Five Reasons Why I Love Detroit

Eminem, whose hard lyrics evoke compelling images, coined a phrase that has turned me into a cheerleader for the Motor City: “Detroit vs. Everybody.” I don’t know how it feels to be from Detroit, and I can only imagine the tornado of pride and humility that fire this song, but here are five reasons why I personally love Detroit.

(1) DTW – Detroit Metro is the best airport in the United States. This may only be true for Terminal A, but for connections both humble (Madison) and exotic (Seoul), DTW has assembled the perfect collection of operational elements, customer experience features and pure cool vibe available to the weary traveler.

Good food, excellent signage, and one of the world’s best on-time flight records makes DTW a winner. I prefer a connection through Detroit over a direct involving JFK (New York), LAX (Los Angeles) or ORD (Chicago).

(2) Diversity & Inclusion – Flying through Detroit recently I noticed that business class on both the inbound and outbound Delta flights were precisely 25% filled with African American passengers. The profile of this subset was as varied unto itself as was the rest of the cabin and plane. It occurred to me that this is what we’re looking for – diversity so pervasive that it goes unnoticed.

It is also interesting that Detroit is home to one of the most powerful female CEOs in the world, Mary Barra of General Motors, and home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S., plus of course, our most renowned white rapper, Eminem.

I have found that South Africans are among the most candid people I’ve ever encountered in discussions about race. It may be because the history is so strained as to demand truth. Could Detroit have some of the same dynamic? I’d like to think so.

(3) SCM – Detroit created global supply chain management. The Dutch may have invented global logistics, but for the wider scope of supply chain, which includes planning, sourcing and manufacturing it has to be Detroit. The roots go back to Henry Ford, but Detroit has also given us such vital modern techniques as platforming, digital twins and global sourcing. This may be counterintuitive for a city that is synonymous with industrial decline, but the automotive industry was the first truly worldwide supply chain operation, and Detroit developed it from scratch.

I have argued in the past, and maintain now that automotive is the most mature supply chain in the world. It is also savagely competitive, which is great for consumers who can buy a product that carries the whole family safely at speeds over 80 mph for as little as $15,000. Thank you, Detroit.

(4) PhD – If the future depends on talent then Detroit looks pretty attractive. Higher education nearby includes two great institutions with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Between them they host almost 100,000 students every year. Ann Arbor is a destination for elite students worldwide and Michigan State consistently ranks number 1 in supply chain management.

Beyond these two are dozens of other schools offering technical and general business education, including several that were highlighted by Gartner in its ranking of supply chain university programs.

Plus, Detroit has something hard to find in London or San Francisco: affordability. Detroit has the lowest rent-to-buy ratio of any big American city. If Motown is approaching a rebirth, those who move in now will find great real estate at bargain prices.

(5) ESPN – Sports fans (myself included) have a lot to love in Detroit. There are only five American cities that have at least one franchise in all four major professional leagues going back to the 1960s. After New York, which did so first in 1946, Detroit comes second with teams reaching back to 1957. Plus, is there any franchise in any sport with a cooler logo than the Red Wings?

Renaissance Center

Detroit has seen good times and hard times. Its media image is all about past glory and present gloom. I think this is a mistake.

Detroiters are tough, smart and honest. The city is a sleeping giant whose future combines art and culture with technology and engineering… plus lots of supply chain management.