Turning up the Heat: How Venture Capital Can Help Fuel the Economic Transformation of the Great Lakes Region

Battered for decades by the loss of manufacturing, the outmigration of talented workers, and a sluggish entrepreneurial spirit, the states and metropolitan areas of the Great Lakes region have long struggled to remake the area’s once powerful economy. Efforts to grow new industries and jobs in the region are today more urgent than ever, as the global financial crisis, bankruptcy of two of Detroit’s Big Three, and ripple effects through the supply-base are churning the economic and physical landscape on which many of its communities were built, and once thrived.

Its deep problems not withstanding, the Great Lakes region has formidable assets that will necessarily provide the foundation for future economic growth, including substantial research and development capacities, a strong existing industrial base, and growing prowess in key economic sectors and technologies. But this isn’t enough: The region still lacks the venture capital investments needed to help translate the huge amount of innovation these assets generate into the high value firms, products, and services that, as the Great Recession recedes, will define the next economy.

To read the full, original article click on this link: Turning up the Heat: How Venture Capital Can Help Fuel the Economic Transformation of the Great Lakes Region - Brookings Institution

Author: Frank Samuel