And, lo, in the still hours before the Christmas holiday, the call went out to all those in the office not yet gone and making merry: Who are the Best (and Worst) in Big Mitten Business, 2009?
There are politicians and CEOs. There is the boss of a school system and one of a nonprofit, each heading organizations struggling to stay afloat in an economy eviscerated by job losses, flat-lining incomes and record home foreclosures. There are corporations made to look good or bad by the decision-making that few, if any, would claim as their own.
Herewith, the Best (or not) in Michigan Biz Awards, '09:
Good Government: To Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and his "wildly unpopular" deputy, Bob Daddow, for their refreshing honesty and foresight in dealing with the financial implosion that is the public sector in Michigan today.
They budget three years out; they make clear-eyed revenue estimates; they understand economics; they accounted for the county's retiree health care liability and moved new hires to defined contribution plans.
Best of all, they tell the truth about the strained finances of their patch and the worsening situation in Lansing. They offer reasonable, if politically difficult, solutions -- which makes just-the-ugly-facts Daddow less popular than he ought to be.
Horatio Hornblower: To Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, who seldom misses an opportunity to toot his horn about how well the Blue Oval is doing, how it is building profitable "growth for all," how it is operating in the black in every region of the world.
Truth is, Ford's steady rebound this year is one of the brightest spots in an otherwise bleak landscape for Michigan business. The Blue Oval's products are solid, quality is world class, U.S. market share is rebounding and the impending sale of Volvo Cars marks one more step in the turnaround.
Forgotten but not gone: To Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit who can't just leave, pay his debt to the city and stay gone. No, we have to endure more small-beer courtroom drama, share the details of plastic surgery for the missus, hear of his "love" for Detroit.
At what point do we -- the news media, the public, Detroiters -- opt to afford him the same attention most others get in the local courts? That would be the pleasure of giving him no attention at all.
Simplicity in Brevity: To General Motors Co., the once lumbering corporate behemoth that sped through bankruptcy in some 39 days; cut four also-ran brands; appointed three CEOs in nine months; reversed months of multilateral, transnational negotiations over its European operations in about five minutes.
Gone is GM's trademark deliberation. Here to stay is a brisk decisiveness not seen in this town since the last time Compuware Corp.'s Pete Karmanos mounted a hastily reasoned defense of Kilpatrick.
Considering that B-GMC goes through bosses at the same rate as GM, think there'll be another change before too long?
Throw 'em Under the Bus: To the U.S. Treasury Department, which solved GM's costly Delphi problem by dumping the pensions of the supplier's salaried retirees onto the American taxpayers, even as the feds made sure GM's retirees -- union and salaried -- were made whole.
Even worse is that so many of the Delphi folks now revising their expectations downward spent years working inside GM alongside those who've been spared the same fate.
In Bailout Nation, who you are is as important as who you know.
Stand-up Man II: To Michael Brennan, president of United Way for Southeastern Michigan.
Here's an out-of-the-box thinker who has the guts and vision to take the case of his organization directly to the public, to use numbers and examples to show how Michigan's "lost decade," culminating in the Angst of '09, affects so many among us.
And it reminds the rest of us what we have to be thankful for.
dchowes@detnews.com">dchowes@detnews.com (313) 222-2106 Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
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