GM And My Hometown

Growing up in Warren

Warren, Mich. That is where I grew up and every neighborhood in what was Michigan's fourth largest city in the 1960s and 1970s was like its own little small town.
My neighborhood--my hometown--was known as the Green Acres subdivision. It was built, and we all lived, in the shadow of the GM Technical Center.

Of course the 21st century has not been kind to General Motors and as a result the first years of this millennium have been more than dismal for Warren. The Great Collapse of Manufacturing in Michigan was especially rough on Metro Detroit, as I will detail in the first chapter of Manufacturing Renaissance, due out this fall.

However, some great news came from GM today for Warren:

GM Opens New IT Innovation Center in Michigan

Renaissance Center

Approximately 1,500 high-tech jobs to be created

 General Motors is opening an Information Technology Innovation Center in Warren, Mich., and expects to hire up to 1,500 high-tech employees over the next several years to support the company’s new approach to IT services.

The GM Michigan Innovation Center is the second of four planned Innovation Centers in the United States. GM last month announced the opening of the first facility in Austin, Texas, where 500 new IT jobs will be created.
 “We’re currently seeking the next generation of game-changers to help us usher in a new age of automotive innovation at GM,” said GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott.
The IT Innovation Centers play a critical role in GM’s overall IT business strategy. GM is looking to create and deliver IT services with new capabilities that will help the company improve its performance, drive down the cost of ongoing operations and increase the level of innovation delivered to GM customers. To support this approach, GM is moving to a more in-sourced IT business services model as part of its overall IT Transformation.
“GM is executing an IT best practice by insourcing IT services and making them a strategic part of assuring GM remains a fast-moving leader,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif. “This is also one of the best opportunities for IT professionals to work in the automotive industry.”
Available positions include software development, project management, database management and business analysis. GM is recruiting recent college graduates and experienced professionals for these jobs.
GM recruiters are visiting U.S. college campuses this fall and participating in local job fairs targeting IT professionals. For more information and to apply for one of these positions, potential job candidates should visit http://www.careers.gm.com/itjobs.

Warren, Mich. is reinventing itself just as Grand Rapids, Mich has been doing. However, my hometown is doing it without the billionaire families that my adopted hometown has come to depend on.
What happens when the 1% drags the 99% into the 21st century? That is the story in Last Chance Mile, available from your local bookstore, your favorite online retailer and www.rodkackley.com.