1) The document proposes establishing "Design Corps" and "Design Studios" to connect inventors, researchers, and companies in rural Midwest towns and commercialize innovations. 2) The Design Studios would be locally-owned nonprofits staffed by "gifted and talented" individuals who identify technologies, redesign inventions, and sell patents back to hometowns. 3) The goal is to create high-paying jobs through designing products and services, collaborating across studios, and selling innovations locally for economic growth.

1. Design Corps
of Rural A
f l America
•F
Forgotten L
Legacy
• Missing Link
k
• The X Factors

2. Rural Legacy
In h first h lf of the
I the fi half f h 20 th
century, the Midwest was a
y
center of innovation and a creator
f d
of industries many in rural towns.
y
In h
I the second h lf of the 20th
d half f h
century, the Midwest became a
y
culture of mastery.
l f

3. Design Corps Goals
• Locally Owned Headquarters (3-5)
• High Paying Professional Jobs
• Local Design Studios Networked
g
• quot;Gifted & Talented (3% to 5% )
Gifted Talentedquot;

4. A Design Studio is:
• A self-sustaining nonprofit
• Organized and led by the “gifted and talentedquot;
• Networked regionally and nationally
• To identify technology and inventions
• Bring h
B i home those ideas for niche markets
th id f ih kt
• Add value by redesigning the inventions
• Patents
P t t are then sold to their HOMETOWN or
th ld t th i
other towns in return for a royalty and/or cash
Michigan Public Act 444

5. Missing Link
Entrepreneurs
p
Inventors &
& Companies
Researchers (Private & Public)
“Crash and Burn”
Inventions are seldom commercialized because
the connection is often never made!

6. Missing Link
Design Studios
Entrepreneurs
p
Inventors
I t
&
&
Bridge to: Companies
Researchers
(Private & Public)
Identify Inventors
Id tif I t
Market Analysis
Redesign & Add Value
g
(Ketchup Bottle)
Sell Patented Idea to Hometowns

7. AC
Competitive-Edge
etiti e Edge
• D i i products within a system
Designing d t ithi t
• For national ma k ts: $ 0-$100 million
Fo markets: $10 $ 00
$10-
• With higher than normal profits
• Where the profits come back home
• C ti hi h paying j b i a
Creating higher i jobs in
• Local but p
L publicly controlled company
y py
It is not enough to be just competitive!

8. Screening Criteria
Headquarters
Niches are
limited to the
intersection of
the three
circles

9. T
The X Factors
F
Gifted & Talented
• Most creative & underutilized natural resource
• M t likely (3%-5%) t thi k outside th b
Most lik l (3%- to think t id the box
• Most likely resource to create jobs/companies
• Most of th
M t f them h have gone underground
d d
• Towns export them and they do not return
• Th need to be valued and challenged
They dt b l d d h ll d

10. Design Studio Process
D i St di P
• 2-6 “G&T” staff within six months i
GT ff i hi i h in
• Virtual teams of 3 to 4 on several projects will
pj
• Design and redesign products and services
• Around the passion of a “champion”
champion
• Collaborate with other design studios as well as
• O -li collaboration with teens i the U S
On-
On line ll b i ih in h U.S.
• Selling products to towns
p
• For a self-sustaining non-profit Design Studio
self- non-

11. Design Studio
D i St di
•It is not a simulation
I
•It is not a volunteer program
pg
•It is about a solution…
the destiny of their hometown

12. Design Corps Staff Role
• Identify teens & adults
I y
– Creatively gifted
– Organizationally talented
• Town representatives meet together monthly
• Three objectives (
Th b (teach--challenge—
(teach--challenge—ignite):
h h ll )
1. Functioning Design Studio in 4-6 months
4-
2. T
Train staff to find serial inventors & create d b
ff fd l database
3. Re-design inventions and prepare marketing plan
Re-

13. Ten Design S
g Studios
1
2
3
4
5
Virtual
Design
6
Network
20 Teens 4-8 Teens
7
10
Design
Di
8
Studio
9

14. Where do towns fit in?
• Privately funded: $200 000/county/year
$200,000/county/year
– ($25,000 for the network)
• 3-4 town leaders introduce the project to:
–T
Teens, Parents, leaders and P bli Ed
P ld d Public Educators
• B available to problem solve…and mentor
Be l bl bl l d
• Allow teams to selectively access your network

15. Does it make sense to you?
D k
Can it work?
Would you actively support
this idea ith teens and adults?
thi id with t d d lt ?

16. Design Corps
of Rural A
f l America
•F
Forgotten L
Legacy
•M
Missing Link
Lk
• Th X Factors
The F

17. Dr. William R. Wilkie
471 W
West LLong L k D
Lake Drive
Harrison, Michigan 48625
g
989.339.4998 or 989.539.1928
wwilkie@design-corps.org
wwilkie@design-corps org
www.design-
www.design-corps.org
Reference: Dr. Emmett Lippe
Former S
F Superintendent
i d
Novi Public Schools
Currently: CEO Lippe Consulting
CEO,
989.539.4062