{"id":22159,"date":"2018-04-13T16:42:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T20:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=22159"},"modified":"2018-04-13T16:42:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T20:42:43","slug":"gm-exec-detroit-areas-talent-deficit-cost-it-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/gm-exec-detroit-areas-talent-deficit-cost-it-amazon","title":{"rendered":"GM exec: Detroit area\u2019s \u2018talent deficit\u2019 cost it Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>

Detroit<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Citing a missed chance at Amazon\u2019s second headquarters as a dashboard warning light,\u00a0General Motors Co. product chief Mark Reuss<\/a>\u00a0told the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress here Thursday that the autonomous vehicle revolution will also bypass Detroit unless the region addresses its \u201ctalent deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it\u2019s no secret why we couldn\u2019t even make the final 20 cities on the list for Amazon\u2019s potential second headquarters site,\u201d said Reuss in a passionate keynote speech in Cobo Center. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t because of a lack of mass transit, although that is important. It wasn\u2019t because of a lack of cultural opportunities, or because of the weather. . . . It came down to a simple talent deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the future of the automotive industry is going to be determined and developed, right here,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut only if we can develop, attract and acquire the engineering talent to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying that a historic shift to electrified, autonomous transportation is \u201call really happening,\u201d Reuss outlined the challenge of educating more engineers as a national imperative. Currently, he said, the United States suffers labor shortages in every science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field. In just two years the U.S. will face a shortfall of a half-million engineers, he said.<\/p>\n

But Reuss focused his address here at home where Motor City automakers are investing billions in a sci-fi future \u2014 GM alone is in the middle of a $1-billion, 2,600-job expansion of its Warren Tech Center. He said anyone with a stake in Metro Detroit\u2019s signature industry needs to focus on education.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy my count, that\u2019s just about everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to meet or beat the talent levels in Silicon Valley and other technology hubs around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t spare SAE and industry business leaders. \u201cI worry that we miss a lot of opportunities to really assume a leadership position,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cThis industry is changing \u2013 fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

His stark diagnosis of Detroit\u2019s failure to make Amazon\u2019s Final 20 echoed, in part, what many regional leaders have said were the two major reasons \u2014 the other being a lack of mass-transit \u2014 that the region missed out on\u00a0Amazon\u2019s promise of 50,000 jobs and $5 billion investment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reuss\u2019 comments contradict another prominent tech player in the region, Dan Gilbert, chairman and founder of Quicken Loans.<\/p>\n

In a letter\u00a0this January to the 60-member bid committee<\/a>\u00a0addressing Amazon\u2019s decision, Gilbert dismissed concerns over talent and cited Detroit\u2019s negative image as \u201cthe elephant in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOld, negative reputations do not die easily. I believe this is the single largest obstacle that we face,\u201d Gilbert wrote. \u201cOutstanding state-of-the-art videos, well-packaged and eye-catching proposals, complex and generous tax incentives and highly compelling and improving metrics cannot nor will not overcome the strong negative connotations that the Detroit brand still needs to conquer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, and one of the state\u2019s leading economists said Reuss\u2019 speech confirmed\u00a0his own 2017 study that correctly predicted<\/a>Detroit would rank low on Amazon\u2019s list due to a shallow labor talent pool and transit infrastructure.<\/div>\n

\u201cOur analysis found that Detroit is clearly hurting in a couple of areas,\u201d the Lansing-based economist said. \u201cThough I think mass transportation did hurt us with Amazon, the difficulty of educating our people hurts us every single day with every single employer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the Amazon setback \u2014 and the warnings of giants like GM \u2014 Anderson says that many in the region refuse to accept reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been criticized for saying this repeatedly,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we consistently have shown a serious problem with K-12 education. It\u2019s a fundamental problem that has not been remedied.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his speech, Reuss cited the efforts of GM and SAE in building regional educational opportunities as a good start.<\/p>\n

A World In Motion, an SAE-organized, teacher-administered program that has brought hands-on STEM activities to K-8 students over the last decade, will receive $600,000 this year to support 1,800 volunteers. He singled out a Detroit college student, Brittany Agee, the first person in her family to attend college. She benefited from the \u201cGM Student Core\u201d program where company engineers mentor underprivileged kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more Brittanys,\u201d said Reuss. \u201cWe all need to ask how our companies can help do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the auto industry\u2019s greatest future concerns are self-driving systems\u2019 vulnerability to hackers. To address this threat, Reuss said, GM and SAE have created a new program for 2018, \u201cCybersecurity Challenge,\u201d designed to teach middle-schoolers how to protect the Internet\u2019s architecture from cyber attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something (students) hear about all the time \u2014 whether it is companies being hacked, or individuals \u2014 it\u2019s in the news a lot,\u201d said Reuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detroit\u00a0\u2013 Citing a missed chance at Amazon\u2019s second headquarters as a dashboard warning light,\u00a0General Motors Co. product chief Mark Reuss\u00a0told the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress here Thursday that the autonomous vehicle revolution will also bypass Detroit unless the region addresses its \u201ctalent deficit.\u201d \u201cLook, it\u2019s no secret why we couldn\u2019t even make the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22160,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22159\/revisions\/22160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}