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.