Detroit Doesn't Wait.
Before Detroit became the Automobile Capital of the World, it had to earn the title.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the automobile industry had no obvious home. Detroit was one contender among several American cities competing to become the center of a new industry that would transform the world.
- Cleveland had automobiles.
- Indianapolis had automobiles.
- New York had automobiles.
- Detroit had automobiles.
But Detroit built something different.
It built a network.
The race was on
Cleveland possessed many of the ingredients required for industrial greatness: manufacturing expertise, steel, rubber, glass, machinery, transportation and skilled labor.
Indianapolis had a remarkably active automobile industry. By 1908, the city ranked fourth nationally in automobile production, with companies such as Marmon, Cole, National, Marion, Overland and American Underslung operating in and around the city.
New York possessed enormous markets, manufacturers, capital and transportation infrastructure.
Detroit, meanwhile, was becoming a laboratory for automobile manufacturing.
The question was no longer simply: who can build a car?
The bigger question was: who can build the industry?
Detroit answered that question better than its competitors.
Detroit's secret was not one company
It is tempting to tell the story through Henry Ford alone.
That would miss the larger lesson.
Ford was enormously important, particularly through the development of mass production. But Detroit's eventual dominance came from the concentration of manufacturers, engineers, suppliers, workers, financiers, machine-tool companies and industrial knowledge.
- Companies created companies.
- Workers moved between companies.
- Engineers transferred knowledge.
- Suppliers grew alongside manufacturers.
- Capital followed opportunity.
And each new company made the surrounding network more valuable.
Economists call this phenomenon industrial agglomeration: businesses and specialized talent concentrate geographically because proximity makes it easier to share suppliers, labor, knowledge and ideas. Detroit became one of the classic examples of an automobile cluster.
Detroit was no longer merely a city producing automobiles.
Detroit was becoming the place where the automobile industry lived.
Cleveland was a serious contender
Cleveland should not be written out of this history.
It became one of America's most important early automobile centers and developed a substantial automotive manufacturing and parts industry.
But Detroit's manufacturers and financiers were particularly aggressive in pursuing the enormous factories and production systems required for mass automobile manufacturing.
Cleveland ultimately remained an important automotive center without becoming the center.
Detroit crossed the threshold from industrial participant to industrial capital.
And then there was Indianapolis
Indianapolis provides perhaps the most fascinating example of a city deliberately trying to strengthen its position.
In 1909, Indianapolis businessmen Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler created the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Its original purpose was not simply entertainment.
It was an automobile testing ground for Indianapolis's rapidly growing automobile industry.
That is a remarkable strategic decision.
Indianapolis recognized that automobiles needed somewhere to be tested, demonstrated and improved. So it built the place.
Then Indianapolis created the 500
Two years later, in 1911, Indianapolis held the first Indianapolis 500.
Approximately 85,000 spectators watched the inaugural race.
The winner was Ray Harroun driving a locally built Marmon.
The race transformed Indianapolis into something more than a manufacturing center. It became a global stage for automobile technology.
The Speedway itself describes its continuing role as a proving ground for automobiles and an important factor in the development of the automobile.
So, did Indianapolis create the Indy 500 to become the automobile capital? Not exactly. The Speedway was created first as a testing facility for Indianapolis's automobile industry. The Indianapolis 500 followed in 1911.
But strategically, the effect was enormous.
Indianapolis had created a powerful mechanism connecting automobiles, engineering, competition, technology, spectacle and publicity. That was brilliant.
But Detroit played a different game
- Indianapolis built the arena. Detroit built the industry.
- Indianapolis became synonymous with automobile racing. Detroit became synonymous with automobile manufacturing.
- Indianapolis demonstrated what automobiles could do. Detroit demonstrated how automobiles could be produced by the millions.
That difference ultimately mattered.
The Detroit flywheel
Detroit's advantage became self-reinforcing:
- Manufacturers created demand for suppliers,
- which attracted engineers,
- who created new technologies,
- which attracted capital,
- which supported more companies,
- which created more jobs,
- which attracted more workers,
- which generated more knowledge and expertise.
The network became a flywheel.
The more Detroit produced, the better Detroit became at producing. And the better Detroit became at producing, the more companies had reasons to locate there.
Eventually, Detroit's competitors weren't merely competing against Ford. They were competing against Detroit itself.
When Detroit became Motor City
By the middle of the twentieth century, the association was unmistakable.
- Ford. General Motors. Chrysler.
- Thousands of suppliers. Hundreds of thousands of workers.
- Engineers, designers, machine shops, tool-and-die companies.
- Dealers, banks, railroads, factories.
- Neighborhoods and universities.
The automobile was no longer simply an industry located in Detroit. The automobile had become Detroit's economic identity.
Detroit had become the Motor City. And the world increasingly looked to Detroit when it wanted to understand where the automobile industry was going.
The lesson is bigger than automobiles
This is the part of the story that matters most to D-Unit.
Detroit did not win because it possessed every advantage.
Cleveland had extraordinary manufacturing capabilities. New York had enormous financial and commercial power. Indianapolis had a sophisticated automobile industry and eventually created one of the world's greatest automotive institutions.
Detroit won because the pieces connected.
That is the defining characteristic of a great innovation network. A network becomes powerful when its pieces begin making one another more valuable.
Detroit's next capital
A century ago, Detroit became the capital of the automobile industry.
Today, another network is forming.
- Life sciences.
- Wayne State University. Henry Ford Health. BAMF Health.
- Research laboratories and clinical research.
- Entrepreneurs, investors and universities.
- Pharmaceutical companies and workforce organizations.
- And the emerging Gratiot Life Sciences Building.
The opportunity is not to declare Detroit the next capital. The opportunity is to build the network capable of earning the title.
D-Unit's role
The automobile era required factories, railroads, suppliers and engineers to connect the industry. The life-sciences era requires something different: intelligence.
- Who is doing what?
- Who needs what?
- Who is funding what?
- Who has the technology, the laboratory, the research?
- Who needs a partner? Who needs capital?
- Who can commercialize the discovery?
- Who is hiring? Who can collaborate? Who should meet?
That is the problem D-Unit is being built to solve.
The Digital Intelligence Layer for Detroit's Innovation Network.
Detroit once connected the machinery that built the automobile. D-Unit aims to connect the intelligence that builds Detroit's next great economy.
Detroit Doesn't Wait.