The Secret Sauce

Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc., has moved nearly 2,500 workers to downtown Detroit from Livonia in recent months. The move wasn’t altruistic; rather, Gilbert believes Detroit is on the cusp of creating a technology hub in the heart of its central business district.

But the fact that Quicken Loans’ employees are joining hundreds of other technology workers downtown from the likes of Compuware Corp., Marketing Associates Inc., and OnStar doesn’t mean Detroit will suddenly compete with Silicon Valley. “No, Virginia, there is no secret sauce – but there are ingredients such as culture, environment, and philosophy that you need to have in order to make the secret sauce,” Gilbert says. In other words, without the right ingredients, there’s no magic formula for creating success.

Still, having enough ingredients comes in handy. Take Timothy M. Bryan, chairman and CEO of New Jersey-based GalaxE.Solutions, who plans to hire up to 500 IT workers to staff new offices in the 1001 Woodward building overlooking Campus Martius Park. The company provides IT support in health care, retail, and e-commerce, among other business sectors.