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Poll: Which Company will be most Important in 2015?


Yankee Fan

  

124 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Company will be the most important to the success of West Michigan in 2015?

    • Wolverine World Wide
      1
    • Universal Forest Products
      0
    • Alticor
      9
    • Herman Miller
      2
    • Meijer
      19
    • Gordon Food Service
      2
    • Steelcase
      1
    • Perrigo
      7
    • Smiths Aerospace
      10
    • Van Andel Institute
      46
    • Johnson Controls
      1
    • X-Rite
      1
    • Benteler
      0
    • Haworth
      1
    • Other
      24


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What would be interesting for someone to do (who has a lot of time on their hands) would be to list the top ten or twenty businesses for each decade going back to say 1900. It could be by revenue or number of employees. I'm guessing we'd find success is pretty fleeting.

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What would be interesting for someone to do (who has a lot of time on their hands) would be to list the top ten or twenty businesses for each decade going back to say 1900. It could be by revenue or number of employees. I'm guessing we'd find success is pretty fleeting.
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I have to agree with Landscape: local companies that are privately owned are more likely candidates to grow locally. As opposed to companies like HM and Wolverine which are headquartered here but controlled by boards and stockholders that do not necessarily have West Michigan interests.

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While I said smniths earlier, if you're talking about who will make the biggest impact on GR, thats different then "The most important" when I think of most important I think of tax revenue received by that company.

When I think of impact I think of charitable donations, and if you're talking about that, and you mean between now and 2015 (If you looked back 10 yrs from now and said who made the biggest impact) thats easily going to be Meijer. More importantly Fred Meijer.

Fred Meijer strikes me as being in the Warren Buffet mode of donating most of his personal wealth to charitable organizations and projects, but leaving the company behind to his offspring so that they may make their own money with it.

So by the time Fred passes on (which I'm sorry Fred, but it will probably be before 2015) his impact will be the most felt.

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I'm going for two companies.

1.) In size and net worth, and a bold growth plan lasting well into the future, Meijer gets my vote. Though Meijer is mute when it comes to publishing net worth, many sources estimate that Meijer is worth about 12 billion dollars. I predict they will be worth 18 to 20 billion dollars and have over 300 stores as well as have expanded further into Kentucky, made beachheads in extreme western Pennsylvania and southern Wisconsin, by 2015 if they keep cool heads and make cunning choices to outflank their competitors. The wild card is Wal-Mart's abilty to stay on top of their game as they are at a point in their existance where its just a matter of time before Newton's Law of gravity kicks in and cause Wally-World to collapse under its massive weight. When Sam Walton's retail jaugernaut finally comes crashing down, a very large power vacuum will be left behind which could cause Meijer as well as other retailers to take off and grow like wild fire.

Seeing empty Wal-Mart Supercenters converted into Meijer stores in 2015 would be a sight to behold.

2.) For smarts, inovation, and a city and Metro area bending over backwards to cultivate a blossoming Life Sciences Hub. Spectrum Health along with VAI and surrounding Pill Hill companies combined will be a force that will set the tone of the local economy for years to come.

As for other big players by 2015...

1) Steelcase and Hermin Miller will recover from the slump they have been in for a awhile. They seem to be doing that now. But they are as big as they are going to get and will stay about the same size. If anything, automation and out sourcing will cut jobs.

2.) Alticore has not grown all that much. Infact they cut jobs left and right here in Michigan. More of the same will happen by 2015. But they will be adding Jobs.....in China. However the corporate HQ will stay in GR.

What's out there?

1) GR will see an influx of hi -tech and advance manufacturing companies take up the space left by the vacating 20 century industrial companies that have shut their doors or outsourced. Any one of these companies could take off and overtake Meijer, Alticore, and Pill Hill as the top dogs when it comes to economic and community impact.

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I voted for Alticor because, as much as they take the brunt of bad talk in Grand Rapids, they have been a company that has continued to reinvent themselves. They are not just the IBO soap sellers, anymore. Quixtar, which I thought at first was a ridiculous idea, is now consistently in the Top 15 websites for visits and on line revenue. In 10 or so years, it has become a multi billion dollar company on its own.

Plus, this company has so many ties to other budding "big ideas" like the VAI, DP Fox, Spout.com to name a few, that they will continue to drive new business ventures and opportunities outside of their core model.

Here is an interesting stat: Did you know that if you are to include all relationships to Alticor outside of the VAI that they are the largest tenant in downtown GR? Here is a shortlist of related companies that reside downtown: Artistry, Spout.com, RDV, DP Fox, Amway Grand Plaza, the soon to be JW Marriott, The Courtyard by Marriott in Plaza Towers. I know that there are more, but I do not think an argument can be made that they have made their investment to downtown, both in business and in actions.

I truly believe that it will be hard to knock them off of the top of the mountain.

Just my 2 cents. Let the Yankee Fan bashing and Alticor trashing begin...

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I would say Other - A company that nobody knows about and may not even exist at this time.

By 2015 I think our economy will have shifted to such a degree that a company will exist that may not be the biggest, but may have the most profound effect on the future of GR. And while it may spawn from the research done at VAI, it may not be medical in nature (advanced manufacturing, composite materials, renewable energy, etc).

We can only hope!

Joe

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Or maybe they are annoyed by brainwashed pyramid schemers harrassing them at every gas station, and waiting in line at Meijer..

"Hey son, you look like you like the internet.... I've got a great business opportunity, want to sit down for coffee sometime"

"Hey there fella, I see your checking out with some groceries there, wanna make a few extra $$"

"Hey man, just listen to this cassette tape, yea, go ahead and take it, return it to me whenever"

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Wow, I guess I must not be a canidate that people ask. In the seven years that I have live in and around GR, I have never been asked or treated as you have described above. Are you refferring to all the junk mail and solicitor phone calls I get on a daily basis being a ploy to support Amway? There are several companies out there trying to get people to join their cause and make a buck or two, but that doesn't mean they are all related to Amway. If you have hatred for solicitation, don't focus on one, dislike them all.
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