Business in Detroit is changing. For years the city has been climbing slowly yet steadily towards a brighter future. New businesses have sprung up, older businesses have become more established, and Detroiters’ pride of being a part of the city’s upsurge has only grown greater. During the first few days, weeks, and even months of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the city’s upswing seemed all but stable.
Many of us know the stories of those first few months well. We suffered the losses of loved ones, we lost our jobs, we battled to receive unemployment and healthcare, and the fear of the unknown, of the future, was potent. Now, as most businesses are reopened and many Detroiters are returning to the office or are looking for work again, the city offers a complicated business economy to its residents.
The founder, president, and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, Cindy Pasky, speaks to this complexity,
CINDY PASKY STRATEGIC STAFFING SOLUTIONS CEO
“I think what… what we need to do is, you know, post-pandemic or at least transitioning out of pandemic, is we need to recognize that we’ll have to view our business community in Detroit I think in a more detailed manner than perhaps we would have done before when everything seemed to be on an upswing.”
Pasky continues, commenting on the variance between levels of businesses throughout the city, “You’re seeing larger corporations that are moving forward and holding their stock prices and looking to hire people and bring talent on, most of those are multinational corporations. But then when you… get to the service industry, you know, they’re challenged to find employees. In some instances [they] were challenged to have access to the support they needed when they needed it to keep their business going.”
Middle market companies, according to Pasky, are simply a mixed bag. Their current success is defined by their customer base, their product, and their employee base. The city has to recognize these discrepancies, “We can’t generalize,” says Pasky.
Jason Tinsely, the Michigan Market Manager for J.P. Morgan Private Bank sees the current time, however, as pretty good for the individual. “Savings on a national level, I don’t have local numbers, but savings numbers are the highest they’ve ever been across every demographic. Debt numbers, like credit card debt, is the lowest it’s ever been. So people are sitting on cash, they want to spend money.”
This ability and want to spend is hoped to positively influence smaller business suppliers and manufacturers. “The service industry got hit hard, restaurants got hit hard,” Tinsely says, “but if you look at all the small business suppliers and manufacturers they were able to get through. Now, they can get people back to work… because the demand for products is as high as it’s ever been, that’s gonna be a benefit to them.”
He continues, “I think the service industry and the restaurant industry, or hospitality industry, that’s gonna come back online, the local piece, a lot slower than maybe nationally because people want to vacation…. I think the demand to go out to eat will get back as people get back to going to work. I think it’s more of a September phenomenon.”
JASON RAZNICK BENZINGA CEO
For Jason Raznick, entrepreneur and Benzinga founder, the future of business in Detroit may be predicted somewhat by finances but is heavily influenced by companies’ investment in their employees, and in turn, employees’ relationship with innovation. “Large companies, they should cultivate that [innovation], they should look for people with change and ideas on opening up that landscape…. Something that starts as a little molehill can become a big mountain like it can become a real thing.”
Raznick believes that by investing in every employee, and by granting open opportunities for investment and innovation to every employee, titles and a business’ hierarchy can be broken down.
The result is what he refers to as a “Doarchy”—a system in which people come together to work towards a better future vs. continuing in the same path as the days before.
In a time where everything seems to be changing, innovation is a necessity. From the service industry’s demand for better working conditions and healthcare to Black Lives Matter marches demanding racial equity, to office employees demanding livable wages, to small businesses asking for support, Raznick’s Doarchy may just be something Detroit is in need of.
Business in Detroit is changing, but the change may not be the thing to focus on. Instead awareness of the diversity of needs in the business community as well as the need for innovation throughout the city is demanding our attention.
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