Ann Arbor needs the rest of Michigan more than it thinks (and vice versa)

Here's a convincing argument for why Michigan's varied and silted business communities should find more -eek, we're going to say it - synergy… or common ground.

Excerpt:

"The story in Ann Arbor is completely different. Despite its proximity to Detroit, Ann Arbor does not depend on the same massive companies. With the University of Michigan as an intellectual, cultural, and financial hub, the industry is knowledge and the spirit is an entrepreneurial one: people don’t depend on pre-existing companies—they start new ones. Consider the fact that the founders of Google and Groupon, and dozens of other successful new economy entrepreneurs, got their start in Ann Arbor.

The thing about Ann Arbor, though, is that all this start-up energy and growth is unsustainable. The people who start new companies don’t stay in Ann Arbor. They move elsewhere, to places where they can get the capital they need to quickly grow."

Read the rest here.