The “Around Latin America in 30 Minutes” webinar is hosted by Ann Harts, Principal at Hickey & Associates, LLC. The presentation provides insight on various emerging destinations in Latin America regarding foreign direct investment (FDI) and best practices in site selection.
View the webinar here: Around Latin America in 30 Minutes
This webinar focuses specifically on the following:
Thanks to Forbes magazine, we got an unexpected comparison on Thursday between Hawker Beechcraft Corp.’s home state of Kansas and the state the company has considered moving to, Louisiana.
And if Forbes’ Best States for Business list is to be believed, Kansas should win by a landslide in a competition for jobs.
The Forbes list puts Kansas as No. 10 on the list, with especially high marks for its regulatory environment and economic climate.
Louisiana, meanwhile, sits at a dismal 44th place.
The Sunflower State especially exceeded its Hawker jobs competitor on rankings for labor supply — Kansas ranked 18th and Louisiana 50th.
It suggests Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer might have been right when he recently told the Wichita Eagle that Louisiana doesn’t have the skilled aviation work force that Kansas does.
But if so, what’s up with Hawker’s consideration of Louisiana?
It could, of course, have something to do with the hefty incentives the state has offered if Hawker moves its operations to Baton Rouge.
But Jason Hickey, president of national site selection firm Hickey & Associates LLC, told the Wichita Business Journal that long-term benefits, rather than short-term incentives, are the real factors companies consider when deciding where to do business.
Those long-term factors could include availability of a qualified work force and the cost of that labor.
The Forbes list suggests Kansas has a qualified work force in the bag.
Labor costs are factored into Forbes’ overall business costs ranking, and on that count, Kansas trumps Louisiana, but not by much. Kansas ranks 23rd for business costs, while Louisiana ranks 25th.
So is Hawker’s threatened move really only about labor costs?
That could be, some analysts have suggested to the Wichita Business Journal, especially because of the strength of the aviation machinists unions.
Phil Wilson, president of the Labor Relations Institute, says it’s more than just the higher wages union workers typically earn that cost businesses. It’s the cumulative effect of higher wages, larger pension and benefit plans, strikes and contracts that can protect problem workers from being let go.
“”Unions, when they’re in there, can create a lot of problems for a company,”” he says.
But now the pressure’s on the local union to vote in such a way that a majority of Hawker jobs stay here. And they’re likely to take a pay cut in the process, reducing Hawker’s overall labor costs.
http://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/blog/2010/10/kansas_trumps_louisiana_on_forbes_list.html?s=print
Executive Conference
Business Facilities magazine will present a comprehensive, practical, and strategic conference program that helps corporate delegates better plan and manage their companies’ relocation or expansion projects. This unique experience will be supplemented by an all-star list of guest speakers, who will be making presentations and leading discussions on a number of hot-button issues.
The 2010 Business Facilities LiveXchange program included the following sessions — visit often for updates on the 2011 Conference Program!
Opening Keynote
Selling Out a Superpower:
Where the U.S. Economy Went Wrong
and How We Can Turn It Around
Ronald R. Pollina, PH.D.
President, Geoeconomist
Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc.
Think Tank
Site Selection Case Study
Jason Hickey
President
Hickey & Associates
Seminars
Logistics and Supply Chain
David Atkins
Chairman and CEO
Atkins International, LLC
Keys to Successful Back Office Location
Dennis Donovan
Principal
Wadley-Donovan-Gutshaw Consulting
The Art of the Deal
Don Holbrook
Partner
The Vercitas Group
Renewable Energy and Green Incentives
George Tobjy
Tax Director
KPMG Global Location and Expansion Services (GLES)
Workshops
Incentives
Mark Sweeney
Senior Principal
McCallum Sweeney Consulting
Issues in Facility Consolidation Analysis
Jerry Szatan
Principal
Szatan and Associates
Closing Session
KPMG Competitive Alternatives Report/Q&A
Glenn Mair
Director
MMK Consulting, Inc.
As the remainder of States completed their 2011 Legislative Cycles for the year, Legislative Special Sessions, coupled with new Federal dollars geared to assist small businesses, have added additional public/private partnership opportunities over the last few months.
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As the remainder of States completed their 2011 Legislative Cycles for the year, Legislative Special Sessions, coupled with new Federal dollars geared to assist small businesses, have added additional public/private partnership opportunities over the last few months.
Ten national site selection consultants attended the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation’s (Metro Denver EDC) annual Site Selection Conference September 28-30, 2011. The event was coordinated in partnership with the Metro Denver EDC’s investors and economic development partners throughout the nine-county Metro Denver and Northern Colorado region.
Over the three-day familiarization tour, the site selectors experienced the region’s business assets first-hand with the area’s top business and economic development leaders as their guides.
Their agenda included a welcome by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock at an economic briefing/industry overview at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The consultants also toured the massive region by helicopter, making stops to for briefings by company leaders in Metro Denver’s major industry clusters. They viewed the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County, toured the LEED-platinum Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, and walked through Vestas’ nacelles manufacturing plant in Brighton. They experienced Metro Denver’s cultural scene when dining with area companies at the Denver Art Museum.
In the conference’s final event, site selectors participated in a panel discussion about site selection trends,Making the Cut: Factors Driving Today’s Site Selection Decisions. Moderated by Jim Mulligan, partner with Snell and Wilmer and presenting sponsor for the breakfast, the guests spoke about their perceptions since getting an in depth look at the region.
Mulligan asked the site selectors how Metro Denver stacks up against its other competitor regions.
“What makes this region unique first and foremost is its talent and central location. Talent attraction and access to markets as well as the related infrastructure are most important today. We heard from Vestas yesterday how important these were to their decision-making process,” explained Angelos Angelou, principal executive officer for AngelouEconomics based in Austin, Texas.
The panel also shared information on the most current trends in the corporate site selection process. Ann Harts, principal of Hickey & Associates LLC of Manhattan, Ks., mentioned several trends as a result of a challenging national economy, including longer decision cycles, back shoring, mergers and acquisition activity, and a renewed focus on company retention.
“If I could say anything today it would be retention, retention, retention,” said Harts. “You all knocked on California’s door. I guaranty you there are people knocking on your company’s headquarters as well.”
Colorado has never been a “high-incentive” state and Mulligan questioned the importance of incentives in site selection decisions today.
“Some states are getting rid of tax incentives entirely,” said Eva Laurence, senior manager with Ernst & Young LLP in San Antonio, Texas. “They say, ‘Does this really make sense?’ Here in Denver, you have a really good quality of life and quality of workforce. You just need to advertise that more.”
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper attended the breakfast and shared updates with the audience and consultants on the state’s Bottom-Up Economic Development Plan as well as initiatives to brand the state.
The Metro Denver EDC’s economic development partners served as hosts to the visiting consultants.
National site consultants tour region, advise on latest location trends