54 replies to this topic

[wrldcoupe4]

Thought we could start this thread for discussing broader business issues in Virginia that are non-specific to a certain city or region....

I'll start it off with this:

There are 31 (including Meadwestvaco) Virginia companies on the 2006 Fortune 1000 list!

I'll try to break it down by region

Fortune 500 list:
Richmond  - 9 (including Meadwestvaco)
Northern Virginia - 7
Hampton Roads - 2
Roanoke - 1

Fortune 1000 list:
Richmond - 13 (including Meadwestvaco)
Northern Virginia - 12
Hampton Roads - 4
Roanoke - 1
Abingdon - 1

Fortune 500 - Virginia Companies

Fortune 500 main page

Edited by wrldcoupe4, 03 April 2006 - 12:11 PM.

[rusthebuss]

HR has a sad total on that list!

[gosscj]

rusthebuss, on Apr 3 2006, 02:38 PM, said:

HR has a sad total on that list!

Especially when you consider we are the most populous metro area in the state (that is, if you count Northern VA as part of the Washington metro area) and we have such a stable, profitable asset in the Port of Virginia.

[vdogg]

gosscj, on Apr 3 2006, 11:11 PM, said:

Especially when you consider we are the most populous metro area in the state (that is, if you count Northern VA as part of the Washington metro area) and we have such a stable, profitable asset in the Port of Virginia.

I have a feeling that once the major expansion of our ports is done a lot of the major shipping lines will take up residence here for logistical reasons. I'm actually surprised we haven't had more do so already.

[rusthebuss]

vdogg, on Apr 4 2006, 08:00 AM, said:

I have a feeling that once the major expansion of our ports is done a lot of the major shipping lines will take up residence here for logistical reasons. I'm actually surprised we haven't had more do so already.

I hope that there will be a change in the total amount of companies HQed in HR.  I'm hoping that with all of these developments and Light rail coming it will open peoples eyes to the HR area. I still say that a sports team will help!

[vdogg]

Forbes Best places for doing business (by msa)

Richmond 41
Va. Beach 48
Roanoke 165

[wrldcoupe4]

cha ching!

[eandslee]

wrldcoupe4, on May 5 2006, 02:51 PM, said:

cha ching!

Is it just me or was Richmond higher on that list last year?  Just wondering.

[Glassoul]

Economic Freedom Index created by a California free market think tank. Here is the list. VA is number 3, down from number 2 in 1999. Kansas is #1, California #50.

Edited by Glassoul, 23 May 2006 - 09:08 AM.

[bmedguy]

vdogg, on May 5 2006, 02:16 PM, said:

Forbes Best places for doing business (by msa)

Richmond 41
Va. Beach 48
Roanoke 165

Ouch!

[eandslee]

bmedguy, on May 23 2006, 10:57 AM, said:

Ouch!

Yeah, even Richmond's rank of 41 really isn't all that great.  

[Jerseyman4]

Whats the company based out of Abingdon?

[wrldcoupe4]

eandslee, on May 23 2006, 01:28 PM, said:

Yeah, even Richmond's rank of 41 really isn't all that great.  

it could always be worse my friend...

[TBurban]

Jerseyman4, on May 23 2006, 06:47 PM, said:

Whats the company based out of Abingdon?

Alpha Natural Resources  

[urbanvb]

Well, Forbes named Virginia the best state to do business. Yay for us.  
story

Here'show the metro areas stacked up.

[vdogg]

urbanvb, on Aug 16 2006, 03:53 PM, said:

Well, Forbes named Virginia the best state to do business. Yay for us.  
story

Here'show the metro areas stacked up.

Ouch on our educational attainment rating, we've been making such big strides too. Guess HR still has a way to go in that area.

[rusthebuss]

vdogg, on Aug 16 2006, 04:20 PM, said:

Ouch on our educational attainment rating, we've been making such big strides too. Guess HR still has a way to go in that area.

Yeah that is really disappointing   Maybe we can change that in the future.

[urbanvb]

So how can we change that? How many universities should we have in the area? We have NSU, ODU, CNU and Regent as well as quite a few other institutions - TCC, Thomas Nelson CC, Strayer is coming to TC, ECPI, EVMS and Virginia Wesleyan. These are just the ones I could think of. I wonder how this stacks up against Richmond and the DC area?

[urbanfan]

urbanvb, on Aug 16 2006, 04:27 PM, said:

So how can we change that? How many universities should we have in the area? We have NSU, ODU, CNU and Regent as well as quite a few other institutions - TCC, Thomas Nelson CC, Strayer is coming to TC, ECPI, EVMS and Virginia Wesleyan. These are just the ones I could think of. I wonder how this stacks up against Richmond and the DC area?

It will never change when a majority of the industries here do not requre education.  Shipbuilding, Ports, and Military.  Unfortunately until a majority of these businesses go away and business jobs requiring education come to the area were stuck with these numbers no matter what types of colleges you have here.

[hoobo]

urbanfan, on Aug 16 2006, 01:37 PM, said:

It will never change when a majority of the industries here do not requre education.  Shipbuilding, Ports, and Military.  Unfortunately until a majority of these businesses go away and business jobs requiring education come to the area were stuck with these numbers no matter what types of colleges you have here.

That's a nice way of putting it.  Those jobs are not unskilled janitorial services, but highly-skilled and well-paid (except for substandard pay of military enlistees) positions.  Also, those industries are full of engineers.  HR has a high ratio of engineers per capita.  

Really, what kind of business jobs are we talking about here?  Account managers?  Financial specialists?  Tech manufacturing?  These aren't glamourous well-paying jobs either.  Engineering services, banking, investment firms, and such are found in all metro areas.  But I assume we're talking about landing a financial analysis center for a major brokerage house; well those are hard to come by as they are highly sought after.  HR is not going to land Fidelity's financial analysis unit or Novartis' flu vaccine facotry because Raleigh already had medium-sized offices of both companies.

Having the military and ports doesn't prevent other types of companies from coming here.  Lack of a large highly-ranked university probably does.  (ODU is a good university but not in the class of W&M, UVa, or Tech.  If only W&M was twice its size.)  But what is a bigger drawback is that HR is an unestablished market.  It doesn't have the inroads in finance and tech that Raleigh, Richmond, Baltimore, or Charlotte do.  It is still developing these bases.  M&S is a great start, but HR still has a ways to go to catch up to Orlando in this field. (BTW, one of Orlando's selling points to that industry is that it is within an hour and half of 3 of America's largest universities, one of which has a program dedicated to that field.  Good thing ODU is emulating this formula.)

So what HR needs to do is continue working with ODU and EVMS to expand their M&S and biotech research areas, respectively.  It also needs to convince W&M to grow beyond its small liberal arts status into a large liberal arts school like UNC and keep improving ODU's prestige.  At the same time, HR needs to continue its transition into a metropolis to retain those graduates.  HR must continue to nuture its budding M&S industry and grow its biotech research industry centered around EVMS.  Finally, HR needs to agressively seek branches of major financial and tech firms by means of incentives.  I'm talking a 30-100 person unit that do a specialized service for that company so that when it comes to expand, HR will be one of the first places they look to.

You don't diversify an economy by asking the blue-collar jobs to leave.  You do it by figuring out the weaknesses that are holding back the diversification into the white-collar economy and fixing them.

urbanvb, on Aug 16 2006, 01:27 PM, said:

So how can we change that? How many universities should we have in the area? We have NSU, ODU, CNU and Regent as well as quite a few other institutions - TCC, Thomas Nelson CC, Strayer is coming to TC, ECPI, EVMS and Virginia Wesleyan. These are just the ones I could think of. I wonder how this stacks up against Richmond and the DC area?

It's not a matter of quanity but quality.  Only ODU is a true research university and a mediocre one at that.  The only HR school in the top 100 is W&M and that school has a total undergrad enrollment capped at 5000.

Edited by hoobo, 16 August 2006 - 03:56 PM.