Michigan should stop looking for the next big thing and instead focus on innovators needing help to get their small companies off the ground. So say three charged-up scholars who are innovators prepared to teach others to take an idea and grow it into a nimble, successful business.
What started as an unusual class at
Michigan State University (MSU) has become their passion.
Rather than a title, the class was a question: How can we cultivate a society of entrepreneurship and innovation in Michigan? Students had no syllabus, no curriculum. So they sought answers from business leaders here and elsewhere.
Dan Redford, Kelly Steffen and Matt Barkell joined 10 others in the Michigan Futures Seminar, a creation of the Michigan Center for Innovation & Economic Prosperity at the
James Madison College on the MSU campus. They poured what they learned into a
web site, called Spotlight Michigan (which will remain as their legacy) and they hosted a conference for like-minded idea people.
Now, Redford, Steffen and Barkell plan to start their own business, yet to be named. How they will do that speaks to what they’ve already done.
Need a web site? Just do it, as Barkell did with Spotlight in two weeks, with no prior experience.
“That’s the thing with entrepreneurs. They don’t wait for someone else,” he says. “Look at Henry Ford.”
But they’ll be in different places. Redford is heading for China for summer studies; Steffen to Washington, D. C. for summer work with the U. S. Forest Service; Barkell will be in East Lansing, loaded down with classes.
“Makes no difference,” says Steffen. "They don’t have to be in the same boardroom. With technology, they can meet anywhere."
They consider themselves adaptable, creative, risk taking and plan to build a company in that image. They eschew what they call “Attila the Hun”-style management. Theirs will be a collaborative model.
The idea for their own company occurred over their Spring Break. Rather than playing in LaPlaya, they were picking the brains of business pros in Pittsburgh. They likened
Pittsburgh to Michigan, transitioning from a failing manufacturing economy.
In
Charleston, S.C., they learned that the Chamber of Commerce there nurtures ideas, and coordinates low-cost incubators. In
Raleigh, N.C., they tapped into university connections with the business community.
“We learned what works,” says Steffen. All that and more will comprise their toolkit as they mentor people with new ideas.
And while Redford is in China, he’ll be handing out Spotlight Michigan business cards. After all, both are developing economies, he says.
Source: Dan Redford, Kelly Steffen, Matt Barkell
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached
here.
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