When it comes to creating jobs, Wisconsin should focus on the industry it knows best: manufacturing, said John Brandt, founder and chief executive of The MPI Group, a Shaker Heights, Ohio, consultant group that conducted a study in 2013 on Wisconsin’s economic future.

“The vibrancy of this is one of the key assets the state has right now,” Brandt said. “Manufacturing has been the legacy (industry) in the state, and it will be this state’s future.”

Of 37 industries that drive Wisconsin’s economy, all but one involves manufacturing, he said. But as far as the value of products manufactured here and the productivity index, Wisconsin’s performance is below the national average, Brandt said. “There are some issues Wisconsin needs to take a look at,” he said.

Brandt said industries with “technological intensity” tend to grow faster and create more jobs, but they represent a smaller portion of Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector than the nation’s. “That is where the jobs for your children and grandchildren are going to come from,” he said.