MI2 Strategy Group Updates: An Introduction to MI2’s Four Strategy Groups

Coming out of MI2’s kickoff strategy session in September, the Metals Leadership Council, composed of executives from MI2’s eight founding company members, established four strategic focus areas for the organization’s first year.

In the months since that session, MI2 has been working to create strategy groups to provide counsel and leadership around those four areas. An executive from each of those companies has taken a leadership role in the formation of these four strategy groups, and we have been working to find interested parties throughout the Kentucky metals innovation ecosystem to get involved in these four strategy groups.

These groups are responsible for establishing priority areas within our strategic focus areas around which MI2 will then create or support initiatives, and they will also review initiative and project ideas matched against those focus areas.

As these strategy groups get started, we welcome further interest and engagement in getting involved at the strategy group level.

Here is a bit about those four strategy groups:

• Branding: The Branding Working Group is focused on enhancing public perception and understandings of the Kentucky metals industry, both inside and outside the Bluegrass State. This working group will focus on storytelling and research that demonstrates the vibrant, dynamic nature of the contemporary metals industry in the Commonwealth to all key stakeholder audiences.
• Grants and Funding: The Grants and Funding Working Group is focused on assuring the continuing viability of the Metals Innovation Initiative by obtaining grants and funding that supports the organization’s mission to attract and promote advanced research, sustainability, commercialization, and talent development in Kentucky’s metals industry. This work will be pursued in partnership with MI2 member companies and strategic partners in higher education, government, economic development, and elsewhere.
• Sustainability: The Sustainability Working Group is focused on creating and fostering collaboration among the members of the Metals Innovation Initiative to make the metals industry the most sustainable industry sector in Kentucky and for the Bluegrass State to top the nation in sustainability in the industry. We will also work to aggregate proven data from the industry that demonstrates success toward these goals and ensure those stories are told in ways that inspire our various stakeholder audiences as we strive to achieve our mission.
• Talent and Workforce: The Talent and Workforce Working Group will create an industry-led initiative to recruit new talent and retain and enhance existing talent in the Kentucky metals industry. This will include better sharing the story of current and emerging jobs in the metals industry that utilize new technologies in order to attract and retain talent with aptitude for this work inside the Bluegrass State and recruit metals talent to the Commonwealth. The working group also seeks to play an active role in curriculum development for secondary and postsecondary education.