The idea for Detroit Venture Partners was conceived as Josh Linkner, Dan Gilbert, and Brian Hermelin spent months thinking of ways tofostertalent in the region.
As for leadership, Barbara Adachi of Deloitte called for more accountability to drive change, explaining that it was a business imperative tofoster Asian talent.
In the early 1990s they had devised a way for businesses and other organizations to measure nonfinancial performance--customer perception, for example, or a company's ability tofoster knowledge within its work force--and measure talent it wanted to keep or promote.
Mr. Bloomberg's administration has made the expansion of the city's tech sector a priority during the mayor's third term, with a push to attract more companies and plans to open a new applied-science school that will foster the talent sought by both start-ups and established companies such as Facebook.