New Michigan Strategy

Step 6 of the Michigan Turnaround Plan calls for championing strategies that leverage Michigan’s distinctive assets and strengths to accelerate long-term economic growth. It builds on the foundation laid by steps 1-5 of the Plan. Taken together with the first five steps, this “New Michigan” strategy can propel Michigan into becoming a Top Ten state for economic, job and personal income growth. 

Using data gathered from BLM’s work with respected global management firm McKinsey and Company, the New Michigan strategy identifies growth opportunities with the highest-potential over the next ten years to accelerate growth and create thousands of good paying jobs.  These are real objectives, grounded with research, and with prospects to dramatically reshape and strengthen Michigan’s economic future.

The framework for a New Michigan is broken into six areas, each of which promises tremendous opportunities for success.  Together, they have the potential to make our state into a vital economic powerhouse.

By capitalizing on our core strengths, we have the potential to increase our current growth projections by as much as 40 percent by 2020.  We can also add up to half a million jobs and grow the personal income of each Michigan resident by as much as $18,000 during the same time period. 

The centerpiece of this work is the identification of the primary drivers and enablers with the highest potential for growth over the next ten years, each of which:

  • Has potential to move Michigan to top 10 performance on output metrics like GDP growth, unemployment and GDP per capital
  • Is informed, but not constrained by global mega-trends
  • Includes tangible near-term actions which demonstrate traction against the new vision
  • Are powerful game changers if executed properly

Step six of the MTP, Leveraging Assets to Grow the New Michigan, identifies distinct Michigan strengths and their inherent opportunities for long-term economic growth in Michigan:

  • Grow and brand Michigan’s manufacturing, production and talent capacity to develop an unrivaled reputation as the world’s Global Engineering Village
  • Capitalize on Michigan’s ideal strategic location and available resources to become the premier Gateway to the Midwest
  • Invest in a Higher Education Marketplace that boosts Michigan’s talent base
  • Invest in and leverage Michigan’s natural resources in sustainable ways to grow a Natural Resources Economy
  • Renew our commitment to and build on Michigan’s  automotive heritage to become the Global Center of Mobility
  • Develop Michigan’s Life Sciences Hub based on our robust health, medical and bio-pharmaceutical capabilities