Original episode of Michigan Public Radio episode webpage: Issues & Ale: Competition and collaboration in Michigan’s regional economy
For more than three years, The Next Idea has been talking to people who took their creative ideas and turned them into something tangible — a business, an invention, social change.
Those out of the box ideas are essential to keep moving Michigan’s economy forward. But creative ideas often get stuck in their own regional bubbles.
As a send-off for The Next Idea, Michigan Radio got together to discuss how that regional isolation affects the state’s economic growth, why it matters, and what can be done about it.
Michigan Radio’s Joe Linstroth and University of Michigan Ross School of Business professor and “Dean of Innovation”Jeff DeGraff were joined by a panel of business leaders and thinkers from across the state.
- Lauren Bigelow, CEO of Growth Capital Network in Ann Arbor
- Eric Thomas, founder and senior partner at Saga MKTG in Detroit
- Nate Lutz, senior counsel at Meijer in Grand Rapids
Listen above to hear the panelists talk about how stereotypes of Michigan’s three largest cities get in the way of collaboration, why Michigan has a tough time retaining homegrown talent, and what the state would look like if we could pool our resources and innovation.
Jeff DeGraff is the Dean of Innovation – an author, speaker, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies and mission-driven organizations worldwide. He’s the CEO and Founder of Innovatrium, Founder of Intellectual Edge Alliance, and Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Jeff co-created the Competing Values Framework and developed the Innovation Code and Innovation Genome methodologies which provide organizations with practical tools to reconcile competing priorities and drive breakthrough performance. His mission is the democratization of innovation: making systematic innovation accessible to everyone, everywhere, every day.