Even with all the talk of green technologies breaking our dependence on coal and oil, change has been slow to come. Metromode looks at Ontario's alternative energy initiatives - how they've helped nurture a wind power industry and what Michigan might learn from them.
Michigan may be known as the Mitten state, but we're really more of a flipper. After all, we have more coastline than any place else in the continental U.S.. So, what are we doing to leverage this unique position? From energy to tourism, boating to high tech, Dennis Archambault looks at how metro Detroit is capitalizing on its greatest natural resource.
There is little doubt that Metro Detroit has become a melting pot of cultures and faiths. Still, finding common ground with our neighbors doesn't always come easy. A group of women, representing five different faiths, is out to prove that it is our common experiences that will ultimately bind us together as one community.
It's a well-known fact that immigrants, who have the moxie to up and leave their birthplaces, are an entrepreneurial crowd. Yet, common misconceptions among ethnic groups can splinter economic and social relations. A pair of newspaper publishers saw the rift between those of Jewish and Chaldean heritage and got together to form the "Building Communities" program, which offers cultural exchange, a teen forum, and even an angel investment fund.
From the smokey cocktail parties of the '60s to the caffeine and Facebook fueled world of the Internet, advertising exec Marcie Brogan has seen it all. More importantly, she has embraced rather than resisted the inevitable changes in her industry. Metromode chats with her about the state of Metro Detroit's advertising firms -- past and present.
What's the view at the bottom of Metro Detroit's entrepreneurial food chain? More diversity, less money. Case in point, Denovo Sciences. Its young partners are full of vim, vigor and a desire to "make change in human lives". What they could use is a little seed capital for their life science innovations.
Whether it's church doors or the wall on your Facebook page, Ann Arborite David Crumm sees a place for spiritual and religious discourse. It's why he started ReadTheSpirit.com, an Internet-based company that offers one of the few places left for spirituality-based journalism.
University presses have found a unique niche in the publishing world, producing books by local writers with a decidedly local focus. Dennis Archambault looks at how Wayne State and U-M are evolving their imprints in the age of shrinking higher ed funding and digital innovation.
"Game changing technologies". "Thinking outside the box". "Bucking the status quo". Business is big on innovative jargon, but what does it really take to remake the economic landscape? Whether it was the automobile a hundred years ago or last year's iPad, disruptive thinking is more than just risk-taking entrepreneurship, it's the business of course-altering creation. And the financial impacts are staggering.
For most companies the mantra is: grow big and grow fast. Of course, given the current economy, any growth would be a blessing. But what if slow growth were the long term strategy? With a focus on work/life issues, purpose, and entrepreneurial pride, some Metro Detroit firms have consciously decided they'd rather be the tortoise than the hare.
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