Alfred's Blog

Advantage Michigan: Abundant, Affordable Water

December 12th, 2011

A recent headline in The New York Times caught my eye: “China Takes a Loss to Get Ahead in the Business of Fresh Water.”

The article explained that one serious obstacle standing in the way of China’s miraculous economic development is a shortage of fresh water in many parts of the country. Recognizing this threat to their nation’s continuing prosperity, the Chinese government is funding construction and operation of a massive desalination plant on the Bohai Sea, near Beijing.

While this state-of-the-art desalination facility (incorporating the newest Israeli technology) is the most efficient in the world, the Times reports, “There is but one wrinkle in the $4 billion plant: The desalted water costs twice as much to produce as it sells for.”

That’s one hell of a “wrinkle.”

You might be wondering why this interests me. I’m not considering investments in desalination technology, or house hunting in Beijing. But I am focused on the future of Michigan, my home state, which is blessed with more than 20 percent of our planet’s fresh water. As I discussed in an earlier blog, that’s one of our most important advantages when it comes to attracting and keeping manufacturers and residents.

When you consider the future cost disadvantages of locations faced with shortages of fresh water, Michigan and Detroit can be seen in a very different light. For industries as diverse as high-tech computer chip manufacturing, food processing and precision metal fabrication, water is an essential resource that must always be available and affordable. That’s increasingly not the case in otherwise attractive places like Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles and, apparently, Beijing.

Manufacturers considering the real costs of doing business in China would be wise to read this New York Times article and factor this serious challenge into their economic analysis of future plant locations. Homeowners, too, should think about the inconveniences of water rationing and drought.

And if the numbers don’t add up, come to Michigan, where you’ll enjoy a competitive advantage that will never dry up!

Posted in Business, Detroit, Michigan, The Economy, The Nation | No Comments »

Times That Try Men’s Souls by Daniel Rose

November 29th, 2011

My friend Daniel Rose, Chairman of Rose Associates in New York, is an acclaimed real estate developer, investor and civic leader. A fellow octogenarian, Dan has experienced and emerged successfully from every imaginable economic environment. So when he offers insights into the global financial challenges facing our nation, it’s well worth listening. Last month, in a speech delivered at Bard College, Dan presented a candid assessment of our current situation and put forth what I think is an effective agenda to get us back on the right track.

Here’s a link to his talk, “Times That Try Men’s Souls”, and his organization’s website.

Posted in Business, Politics, The Economy, The Nation | No Comments »

Being Part of the Solution in Detroit – Read All About It

August 30th, 2011

I had lunch a few weeks ago in Detroit with my good friend Judge Damon Keith and Paul Anger, editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press. (I haven’t always had the best of luck with judges and newspaper editors, but I’m not one to turn down a lunch invitation.)

They wanted to talk with me about adult illiteracy, a serious problem that threatens to stall any meaningful economic recovery in Detroit. I was shocked to learn that a recent National Institute for Literacy study found that an estimated 47 percent of adults living in Detroit are functionally illiterate. That means more than 200,000 adults in our city are unable to read a newspaper, help their children with basic schoolwork or make sense of a contract or work manual. In a world increasingly dominated by 24/7 digital communications, this societal handicap is particularly devastating to individuals, families and communities.

But Damon and Paul were not looking to dwell on the negatives. They’re leading a bold new initiative called Reading Works with the goal of “helping more families develop a culture of learning in the home and giving more adults the tools they need to find jobs in our technology-driven economy.” Along with Wayne State University, the Detroit Free Press, WXYZ-TV, the Michigan Chronicle, and leaders from the business, religious and educational communities, Damon and Paul are determined to make a difference.

In my memoir, Threshold Resistance, I make the point that solving any problem or maximizing any opportunity begins with an honest analysis the obstacles that stand in the way of success. Only then can you plan your strategy and direct your resources. As I listened to Damon and Paul it became clear to me that addressing the obstacle of rampant adult illiteracy is a logical, necessary step toward improving the economic and social prospects for Detroit’s future.

I meet people every day in Detroit who want to know what they can do to help their hometown. They want to get involved and be part of the solution but don’t know where to start. Thinking about the best ways to address adult illiteracy, it struck me that anyone who can read and write is a potential resource for those who can’t. With the proper training and support, an army of volunteers could have an immediate impact on this problem. Working one-on-one, we could turn this thing around one adult and one family at a time. And what a satisfying thing to do for the city you love.

I’m going to get involved with this important effort. There’s no question that the obstacles in the way of success are daunting, and Reading Works is just getting started. But I wouldn’t bet against Damon and Paul. I wouldn’t bet against the people of Detroit.

Posted in Charitable Opportunities, Detroit, Education, Michigan, The Economy | 1 Comment »

Young Friends of the Taubman Institute Debut at Sotheby’s

July 13th, 2011

On the evening of June 13, the Young Friends of the Taubman Institute gathered at Sotheby’s in New York for the group’s inaugural event. My wife Judy and I had the pleasure to attend with more than 200 enthusiastic Young Friends from New York’s worlds of fashion, finance, media, the arts and politics.

Accomplished fashion executive Shoshanna Fischhoff is chairing the organization, which is growing through word of mouth by leaps and bounds, and if the kickoff event is any indication of what these young leaders can accomplish, the Institute can look forward to some extraordinary support.

One of the institute’s goals is to impress upon young adults the importance and promise of medical research. I’m confident that within these young peoples’ lifetimes, they will see the most dramatic medical breakthroughs in history. Many will come from the clinician-scientists working at the Taubman Institute today on the cutting-edge of embryonic stem cell research.

For a photo gallery of the event, please click here. I’m the old guy in the shots.

Posted in ALS, Charitable Opportunities, Medical Research | No Comments »

Guest Blogger: Rabbi Irwin Kula, President Clal- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

May 19th, 2011

Dear Mr. Taubman:

I just want to put in writing how important understanding “Threshold Resistance” has been to my teaching and to our work building more open, vibrant, and ethical communities with rabbis and other religious and communal leaders around the world.

Pursuing and eliminating anything that causes customers to resist crossing your threshold to do business is a really powerful and new idea for religious and spiritual leaders who often see themselves as guardians of their product/businesses. In a retail center the barriers may be physical but for religious and spiritual leaders they are psychological. The barriers have to do with religious leaders morally judging others, with concerns about creed and dogma, and with fears that the tradition/product will not be used “properly” if everyone could easily come in and taste yet alone buy the product.

So, especially in Jewish life, we have erected so many barriers that actually make it impossible for any but the most insiders to cross the threshold. We don’t have open “breezeways/displays” that attract people and invite interaction. We have locked doors and sanctuaries and have impenetrable books that rather than making accessible we require levels of expertise in order to engage with that undermine any confidence/desire a customer might have.

Threshold Resistance, has helped us at Clal – the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership – to develop an innovative approach to teaching rabbis and rabbinical school students across every denomination in our program Rabbis Without Borders. The orienting framework of the program is that the resources religious leadership possess that can help people improve their lives and have more meaning and purpose need to be made accessible and usable and that leadership need to stop being afraid of eliminating anything that causes customers/users/parishioners to resist crossing the threshold.

We have applied your insights to break down the divide between great complicated “high” level ideas and the popular application of those ideas, between “consumers” of spiritual and religious resources and the resources/merchandise itself, between matters of heart and spirit and the business of “selling”. These invisible barriers keep people from even trying the very resources – Jewish wisdom, insight, and practice rabbis are trying to “sell”.

Finally, we have taken seriously your idea that one of the keys to “selling” – in our case spiritual and religious resources/products- is the customers/consumers/users confidence. This means that religious and spiritual leadership actually has to listen carefully, assist and educate people in becoming more knowledgeable and confident about what they are “purchasing”. This is almost the opposite of the way religious institutions presently function.

Well, enough for one email. I am sure you have never received an email like this from an 8th generation rabbi head of a think tank (which incidentally was founded by Elie Wiesel and Yitz Greenberg). I would also bet there are no religious institutions in this country who have used Threshold Resistance to help create better leaders and communicators of Jewish wisdom!

Respectfully,
Rabbi Irwin Kula, President

Clal- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

Posted in Education, Family, Jewish Life | No Comments »

Taubman Institute Announces 7 New Scholars

April 13th, 2011

Thanks to the hard work and the contributions of so many people connected with the Taubman Institute, it is my pleasure to announce a significant expansion of the number of Taubman Scholars we are funding at the University of Michigan. This is the core program of the Institute, which supports the work of leading clinician-scientists at the University, allowing them the freedom and resources to conduct “high risk, high reward” research and the opportunity to transform laboratory discoveries into new patient treatments.

We will now have seven Taubman Scholars. In addition, four of the current Taubman Scholars will continue their relationship with the Institute as Senior Taubman Scholars, and we have increased the number of Emerging Scholars — promising clinician-scientists in an early stage of their research career — to four. These Emerging Scholars grants are made possible by the generosity of members of the Taubman Institute Leadership Advisory Board and their families: Edith Briskin and the SKS Foundation, Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and the Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation.

I personally want to thank each of them for their wonderful support of young scientists, who will become the leaders of the future in medical research.

In a little more than three years, the Taubman Institute has grown from five Scholars to 15. In total, our funding helps to support 250 scientists doing cutting-edge research on a wide variety of diseases. We manage the only embryonic stem cell facility in the state of Michigan, which recently announced the first two disease-specific stem cell lines.

I’m especially proud of the fact that Taubman Scholars have been able to launch five clinical trials of new drugs targeting adult and childhood cancers and ALS.

For more information, please visit our Web site, www.taubmaninstitute.org.

Posted in ALS, Charitable Opportunities, Detroit, Education, Medical Research, Michigan | No Comments »

Even ALS Cannot Defeat the Human Spirit

March 10th, 2011

One of the most fascinating things about amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the fact that the degenerative disease progressively devastates essentially every part of your body – - except your brain. So individuals suffering from ALS are fully aware of what’s happening to them. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be, but a recent New York Times article reminds us that the human spirit is a resilient, miraculous thing.

Neil Selinger, a retired lawyer form Larchmont, New York, always wanted to be a writer. Shortly after enrolling in the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Mr. Selinger was diagnosed with ALS. But he didn’t allow his condition to derail his dream. “As my muscles weakened, my writing became stronger . . . as I slowly lost my speech, I gained my voice. As I diminished, I grew. As I lost so much, I finally started to find myself.”

His writing coach tells the Times: “He’s got sort of a Zen countenance now . . . and it’s reflected in what he writes. He doesn’t duck anger and despair, he doesn’t duck anything, but it’s all without self-pity. His writing is richer because his experience of the moment is richer.” Using a computer typing system that responds to the gaze of his eyes, Mr. Selinger has completed the memoir he always wanted to write.

Such inspiring stories make me even more excited about the discoveries coming out of the research by scientists at the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. The work we’re funding at the University of Michigan Medical School – – including the first human clinical trial of a stem cell transplant in ALS patients – – holds the potential to cure many of our most deadly diseases. We owe it to people like Neil Selinger to redouble our efforts.

University of Michigan Medical Center

Posted in ALS, Medical Research | No Comments »

Reflections on My 87th Birthday

February 4th, 2011

It’s hard even for me to believe that I just turned 87. That’s a lot of years. And while I don’t often think about my age – - just around my birthday, which is January 31 – - I took the time to look back at what things were like in 1924, the year I was born. I discovered that things were not all that different than they are today. Consider the following:

Retailing was on a growth spurt with the founding in New York of Saks Fifth Avenue.
1924 was also the first year for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.
We’re experiencing the growth of the motion picture industry in Michigan right now, and in 1924 a company called Metro Goldwyn Mayer was founded in Los Angeles.
The auto industry was going through one of its first restructurings in 1924, with Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their companies in Germany to create Mercedes Benz. And here in the U.S. the Maxwell Motor Corporation introduced the first Chrysler. With its six cylinder engine it could reach 70 miles per hour.
Here in America, technology was hot like it is today. IBM was founded the year I was born.
People were looking for ways to communicate faster in 1924. There were no iPads or iPhones, but the U.S. Postal Service introduced airmail that year, and the first facsimile was transmitted across the Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe.
And I should point out that American flyer Russell Maughan made the trip by air from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes – - faster than most airlines during our recent snow storms and with about the same quality of food served in flight.
Diets were all the rage back then as well. Mahatma Gandhi staged a 21-day fast in India that year.
In 1924 you could buy a Ford Runabout for $265. But like today, options were expensive. An electric starter would cost you an extra $85.
Politicians were promising the same things they are today. Republican Calvin Coolidge was elected to his second term as President with the campaign slogan “Coolidge Prosperity.” And a plan to further deregulate the financial services industry. That didn’t work out well then, either.
Sports were in the news. There was no Super Bowl, but the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. And Johnny Weismuller – - before he met Jane – - won three Gold Medals at the Paris Summer Games.
It‘s an understatement to say there were dark clouds forming in international politics the year I was born. In Russia, the death of Vladimir Lenin created the opportunity for a new leader to force his way into office named Joseph Stalin. And in Germany, a little-known figure named Adolf Hitler was sent to prison, where he found the time to write Mein Kampf.
There were law and order issues back then as well. With hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan gaining power in our southern states, the Federal Bureau of Investigation appointed a new director named J. Edgar Hoover.
Immigration was a controversial topic at that time too. Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act in 1924, limiting the annual quota from any one country to 2 percent of U.S. residents of that nationality in 1890. That pretty much cut off acceptance of Asian immigrants wishing to become citizens.
The Washington Senators won the World Series that year. Not the Detroit Tigers.
Marketers were focused on personal health in 1924, like they are today. Kleenex was introduced by Kimberly Clark as a convenient substitute for the handkerchief, and a new healthy breakfast cereal called Wheaties was first offered in super markets. A package of Wheaties, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs would cost you around 50 cents. That has changed!

So I guess you can say that the more things change, they more they stay the same. And the most important things to stay the same in my long and wonderful life are my family and friends. For that, I am truly thankful.

Posted in Business, Family, Politics, Real Estate, The Economy, The Nation | 2 Comments »

Real Estate Gets Respect on Campus: Wharton Real Estate Center Celebrates 25th Anniversary

January 27th, 2011

Real estate is a discipline taken very seriously at today’s best business schools. But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, as recently as the 1980s the study of real estate at most B-schools amounted to little more than a few electives taught by professors of architecture or finance. As important as real estate was to our economy, it was the Rodney Dangerfield of academic pursuits.

I’m proud to say that as the first chairman of the Wharton Real Estate Center – - which is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this spring – - I had something to do with changing all that.

It all started with a phone call I received in 1985 from Arthur Fischer, a retail developer I had known for many years. Arthur was a great guy and proud graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He asked if I would meet with him and fellow Wharton alums Myles Tannenbaum and Sylvan Cohen (also great guys and developers) about a real estate center they were starting.

Lunch with good friends is always something I enjoy, but I reminded Arthur that I had never had any involvement with Wharton and my interests and loyalties were directed more at the University of Michigan, where I attended, than their alma matter in Philadelphia. I certainly respected their school, but at heart I was a Wolverine, not a Quaker.

With those caveats on the table, I met with Arthur, Myles and Sylvan, along with an impressive young Wharton economics professor named Dr. Peter Linneman. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and before desert, they convinced me that our industry merited more academic respect and that Wharton was committed to developing the best real estate program in the nation. Central to the program’s success, they explained, would be an industry advisory board, which they wanted me to chair.

While it was an honor to be asked to lead, I needed a couple of assurances. Were Wharton’s faculty and administration willing to place real estate on an equal footing with traditional core business concentrations like finance and marketing? Would real estate merit its own department? And would the hard work and counsel of the Advisory Committee be taken seriously? I made it clear that we weren’t just talking about adding a few courses and meeting on campus once a year. Dr. Linneman, who shared that ambitious vision, invited me to campus to meet with Wharton’s dean, Russell Palmer, a Michigander I knew from his years as CEO of my company’s lead accounting firm at the time, Touche Ross.

Russ was honest about the hard work and hurdles ahead (revamping a curriculum and creating a new academic department within a venerable Ivy League graduate school is about as difficult as amending the U.S. Constitution), but pledged his total support for our efforts. His commitment, coupled with Dr. Linneman’s enthusiasm gave me the confidence to accept their invitation to become the first chairman of the Wharton Real Estate Center Advisory Board.

I served in that capacity from 1986 – 1990, along side Arthur, Miles and Sylvan, as well as such real estate industry greats as Mort Zuckerman, Gene Kohn, Marty Raynes, Dan Galbreath, Jerry O’Connor, Martin Bucksbaum, Claude Ballard, Mel Simon, Ron Terwilliger, Albert Sussman, Tom Klutznick, Steve Manolis, Frank Bryant, Chris Budden, Peter Bedford, Shelley Seevak, and Arthur Hedge.

We recruited an amazing group of the real estate industry’s most respected leaders. And we rolled up our sleeves and went to work. With Dr. Linneman and his faculty associates, we formed working committees to help design and implement an entirely new real estate curriculum, raise much-needed funds for the Center, create groundbreaking industry outreach programs, and develop a meaningful research agenda.

To make a long story short, real estate did become a full-fledged department at Wharton and is annually ranked as hands-down the best graduate real estate program in the nation. What today is known as the Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center is housed on campus in the beautiful Lauder Fischer Hall. And when the Center celebrates its 25^th Anniversary this June, my good friend Peter Linneman, the University’s Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Public Policy, will be honored for his extraordinary quarter century of leadership.

Since my lunch with Arthur, Miles, Sylvan and Peter, real estate by every measure has matured into a far more professional, transparent industry. The Wharton Real Estate Center has played an important role in that continuing transformation. Just like we hoped it would back in1985.

Posted in Business, Education, Real Estate | No Comments »

In Praise of Family Businesses

January 4th, 2011

Joann Muller, Detroit Bureau Chief for Forbes, recently wrote an interesting blog about the Ford family’s stake in the Ford Motor Company (Ford Family’s Stake is Smaller, But They’re Richer and Still Firmly in Control). She makes the point that while the family’s “super voting shares” give them the kind of disproportionate control that drives corporate governance folks crazy (their 2% ownership stake yields 40 percent of the voting rights), their continuing involvement has been very positive for the company and all its shareholders.

Joann writes:

The family’s desire to preserve its corporate legacy no doubt helped keep Ford out of bankruptcy in 2009, as both General Motors and Chrysler succumbed to the crisis. While its rivals were dealing with government bailouts, Ford grabbed more than two points of market share, returned to profitability and began repairing its heavily leveraged balance sheet.

Now all shareholders are reaping the benefits, with Ford stock climbing from $1.58 in February 2009, at the depths of the industry crisis, to about $16.50 a share. Ford Motor today is worth $57 billion, up from $4.8 billion less than two years ago. The value of the family’s stake has grown, too, from a mere $133 million in early 2009 to $1.2 billion today.

As I discuss in Chapter 13 of Threshold Resistance, you can find plenty of evidence to suggest that there’s something special about organizations imbued with a healthy dose of familial DNA. Back in 2003, Business Week found that about one third of the S&P 500 had strong founding family involvement, and those companies were “beating the pants off their nonfamily-run rivals.”

Henry Ford II was a close friend of mine, and I witnessed the intense personal passion, pride and dedication that guided his leadership of the company – - the same mindset that Joann Muller is suggesting must have influenced the gutsy decision to go it alone when GM and Chrysler placed their futures in the hands of others in Washington DC.

It just makes sense that if the fate of my family’s name and fortune are directly linked with the business I’m running, my effort and commitment – - in most cases – - will exceed those of a “hired hand.”

I think you’ll find Joann’s blog very interesting. And congratulations to the Ford family for proving once again that there’s definitely something different about having “skin in the game.”

Posted in Business, Family | No Comments »