SOUTHFIELD ? Gov. Rick Snyder’s three words for reinventing Michigan are “Simple, Fair and Efficient,” Michael Finney, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., told about 60 people attending the TiE Detroit monthly meeting Tuesday night at the Southfield Westin.
He calls it open source economic development.
?Results over bureaucracy, rejecting partisanship,? Finney said.
An example of what he means comes from his days as president of Ann Arbor SPARK, the Washtenaw County Economic Development organization.
Finney said SPARK came to Wayne County and said it wanted to move the Life Sciences Incubator Center from Ann Arbor to Plymouth. He said SPARK moved 16 companies with 100 employees to Wayne County. But all the employees still lived in Washtenaw County and spent money at Ann Arbor restaurants and had their kids in Ann Arbor schools.
Another example is the Talent Enhancement, talent placement service. Businesses in growth mode were helped by SPARK through an executive search pool of talent. SPARK reached out to Silicon Valley, Chicago, Austin and Seattle and said they could provide companies that wanted to relocate operations in Michigan with a list of people who had the skills they were looking for. Such an approach helped bring Barracuda Networks and Google to Michigan.
Finney?s economic gardening tool kit includes more than tax incentives. The MEDC will also do more with peer to peer marketing.
?We will call on major businesses to ask them to leverage their business relationships,? Finney said. ?Michigan government also may become the first customer for new businesses in Michigan.?
The state plans to issue $25 million Request For Proposals for entrepreneurial resources and support.
?What else can we do to help the state?? Finney asked. ?The state buys $2.5 billion each year in goods and services. We want to work with Michigan companies to buy Michigan.?
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