Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce Morning Edition.  As a marketing communications professional I was impressed with the number of innovators sharing their story at this networking breakfast event--right here in Ann Arbor, right here in Michigan.  

Among them was key sponsor Ann Arbor State Bank, a new start-up in the banking industry. They are to be applauded for joining with other strong local banks in bringing stability and insight to our challenged financial industry. Lumigen is a research, development and manufacturing company of chemiluminescence technology.   Chemiluminescence is the generation of electromagnetic radiation as light by the release of energy from a chemical reaction.  A sample demonstration lit up the room like a spotlight and not a firefly.  The Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative has reduced recidivism by 20% in the state of Michigan in the last two years.  And Zipcar is a new vehicle service that gives you wheels when you want them and enables exciting new forms of alternative transportation.   

One of the key speakers, Dr. David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research, extended the theme.  On the heels of the announcement that Mercedes will open up a new research facility in Ann Arbor, he spoke about other opportunities that are developing based on the retooling of the automotive industry and the important collaborative work going on right now between the labor unions, auto company management, supply chain representatives and the federal government.  This difficult but game-changing work, if it succeeds, will avoid bankruptcy while restructuring to compensate for overcapacity and ultimately strengthen the industry to provide profitable, market-pleasing products going forward.  In conversation afterwards, we spoke about the innovation of Johnson Controls, one of MOVE’s clients, and a recent project developed by its global innovation team headed up by Michael Warsaw in North America.  This project, the re3 vehicle rethinks the small car interior environment.  He remarked that this is an example of Johnson Controls strong history of strategically initiating to bring new ideas to its customers. 

My take-away was that now more than ever all of us in business have the opportunity as  we service our customers to bring forward new ideas based on our expertise that solve problems in ingenious ways--ideas that our customers wouldn’t have had the time or resources to generate. As we do, we shouldn’t feel obligated to have everything totally baked before we demo an idea.  Let our customers collaborate with us in tuning the innovation to their specific applications. If we do, we’ll see a new edition of innovation.  Bring it!

Welcome to the MOVE blog.  We’re pleased to be able to connect with you and interact about how together we can better serve our various customers. An idea for you to consider is expanding the scope of “we.”  Here’s a discussion thread on this topic.

Recently I was at an honors convocation at the University of Michigan.  Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University, and several others spoke. President Coleman’s theme was “climate change.”  The climate change she referred to was a cultural change in which new thinking and new solutions for providing better stewardship over our agricultural, water, energy and human resources was needed.  We heard about the need for more farmers who could farm locally and provide sustainable options in collaboration with their communities; the research and application for electric vehicles that is being done at the University in collaboration with GM; and how students from various disciplines collaborated to articulate over 1,000 ideas for new business and community improvements as part of a student-led entrepreneurial initiative. In each of these examples, those involved found new ways to work together and, as President Coleman said, saw the need to “partner or perish.” 

So my encouragement is to look at these difficult times as an opportunity to expand your network and even your definition of what it means to collaborate.  Be part of the climate change where local and global, academia and business, young and old, even competitor and competitor, find new ways to innovate through collaboration.  It will force us to hone our own core capabilities so that we can enter this arena of collaboration as a valued player, and be equipped to move ahead in a more agile and ingenious way, finding new solutions and breakthroughs on behalf of our customers, our communities and our families.  Here’s to the connections.