delivery schedules, and poorly trained workers. Companies from Caterpillar to General Electric are moving manufacturing back to the U.S.. Many factories in the Northeast have spare capacity that entrepreneurs might be able to buy for short production runs at a substantial discount.
3. Michigan’s incentives—Michigan’s government is providing $2 billion over 10 years through its 21st Century Jobs Fund to support university technology transfer and commercialization. In addition, there are generous tax breaks and incentives for job training. The State of Michigan supports a broad range of ventures that can benefit from an advanced manufacturing base, unlike other regions that focus on specific sectors.
[Editor’s note: To help launch Xconomy Detroit, we’ve queried our network of Xconomists and other innovation leaders around the country for their list of the most important things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy.]
Author: Anne Swift
Anne is passionate about marketing, entrepreneurship, and collaborative innovation systems. Glamour Magazine named Anne a visionary who will change the world for her work with Young Inventors International.
As the founder of Young Inventors, Anne has trained more than 3,000 university innovators around the world, at institutions such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Northeastern University. Under Anne’s leadership, Young Inventors held conferences at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Toronto. She is the pioneer of BrainBuzz, a structured methodology for using collaborating teams to solve technology challenges at institutions such as MIT's Innovations in International Health and the Ashoka Foundation.
Currently, Anne is the Head of Marketing (a.k.a. Chief Marketing Nut) at Nuts.com. In early 2008, Anne co-founded a solar thermal building materials start-up, which installed the largest, and award-winning, solar thermal project in Pennsylvania. Anne has also consulted for the MaRS Discovery District, the Cleantech Venture Network, and technology start-up companies, including many social ventures. She has been a judge of several business plan competitions, including the MIT IDEAS Competition, the Stanford BASES Competition, Ashoka-Lemelson Invention Competition, and San Jose State University’s Neat Ideas Fair.
With training as an economist, Anne has conducted research on how organizations can successfully work together to identify and commercialize innovations, as well as how innovations arise in collaborative group settings. Anne’s work included research positions with the Innovation Systems Research Network at the University of Toronto and Carnegie Mellon University with support from the Kauffman Foundation. Anne also holds certificates from the World Intellectual Property Organization in intellectual property and management of innovation. Anne’s work has appeared in Science Magazine, IEEE Spectrum, Forbes, Popular Science, NPR, and many other major media outlets. For more information about Anne’s background, please visit www.anneswift.com.
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