Recreating Michigan’s Future
471 West Long Lake Drive, Harrison, Michigan 48625 USA
Challenge for Rural Towns
• By 2018, how many new high paying year-round
professional, managerial and technical positions will
your town need to thrive when the summer residents
leave?
• If your high school graduates 100 students/year, you
will have 1,000 graduates in ten years.
• Assuming 30% of the teens stay or return, you will
need up to 300+ new professional positions.
• How many $10,000,000 per year niche companies
would you need to get 300 professional positions?
(50 professionals/company)
• How much would your town and county invest in an
invention and a management team that could grow a
$10,000,000 per year “publicly owned” locally head-
quartered company?
Round II--building local Design Studios begins in 2008.
Eight rural towns in northern lower Michigan have joined
the Design Studio Network in Round I. They will work
together to create a culture of innovation and design. Their
gifted and talented teens are being challenged to engage in
shaping the destiny of their hometowns and creating a design
culutre in Michigan.
As Round II commences we will integrate each town
individually into the Design Studio Network until we reach
twenty towns. We are not sure at this time whether there will
be a Round III in 2008.
Every town needs positions that produce the discretionary
income required for your community to thrive. Every town
needs locally headquartered companes with national markets
to support those higher paying positions in the 21st century.
(989) 339.4998 www.designstudio.pbwiki.com
“Invisible technology...creatively applied.”
Solution: Local Headquarters What’s “invisible technology?”
Invisible technology is people, ideas, products or services
Create companies headquartered locally that produce…
that could be the beginning of a new company--if only you
• $10,000,000 in annual revenues eventually
knew where to look. Large companies usually spend 90%+
• Products/services with 15%+ net after tax profits
of their development resources on creating or finding visible
• Serve national and international markets
technology. Historically, more than half of all new products
come from technology developed in the invisible arenas;
High Profit products/services transferred in from…
however, most companies choose to ignore this fact. There
• Inventors
is great potential in finding invisible technology and then
• Lead-Users
focusing on creative application through design.
To a local Design Studio which is…
In a world of microchips, nanotechnology, laser optics,
• Organized, led and managed by teens…your most creative
processed foods and designer genes, there are also many
and under-utilized resource
“low” tech opportunities. The Design Studio Network
• Where teens can add value to a product through redesign
specializes in just that -- knowing where to look for
• Collaborative and virtual using “WIKIMEDIA,” Webex and
invisible technology through an inventor database.
interactive www sites, etc.
Wall Street is recognizing the value of a “Design Society”
Staffed by “Talented & Motivated” teens…
that complements our engineering and manufacturing
• 10 to 30 teens from each community comprise the local
perspectives. Over the last few decades we have moved
Design Studio
from the Industrial Society, to the Information Society, to
• 3%+ of the local teen population is “creatively gifted”
the Knowledge Society and now to the Design Society. The
• This is not a teen volunteer service program but is based
benefits of a Design Society to Michigan’s communities are
upon a deferred compensation model
that design can occur anywhere and discovering and design-
• Teens mentor adults at times, e.g., on being distinctive not
ing does not require large facilities or financial resources.
just excellent, on internet marketing, etc.
Most importantly, distinctive products or services rely on
out-of-the-box thinking. Who does this better than our
As part of a collaborative network of design studios…
youth? They do not even have to ask permission to redesign
• Each local Design Studio has project based teams
a product or service.
• Regional design teams collaborate virtually on high
potential projects
• The Design Studio Network builds an inventor network Why not more R&D for Michigan?
• After adding value through design, the local Design Studios Small towns do not need more R&D. They need to create a
sell their product to their HOMETOWN, another town in mechanism that can identify, creatively apply and position
the network, another community or investors. inventions for commericialization. Creating and accessing
• Each local Design Studio should become self-sustaining an INVENTOR network could accelerate a town’s ability
and willingness to invest in locally headquartered
companies which have value added products/systems
producing a minimum $10,000,000 in annual revenues
for national markets.
 Design Studio Network Bill Wilkie’s Background

Ten Michgian rural towns
comprise the initial Design
Studio Network. Teens in local
design studios can access
members of the Network in
other towns online to share
ideas, research and projects.
The Design Network will focus
on three areas:
Bill Wilkie approaches technology transfer, design and
headquarters creation from a background that combines
experience at Michigan State University, the Kellogg Foun-
dation, as an auto supplier executive, owner of Technology
Search, Inc. and owner of an executive recruiting boutique.
Design Studio Network is in part built on Technology
Search, Inc., originally created in 1981. Its technology
search services were based upon a simple observation:

• Helping to organize local Design Studios
• Creating an inventor database
• Writing foundation proposals
Selected representatives form local Design Studios will meet
with Dr. Wilkie regularly on-line and face to face to consider
and act on various issues:
• Surveying community resources & building databases
• Creating collaborative design projects
• Writing proposals to foundations & funding sources
Annual Membership
• Meeting are held periodically around major topics
• Virtual meetings on www.webex.com in between
• Representatives from each town participate
• Cost: $500/team each month for Round II
• Prepaid quarterly = $1,500/team
Entrepreneurship
A Virtual Design Studio represents a complementary effort to
many entrepreneurship programs for teens and adults in
Michigan’s communities. These are two very distinct cultures.
Entrepreneurship programs tend to focus on:
• Retail type products
• Average profit margins
• Smaller economies of scale
• Serving local markets
50% of the new technologies historically come from the
invisible arenas of inventors, small labs and garages.
However, 80%+ of the R&D budgets are allocated toward
creating new technology in labs. Technology Search found
invisible technology for several corporations. In 2007, Dr.
Wilkie launched a new “open source” technology search and
transfer company around a Lead-Users Database.
Bill Wilkie: A Brief Resume
• MSU: The Land-Grant University Idea 1969-1973
Analysis of America’s foremost contributor to
technology development and transfer in production farm-
ing and agri-business while at Michigan State University.
• W. K. Kellogg Foundation 1973-75
Program Officer for lifelong learning and economic
development: Maine Entrepreneurship Institute
• Multifastener Corporation 1976-1981
Value added products in the automotive industry as well
as instituting Dr. Frank Bacon’s Planned Innovation
process and Dr. Eric von Hippel’s tech transfer process.
• Technology Search 1981-82
Identification of invisible technologies for corporations.
• College Bound Workshops 1985-96
-www.football-recruiting-tips.com
• Executive Search & Coaching 1987 to _____
Identification of leaders as presidents of a division for
holding companies in mid-west region of U.S.A.
Dr. William R. Wilkie
471 West Long Lake Drive

These complementary programs should both be encouraged. At

Harrison, Michigan 48625 “Transfer and creatively
www.designstudio.pbwiki.com
least 3%+ of your teens will be involved with a singular focus on apply invisible technology for...”
redesigning products & higher paying job creation.
989.339.4998 wwilkie@lead-users.com