It’s time to stop using the economy as an excuse. I won’t spend this column trying to convince you that times are good, but that’s no excuse not to have a positive impact.

SRT Solutions’ unofficial mission statement is, “We enable our customers to become awesome.” It’s not in our sales copy, because it doesn’t say anything about software and it wouldn’t help us explain to customers the value we bring. It is the lens through which we evaluate every decision: Will this enable our customers to be awesome? It is why we often run counter to a lot of the conventional wisdom about running a business

We’ve been told we pay our developers too much. Yes, we do pay above average. But we need above average talent to enable our customers to be awesome. We’ve been told we shouldn’t allow our developers to spend time learning new innovations in the software industry; it lowers profit margins to encourage developers to learn instead of building customer applications. But our developers know about the latest software innovations and that enables our customers to be awesome.

We can help our customers leverage new technologies secure in the knowledge that we know our recommendations will succeed. Those two decisions may seem to be more about helping our employees to be awesome than helping our customers to be awesome. We believe it’s a consistent message: we need awesome employees to help our customers be awesome

I’m bringing this to your attention because it means a lot for Michigan’s business future. The Nov. 16 Business Week had a story on employee loyalty. It states that loyalty for top-performing employees has dropped by 25% over the past year, and more than 79% of all employees have stepped up a job search. Companies that aren’t taking employee retention seriously will experience a catastrophic brain drain as the economy picks up. The best and the brightest, the people that have opportunities will leave. People want to work in an environment where they can be awesome, and where they can contribute to the awesomeness of their customers.

That’s obvious, and it should scare our current political and business leaders. Our business leaders have consistently said they want to see Michigan "run like a business." If so, their retention strategy for Michigan is very poor. What message do our leaders consistently send? What message are they sending now as they move on to next years’ budget challenges and the next election year? Do you consider Michigan as the best place for your future? Now imagine that you don’t live in Michigan and you are thinking about where to spend your future. Would you consider Michigan as a destination?

Maybe I see this more strongly because software development can and does happen anywhere in the world. People who can go anywhere will choose their location carefully. They will research an area and pay attention to opportunities beyond the next job. The tone and rhetoric used by leaders deters people from choosing Michigan.

One of my daughter’s college friends is an obvious example. He will graduate from a top-ranked liberal arts college in 2 years, and is currently deciding where to attend law school. The University of Michigan is not on his list, despite its well-earned reputation as a great law school. His reason - he believes he won’t find any internships or job opportunities in Michigan. Instead, he’s looking at Northwestern, Georgetown and Harvard.

Here’s my call to action for the business and political leaders (and aspiring leaders) in this state: Before you do anything ask yourself: “Will this enable Michigan to become awesome?” That requires a big change in behavior for most of our leaders. The recent budget debate did not help Michigan become awesome. The rhetoric employed in the county millage did not help Michigan become awesome. Saying that Michigan cannot afford education, road maintenance, and snowplows will not attract people. It does just the opposite. Reasonable people can and should disagree on many key policies. We can disagree and still be awesome. It’s all in how we choose to influence others.

The idea for this column came while at the Deals of the Year celebration last month. I chatted with people whom I know are affiliated with both political parties. I chatted with people who were on both sides of the recent millage debate. And yet, the entire evening was spent talking about the successes we have and how we can create more successes. It was a glimpse of what we can become.

As you enter into debates about policy, ask yourself if you’re achieving a Pyrrhic victory or are you helping to make Michigan awesome? Are you contributing to Michigan’s retention strategy, or are you driving away our top performers?

Michigan can become a destination for the best, if we all decide that we need to be awesome every day.

Bill Wagner is co-founder of SRT Solutions in Ann Arbor and a software blogger. He shares this regular column with co-founder Diane Marsh.