INTRO: Where will Michigan’s next great companies come from? Yesterday at the Eagle Eye Golf Club outside Lansing, business and state government leaders were answering that question. More from Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus.
Speakers praised home grown businesses like Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. They now have 600 employees. First Gentleman Dan Mulhern says whether you still work in a factory or you got laid off, you have to learn to sell yourself to others.
“Somebody who’s been in a factory needs to ask what are my core skills? What am I good at? Am I good at team work? Am I good at spatial reasoning? What particular skills do I have but how can I apply my skills in another place? And how can I find a way to use them? People have to think of themselves as little businesses. Who needs what I have? How can I make somebody else better? And that’s a far cry from thinking how do I get a job at Ford and be there forever.”
The event was sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Much of the discussion focused on parents juggling jobs and families.