Bustling ecosystems

Now this is cool - not just because it indicates the sheer numbers of bikes in China, but because it demonstrates how some industries not only can be highly dispersed, but have to be, balancing the other trend of increased homogeneity and geographical consolidation in commerce that often feels more impending and unwelcome.

Dispersed, ever-present service is a model that will persist (and can't be replaced by the business juggernauts tied to box stores that exist more to sell items than they do to help you buy them). Look at banks and credit unions: though I don't like the attendant sprawl, the explosion of branches signals a sea change in the industry driven by the realization that the only way they can compete is through service. Anyone can change a tire, anyone can hold your money; to do it for me, you have to be where I am when I need your service.

Why is this important? Because any company anyone that wants to do more than sell a bunch of trinkets on a razor-thin margin needs to incorporate the same type of service availability offered by clouds of bike technicians on every street in Beijing. In Michigan, if service businesses that use ideas like this don't emerge as the foundation of the post-Big-3 economy, we won't ever get out from under our current rock.