MARCH 13 - 19, 2017 Power Second outage stage: family primer business The business costs of power When and how to look failures, outside the family for Page 3 leadership, Page 18 Manufacturing Management Williams Int’l in talks for major Pontiac move EMS story has a production facility in Ogden — Aircra engine maker considering former lm site as possible locations. In 2003, Crain’s reported that the company opened a By Kirk Pinho hundreds of jobs to the Pontiac site cent land that would be developed plant in Huntsville, Ala., the previous reveals [email protected] where “Batman vs. Superman” was into a new manufacturing plant, ac- year. A deal for property bigger than the lmed during the days of Michigan’s cording to multiple sources familiar e sources said a vacant Pontiac Silverdome site is in the generous lm incentives before such with the talks who requested ano- 368,000-square-foot oce build- Duggan works that could bring a large de- work zzled. nymity. ing, the 185,000-square-foot Michi- fense contractor to the Oakland As currently planned, Williams Williams International did not re- gan Motion Picture Studios LLC County seat. International, which develops and spond to multiple requests for com- movie studio building and the site While nothing has been nalized, builds small gas turbine engines for ment. of a demolished General Motors playbook Commerce Township-based Wil- cruise missiles, planes and drones, Two sources said the company is trucking plant would be sold to Wil- liams International Co. LLC is get- would buy more than 550,000 square also looking at other states — Ala- liams. By Chad Livengood ting close to bringing potentially feet of space and 120 acres of adja- bama and Utah, where the company SEE WILLIAMS, PAGE 28 [email protected] Quicken Loans founder Dan Gil- bert, Detroit’s single largest job-provider and downtown land- SPECIAL REPORT: CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS lord, recently asked Mayor Mike Duggan wheth- er he’s always been a hands- on CEO. Full steam ahead e mayor, who is seeking re-election, welcomed the softball ques- tion. Yes, he re- plied, of course. Mike Duggan: In the joint ap- Data focus moved pearance be- needle on EMS. fore a friendly crowd of Gilbert employees, Dug- gan told a story that he doesn’t nor- mally tell in public that attempted to burnish his own image as a boss who demands — and gets — re- sults. It was a rare glimpse into a mayor- al management style that has a re- usinesses are growing in the Blue Water region, the craft lentless focus on measurable data — and no excuses — by a leader with beer is brewing, and the pace of development continues deep experience both in and out of to accelerate. rough it all, philanthropists, business government. Bowners, educators, and real estate developers are collaborating in “What you nd in government is it usually doesn’t work very well,” said innovative ways to build competitive talent pipelines, attract in- Duggan, a former Detroit Medical vestors to new ventures, and invigorate downtown life. Read Center CEO. about the investment rm that chose to locate its $19 million “We agree with that,” Gilbert re- fund in St. Clair instead of Chicago, the brewery that’s planning a plied. “And it doesn’t execute details $5 million, 10,000-beer-barrel expansion, a “reverse scholarship” very well,” Duggan said. “So things that pays people to relocate to the area, and more in our Crain's like the ambulance not showing Michigan Business special report, Page 10 up for a half hour was because no- body hired the EMTs, nobody re- paired the ambulances — it was a PHOTO COURTESY ST. CLAIR COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE whole lot of details. So I had to build a culture in the city of people committed to managing the de- © Entire contents copyright 2017 tails.” by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Rock Connections to add Duggan revealed at a March 1 crainsdetroit.com Vol. 33 No 11 $2 a copy. $59 a year. meeting of 300 executives from Gil- 500 workers by year’s end bert’s family of companies that he demoted Emergency Medical Ser- Gilbert’s call center business continues to grow, Page 3 vices Superintendent Sean Larkins in August 2014 after Larkins gave “excuses” about why average EMS response times were stuck at 12 min- NEWSPAPER utes. SEE DUGGAN, PAGE 28 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS // MARCH 13, 2017 INSIDE MICHIGAN BRIEFS CALENDAR 24 CLASSIFIED ADS 25 State Commission: ter school landscape, and the state’s solution to stop the carp from en- DEALS & DETAILS 24 Consider abolishing generous schools-of-choice law, un- tering the world’s largest freshwater Board of Education der which more than 120,000 stu- system. KEITH CRAIN 8 dents attend a public school outside If they aren’t stopped, ocials MARY KRAMER 9 A commission convened to oer of district boundaries. fear the aggressive sh will crowd OPINION 8 reforms to Michigan’s troubled edu- e 25-member commission, cre- out prize native sh and hamper cation system recommends a major ated by Gov. Rick Snyder early last recreational boating in large sec- PEOPLE 24 shift in oversight power to the gover- year, was charged with recommend- tions of the lakes, which stretch RON FOURNIER 8 nor's oce — and the possible abo- ing long-term, course-altering chang- from Minnesota, Wisconsin and RUMBLINGS 30 lition of the State Board of Educa- es to the state’s oundering K-12 edu- Michigan in the west to New York tion. cation system. Michigan public and Pennsylvania in the east and WEEK ON THE WEB 30 e report by Michigan’s 21st Cen- schools have slid into the bottom tier from Ontario, Canada, in the north COMPANY INDEX: tury Education Commission, re- of states nationally over the past de- to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio in the SEE PAGE 29 leased Friday, forwards two propos- cade despite frequent eorts at re- south. als that would grant the governor form. authority to appoint board of educa- Adding more urgency to the chal- Report: Incentives not nior economist Timothy Bartik, es- tion members, while a third proposal lenge are projections showing that Michigan is turning to the public for new used eectively timates that incentives oered by would have the governor appoint the the next decade is likely to produce a ideas and plans to o er a prize to state and local governments across state superintendent and “abolish” serious shortage of college graduates whoever comes up with a way to stop Michigan had higher business the U.S. totaled $45 billion in 2015 the SBE. Currently, the eight-member or certicate holders to ll the skilled- Asian carp from entering the Great incentive costs in 2015 than some — three times higher than in 1990. board is elected directly by statewide job openings of employers in the Lakes. neighboring states, even after the Yet many states, Michigan includ- vote. state. state jettisoned many of the tax in- ed, don’t eectively target their in- “is approach recognizes that the e 146-page report proposes a se- Michigan to oer prize in centives it once oered, new re- centives programs at industries governor is in charge of education ries of other reforms that would cost Asian carp ght search shows. that pay the highest wages or spend and the public has clear accountabil- upwards of $2 billion more a year if Incentive costs in Michigan, as a the most on research and develop- ity measures if they are not pleased fully funded. Among recommended Faced with the threat that Asian percentage of the state’s economy, ment. with the outcomes,” the report states. reforms was more funding for at-risk carp could enter the Great Lakes, were 49 percent higher than in In Michigan, incentive costs e highly anticipated report also students in high-poverty schools, a Michigan is turning to the public Ohio, 35 percent higher than in Illi- grew 16 percent from 1990 to 2015, appears to oer support for the con- strategy the study estimates could for new ideas and plans to oer a nois and 27 percent higher than in even as the state scaled back its in- tinued use of a state assessment that cost anywhere from $110 million to prize to whoever comes up with a Wisconsin, according to a report centives programs shortly after is aligned with the Common Core $900 million a year. e report also way to stop the voracious sh, e out today from the W.E. Upjohn In- Gov. Rick Snyder took oce in state standards. proposed better teacher preparation, Associated Press reported. stitute for Employment Research in 2011. But commissioners could not with heightened certication re- Michigan’s global search chal- Kalamazoo. Of neighboring states “We have a long way to go to im- reach a policy consensus on two oth- quirements and mandated year-long lenge comes after the U.S. govern- surveyed, only Indiana had higher prove incentives,” Bartik told re- er divisive issues in state public edu- residency training as part of the four- ment and others have spent hun- incentive costs. porters on a conference call ahead cation — Michigan’s expansive char- year college teaching degree. dreds of millions searching for a e report, written by Upjohn se- of the report’s release. ENERGIZING MICHIGAN’S Future Energy is essential to the way we live, work and play. ITC operates, builds and maintains the region’s electric transmission infrastructure. 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