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December 2015
It's time for a fresh outlook. In Michigan, we need to set our sights even higher. We can't be satisfied with being a good state-we have to become great again.
National experts at our recent CEO Summit in Detroit shared honest truths about where MI stands competitively - and the news is not as good as we'd hoped. While MI has been growing jobs, incomes and GDP faster than most states, our growth has begun to slow and we still rank below average in absolute terms on most measures of economic prosperity. That's because we were hit harder than any other state during the Great Recession and other states aren't standing still while we try to make up that lost ground.
In short, the data shows we are making good progress, but are still far short of being a Top Ten state.
So as we look forward to 2016, let's not be satisfied with our recent progress, but set more aggressive goals. The actions we've taken to balance our budgets and improve our tax code have made a big difference. But our agenda moving forward must become more holistic - producing more educated and skilled talent, strengthening our economic development efforts, investing in our assets and ensuring our long-term fiscal stability. No business, organization or family wants to be average. They want to be better. They want to be great. We should expect nothing less for our state.
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Doug Rothwell
President & CEO
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BLM Issues 2015 Economic Competitiveness Benchmarking Report
Business Leaders for Michigan's 2015 Economic Competitiveness  Benchmarking Report shows that MI has succeeded in stabilizing the economy, lowering key business costs, and becoming more competitive. However, while output indicators like employment, income and GDP have improved substantially in recent years, they began to slow during 2014. MI's economic future is impacted by a lack of cohesion behind a strategy for growing the economy and prioritizing investments in areas that will improve the state's overall competitiveness such as education and training beyond high school, innovation, our unique assets and economic development.
Recent Articles:
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 Michigan CEO Summit
Save the date for our 2016 Michigan CEO Summit!
Thursday, November 10, 2016
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ADVANCING THE MICHIGAN TURNAROUND PLAN & THE NEW MICHIGAN STRATEGY
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The Michigan Turnaround Plan reflects the significant progress that has been made in making MI more competitive. It identifies areas where we can compete, invest and grow in order to make our state stronger for generations to come.
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Our view: To fill the jobs of today and tomorrow, Michigan needs to fill its pipeline with an educated and skilled workforce. BLM supports making strategic investments in areas that make college more affordable, grow the state's talent pipeline and harness the innovation of MI's higher education system.
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Education, job skills must keep up with today's MI workplace
MLive.com | November 15, 2015
Employers in virtually every segment of the economy say they are having trouble finding enough workers to fill available positions. Gov. Rick Snyder hit the road recently on a statewide tour to promote skilled-trade opportunities for high school students. Read more. . .
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$12M in grants to pay for skilled trades training; creating jobs
WLNS | November 25, 2015
A program set up by the Michigan Legislature and Governor Rick Snyder is earmarked to train more than 13,000 job-seekers and workers next year. The Skilled Trades Training Fund is awarding $12.8 million in grants to offer training for technical jobs in 2016. It's planned that more than 3,100 jobs will be created and another 10,000 jobs will be retained. Read more. . .
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Students get hands-on experience with Stryker mobile lab
The Herald Palladium | November 26, 2015
Students at high and low levels got hands-on experience recently with some of the medical devices designed and produced by Kalamazoo-based medical technologies company Stryker Corp. For the first time since it was built a year ago, Stryker's Mobile Instruments Laboratory was made available to students. The idea was to spark their curiosity about science and skilled labor and to help show the application of math and science in the real world, said Stryker spokeswoman Jo Hawks. More than 100 students participated. Read more. . .
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Group sets goal to boost college degrees, credentials by 2025
MLive.com | December 1, 2015
Michigan must do more to help residents attain college degrees or training  certificates if the state hopes to compete for the jobs - and develop the job creators - of the future, according to a coalition of education, business, labor and government leaders. "Nothing is more important to MI's economy," said Board of Education president John Austin, and member of the Michigan Postsecondary Credential Attainment workgroup. The group recommended the state set an aggressive goal of ensuring that at least 60 percent of MI residents have a post-secondary credential of some type by 2025.Read more. . .
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GROW: New Michigan - Global Center of Mobility
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Our view:
BLM supports leveraging MI's distinctive assets to grow good paying jobs and accelerate MI's economic growth in areas where our state demonstrates unparalleled strengths or expertise such as the automotive/mobility sectors. To that end, MI should market its expertise in these areas to position our state as the Global Center of Mobility.
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Ford: We'll embrace the digital era, even if it hurts car sales
CNET | November 3, 2015
With California companies like Google, Apple, Uber and Lyft elbowing in on its turf, 112-year old Ford Motor wants a piece of the tech transformation of transportation. Ford is one of the top three makers of cars and trucks in the US, but it's trying to broaden its horizons, company Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said at the Web Summit tech conference Read more. . .
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Lear Acquires Auto Tech Company Specializing In Vehicle-To-Vehicle And Vehicle-To-Infrastructure Communications
AfterMarketNews | November 30, 2015
Lear Corp., a global supplier of automotive seating and electrical distribution systems, has acquired Arada Systems, a Michigan-based automotive technology company that specializes in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communications. "Lear is a leader in managing power and distributing signals within a vehicle. The acquisition of Arada Systems, in addition to our recent acquisition of technology from Autonet Mobile, adds software and hardware capabilities to our portfolio to securely facilitate wireless communications between the vehicle and external networks, as well as other vehicles," said Matt Simoncini, Lear's president and CEO. Read more. . .
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DATA SUPPORTING THE TURNAROUND PLAN
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How do states compare to other nations?
California and Texas - the two largest U.S. state economies - are roughly the same size as Brazil and Canada, respectively the 8th and 10th largest national economies. This map from howmuch.net compares U.S. state economies to countries with similar GDP. It is based on data from the IMF and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Read more. . .
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Michigan college-enrollment rate dips
New high school graduates enrolling in college are down both i n raw numbers and in percentage of the graduating class, based on state data for the Michigan Class of 2014. An estimated 64,289 students who graduated during the 2013-14 school year enrolled in higher education within six months of graduation, according to the Michigan Department of Education's data on post-secondary outcomes. Read the article. . .
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MI ranks #13 best for business tax climate
The Tax Foundation ranked Michigan 13th in its latest business tax climate rankings. Indiana was the only surrounding state that ranked higher (#8), while most of the Top Ten were in the Sun Belt or Mountain states. Read more. . .
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Report shows high value on entrepreneurship
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New college grads entering a better job market
Next spring, students graduating from college may have more to look forward to than the end of exams and term papers. They can also expect a strong job market. According to a survey by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, hiring of new grads is expected to jump 15 percent this year. The survey, which asked employers about their recruitment plans for the 2015-16 academic year, is based on responses from more than 4,730 firms. Read more. . .
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Report shows 20 million vehicles will be self-driving by 2025
The latest report into the future of autonomous and self-driving cars from Juniper Research sets 2021 as the date when the technology, which until recently was confined to sci-fi thrillers and James Bond films, starts to become a real-world reality. The research firm forecast this week that by 2025, some 20 million self-driving vehicles will be traversing the world's roads. That would be the equivalent of 28% of all the cars sold globally in 2014 (72 million acording to JATO). In November, Ford became the first carmaker to start using the newly opened Mcity, a city center space in Michigan, created just for testing autonomous car technology. Read more. . .
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MSU 'tops off' downtown research center
GRBJ.com | November 26, 2015
The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine recently held a "topping off" ceremony to celebrate a milestone in the construction of its six-story research center downtown and shared data on the project. Read more. . .
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Domino's CEO rides audacity to top leadership award
Detroit Free Press | November 21, 2015
Since Patrick Doyle became CEO of Domino's Pizza in 2010, the company's stock price has zoomed nearly 12-fold, from $8.76 on Jan. 5, 2010 to $104.52 recently. Obviously, Domino's shareholders must like Doyle. So too do Domino's employees, who gave him such high marks this year on the 2015 Detroit Free Press Top Workplaces survey that Doyle was named the first-ever winner of the Top Workplaces Leadership Award, presented by Joyce Jenereaux, president and publisher of the Detroit Free Press and president of Michigan.com. Read more. . .
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University of Michigan focuses on widening participation
The Times Higher Education | November 19, 2015
The president of the University of Michigan has said that his mission is to "build a learning community that looks like the U.S. public" as the institution places greater emphasis on increasing access and diversity. The university recently launched two initiatives designed to attract high-achieving, low-income students. The HAIL (high-achieving involved leader) scholarship programme will provide application advice and funding for 1,000 high school pupils from the state of Michigan to apply to the university. If admitted, the programme will pay students' full tuition and fees for four years, as well as additional financial aid according to their need. In addition, Michigan's Wolverine Pathways initiative will involve working in communities where low numbers of school pupils apply to the university. Read more. . .
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Blues give $1.2M in grants to expand health services
The Detroit News | November 26, 2015
Two Detroit health clinics each have received $100,000 grants to help expand access to health care in the city. The funding is part of more than $1.2 million awarded statewide by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and its foundation to increase access to medical and dental services for Michigan residents. The Blues are Michigan's largest health insurer. Read more. . .
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Event aims to attract talent home
Grand Rapids Business Journal | November 20, 2015
If you left West Michigan, come back. If you are thinking about leaving, don't. That's what Rethink West Michigan wants to get across. The Right Place Inc., a regional nonprofit economic development organization, and Hello West Michigan, an organization that promotes the economic palpability of the region, have partnered again to host the fourth annual Rethink West Michigan event. "We're highlighting the things people want to know about when they think about relocating: career opportunities and lifestyle in West Michigan," said Cindy Brown, executive director of Hello West Michigan. Read more. . .
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Howes: 'Start-Up Nation' teaches MI lesson in teamwork
The Detroit News | November 24, 2015
In a basement wine bar here, hours before wheels up back to Detroit, more than 20 Michigan CEOs huddle one last time to consider the entrepreneurship embedded in the Start-Up Nation. What, if anything, could be extracted and implemented back home? Could the Israeli model of public-private partnership, a shared vision between business, government and aspiring entrepreneurs, stand a chance of being transplanted to a state still prone to competing rivalries and bickering partisans? Read more. . .
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Michigan's Economy Keeps Rolling Along; 126,000 New Jobs In Next Two Years
CBS Detroit | November 20, 2015
The Michigan economy has grown every year since it bottomed out six years ago, and the next two years will be no different, according to University of Michigan economists. In their annual November forecast of Michigan's economy, researchers say the state will add about 126,000 jobs in the next two years. Read more. . .
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West Mich economy remains slightly ahead of national numbers
GRBJ.com | November 13, 2015
Slow growth is still the best way to describe the West Michigan economy, according to data and comments collected in the last two weeks of October. Our index of New Orders edged slightly lower to +9 from +13. The Production index retreated to +3 from +12. Activity in the purchasing offices rose modestly to +6 from 0. For the Employment index, it was gratifying to see the index flip back to positive at +5, up from -3. Read more. . .
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Could Detroit become the next Silicon Valley?
CIO | November 5, 2015
When you think of the hub of technology, Silicon Valley probably comes to mind. But that's slowly changing, as more cities across the country become fast-growing technology hubs. And now, with Amazon's recent announcement that it plans to expand corporate offices to Detroit in 2016, the Motor City is poised to the next hot spot for tech. Read more. . .
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About Us
Business Leaders for Michigan, the state's business roundtable, is dedicated to making Michigan a "Top Ten" state for jobs, personal income and a healthy economy. The organization is composed exclusively of the chairpersons, chief executive officers, or most senior executives of Michigan's largest companies and universities. Our members drive 32% of the state's economy, provide nearly 375,000 direct in Michigan, generate over $1 Trillion in annual revenue and serve nearly one half of all Michigan public university students. Find out more at:www.businessleadersformichigan.com.
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