Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Hilary Doe, Chief Growth Officer for the State of Michigan, Detroit, MI.

Hear Hilary and Jeffrey discuss the highlights of the Mackinac Policy Conference, the findings from a new national poll, the Moving Motivations report, and the Growing Michigan Together council's efforts to boost the state's business community, in the SoundCloud Podcast shared below:

Michigan Business Network · Michigan Business Beat | Hilary Doe - Mackinac Policy Reflections and Let's Grow Michigan

There were several questions Jeffrey wanted to find out from Hilary in this interview:

Could you remind the Michigan business community about the role of the Chief Growth Officer?
We're just coming off this year's Mackinac Policy Conference, what were some highlights?
While there, I understand that you were discussing the findings from a new national poll, could you share those with us?
That led to your report Moving Motivations tell us about that?
Finally many things came out of the early efforts of Growing Michigan Together, what should the business community know about that council's report?

This year's Mackinac Policy Conference coincided with the one-year anniversary of Hilary’s appointment by Gov. Whitmer to spearhead the state’s overall population growth effort, which began with the Growing Michigan Together Council and now includes implementation of the state’s blueprint for growth as well as the Let’s Grow Michigan initiative. The Let’s Grow Michigan campaign is focused on raising awareness to increase Michigan’s population through pilot projects, storytelling and marketing efforts that continue to attract and retain talent. The campaign engages stakeholders and the public to reverse existing population trends and showcase the places, opportunities and communities that make the state a great and welcoming place to live and thrive.

During the conference, they announced results from a new national poll commissioned by the Growth Office that reflects residents’ sentiments from 15 metropolitan areas outside of Michigan which are experiencing high growth. The research gauges the various factors that motivate young talent to choose a state and location to call home, such as housing, education, social policies/welcoming communities, climate action and sense of place (walkability, amenities, etc.). The data will be folded into the Growth Office’s work as they move forward.

Already, the population growth effort has garnered incredible momentum including:

Collecting feedback from 11,000 people representing over 800 Michigan ZIP codes.
Engaging with over 70 partners statewide around the blueprint for growth.
Garnering national coverage for Michigan’s most robust talent retention and attraction effort in the nation across policy, programs and marketing efforts.
Delivering results under Hilary’s leadership for Michigan’s marketing efforts. In March alone, the You Can in Michigan marketing campaign targeted at talent attraction garnered nearly 45 million ad impressions and attracted more than 6,000 visitors to the jobs portal indicating their interest to live and work in Michigan.

Continued investment in Let’s Grow Michigan is critical. We must build on our momentum to reverse the following trends:

Attraction lags the nation. Michigan is 49^th in the nation in terms of residents who live in MI who weren’t born in-state.
Annual net loss of approximately 5,600 MI postgraduates.
80% of Michigan business leaders will continue to struggle to fill jobs as they cite talent as the prime decision-making factor for expanding operations.
Instead of building on population growth momentum like the recent news in Detroit, Michigan’s population could continue to remain stagnant.

As part of our discussion with you, Hilary will highlight key insights critical to driving Michigan’s growth and how her team will continue working towards:

Establishing Michigan as the Innovation Hub of the Midwest and America’s Scale-up State.
Building a lifelong learning system focused on future-ready skills and competencies.
Creating thriving, resilient communities that are magnets for young talent.

Hilary talked a lot about the findings during her time on Mackinac: https://growingmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/LGM-Press-Release-National-Poll-Findings-May-2024-FINAL.pdf

New national poll results: https://growingmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/Lets-Grow-Michigan-National-Poll-Final-Report.pdf

Growing Michigan Together Council’s report: https://growingmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/2023-12-14-GMTC-Final-Report-2.pdf

While at the Mackinac Policy Conference Hilary participated in a moderated panel discussion:

The Importance of Racial Equity in Michigan’s Population Growth

Importance-of-Racial-Equity-in-Michigans-Population-Growth-Wide-Feature

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Growing Michigan Together Council’s report serves as a foundation to growing Michigan’s population and economy.
The business community and society must dispel the idea that investing in minority businesses comes at the detriment to other businesses or that bettering communities is a partisan issue.
Intentionally creating a small business-friendly climate is vital to thriving communities.

FEATURED PANELISTS AND MODERATOR

Population Growth is a Non-Partisan Issue

Hilary Doe, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, opened the discussion with how the Growing Michigan Together Council came to be and how the report’s findings laid the foundation for growing Michigan’s population and how getting residents’ buy-in is vital to its success.

Through traveling the state to hear firsthand from communities how they envision growth to look in their area, she said, “what I’ve noticed in common everywhere is a rejection of ‘do nothingness’ – a real recognition that we’ve got to get something done here… These sorts of population declines affect our public school enrollment, affect our quality of life, and have implications on our ability to continue investing in the kinds of communities that we all want to build together.”

By hearing from Michiganders instead of a general poll, Doe shared that both “red counties and blue counties” gave vital input that influences how support and resources are allocated to shape each community authentically.

Andre M. Perry, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institute supported this.

“The work to maintain or even grow populations [goes] beyond a political season,” he said. “We’re constantly focused on what’s happening now and what’s in front of us. Think bigger.”

Support to Communities Doesn’t Come at the Cost of Detriment to Others

By seeking to address Michigan’s population crisis through an inclusive vision for communities, it has welcomed attention to the racial disparities in traditional support and resources that are performative and lack longevity. Charity Dean, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Black Business Alliance, addressed this head-on, highlighting how it has recognized that small businesses deserve more opportunities rather than just acknowledging the dissonance.

“We can support small businesses in the ways that we support other industries,” she said calling for actionable support for small businesses versus just acknowledging disparities. “We call those out within [government] to do something about it and we don’t just become experts on problems – so much so that we talk about the problem in lieu of a solution.”

Perry agreed, saying, “that as far as [bettering the] conditions for Black-owned small businesses go, it creates better conditions for overall quality of life for the entire community … we need to break this mindset that investing in one group is to the detriment of someone else.”

“Understand that if you really want to increase population [and] GDP, all these things you have to invest in the people who need it most,” he said. Doing so builds a solid foundation for the communities that Michiganders desire and will undoubtedly become pivotal to attracting new residents.

Intentionality is the Key to Population Growth

The three main components to successfully growing Michigan’s population include good governance, implementation, and inclusion. As politicians come and go with the election cycles, all panelists agreed that keeping focused on the foundation of change will lead to communities that not only retain but attract residents by supporting the uniqueness of each community.

“Growth look[s] different in the UP than it looks in Grand Rapids, than it looks in Kalamazoo, [and] than it looks in Detroit and so that unique offering and that unique story will be different in those places … we need to their [stories] so that … people can see themselves in [these communities].”

This session was hosted by W.K. Kellogg Foundation.