Crystal Ball Economic Development Keith Brophy: Tech explosion an aid to small business competitiveness
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By Keith Brophy, VP of Enterprise Integration
RCM Technologies
Great carnival fortunetellers claim to have magic in their crystal balls, but they really just have a knack for noticing obvious clues. A sickly looking, coughing patron may find ill health forecast ahead, and a well-dressed, confident-looking businessperson may hear a prediction of pending good business fortune. A solo young adult without a ring sitting eagerly across from the observant fortuneteller may hear she is likely to find true love. The act of fortunetelling turns out to be not so mysterious after all, but simply a matter of reading subtle signs.
The same applies to peering ahead into the crystal ball of our state’s economy and the role that technology will play. Our great state is similar to that sickly carnival attendee looking longingly at the fortuneteller’s crystal ball for answers. The statistics on Michigan’s displaced workforce are staggering, sad and historic. They reflect one of the starkest regional workforce downshifts in the history of our nation.
In many respects, our state is so far down we can only go up, and various statewide efforts ahead will start to accelerate the upward trend over 2011. The true recovery will come slowly to our state due to the size and brittleness of the displaced workforce, but the metrics on our state business climate will steadily improve as these workers progressively shift to the new economy. In four years, our state will have moved closer to the middle of the 50-state vitality rankings, rather than at the tail end of the list we suffer from today.
The incoming state Legislature and Governor-elect Rick Snyder’s administration have their work cut out for them to spark our business ecosystem. But they also will bring a much-needed recognition of the scope of the problem, a fresh solution openness, a business perspective and a hunger for change. We can expect to see business-promoting programs, policies and legislation result. We can also expect to see a new breed of workforce tuning programs come out of Lansing that are very result-focused, metric-driven and effective. This change will not wash upon us as one big tidal wave, but rather as a steady current. Business professionals must be particularly focused on following state government developments over the next couple of years as there will be both opportunity to benefit from the programs and to contribute to the overall recovery.
One of the relatively few bright spots of our state economic landscape over the last several years has been that of the glow of small business. The Michigan Small Business Technology Development Center has been busy cultivating a new breed of entrepreneurs, and the results have been encouraging. In 2009, the SBTDC was involved in facilitating the launch of 470 new businesses and assisting small business in critical capital formation to the tune of $247 million. This type of growth is imperative to the restructuring of our state economic climate. Workforce, culture and interlinked ecosystems continue to shift from massive employers to a growing community of collaborating small businesses. Experts have long predicted a future national economic engine based more on a growing and thriving rank of small and medium-sized business than the days of past large company dominance. Our state will be a model of that midsize business restructuring for the nation because the need is greatest in Michigan, and our state’s leaders can accordingly take bold risks in this evolution.
Technology will be the lifeblood of businesses large, medium and small during this shift. Where there is transformation afoot, there is increased technology demand as well. Technologies that will particularly boom are the same ones that have already been enabling the increasing clout, collaboration and reach of small business over the past several years. Continued improvements in perpetual Internet availability with high performance in every nook and cranny of our lives will, in turn, continue to produce a surge of more and more business activity flowing over the net.
Social networking is an increasing element of the business world, as well as the college campus. I smiled recently when I noticed on Facebook a friend who is a regional manager of an area business. Just two years ago, when I shared my prediction on the future clout of social networking, she had passionately laid out the case to me why most normal adults would never participate in it. Like the rest of the world, in spite of her common “not for me” attitude she has been swept in by the force of technology adoption gravity. When most of the world is on the phone, it makes sense to be on the phone or you miss out. And when most of the world is on social networking, it makes sense to be on social networking or you miss out. Those days have arrived.
Social networking is currently at the early business adoption stage of a technology — mainly “dabbling.” Serious hardcore business bottom-line driving aspects to business social networking are not far behind. We will soon see an explosion of social networking savvy business applications that will drive business success for the companies behind them, and today’s social network efforts will look like early steps in hindsight.
Mobile devices have already changed many ways we interact, but they will continue to redefine the way we do business across all industries. There are many advances coming in mobile devices, including areas such as Near Field Communications, that will enable our mobile devices to serve as credit cards, trackers, and transaction and interaction pivot points, as well as the cell phones, cameras and computing access points they function as today. The ultimate impact of mobile devices will be to redefine the office itself into the virtual “your office is anywhere you are” mode. Our concept of a business will continue to shift from that of the walls, desks and warehouses of a business to that of a brand, a culture, a team and core competencies.
These quiet, steady incremental technology advances will occur across all industries, but particularly in healthcare, life sciences, education, financial, design and services industries. The many increased uses of the web, mobility, social networking and other forms of software and hardware integration will drive a gradually stronger technology industry in Michigan as our state’s comeback gradually unfolds.
So what’s to stop us? The greatest challenge facing the technology industry will be the shortage of top seasoned talent in our state. Many businesses will continue to turn out of state for their technology solutions. Technology businesses within the state will be well advised to take special efforts to build their teams, and also to make their presence known as active players in the upcoming rebound. The state help will come in the backdrop of a steady, generally improved economy, but it does not take a fortuneteller to see that entrepreneurial hustle and talent will be more necessary than ever for every business on the journey of steady transformation ahead.