In March 2007, Fast Company Magazine named the city of Kalamazoo as one of the 50 "people, ideas, and companies changing the face of business--and, with luck, our future," in part because of the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship guarantee program.

Now comes Ron Kitchens, head of Kalamazoo's local economic development agency, Southwest Michigan First, with a new book offering insights from him and other leaders in a community that "simply refused to become another dying 'old economy' town."

Called, "Community Capitalism," the book is available on Amazon.

Among the numerous ideas in the book is "First Angels," an angel investor network created in 2006 to help boost small but growing companies in the region. Likewise, Kitchens explains how the Western Michigan University Bioscience Research and Commercialization Center is beginning to graduate tenants and diversify the economy.

Key to Kalamazoo's future, says Kitchens (echoing any number of other Michigan leaders), is talent.