December 2005, Volume: 8, Issue: e/12, ISBN 1527-5175

~~~HELP OTHERS... The tragedies of severe weather have left huge populations around the world without the basics... food, clothing, medicine, jobs, homes. It's easy to forget the needs of others when we jump into the holiday season. Please find space in your heart as the year draws to a close for those less fortunate, especially the children. They are our future. As in the past, that's where we are putting our money, and we hope you will do the same. Happy New Year!

~~~Distribution centers... "Trends in Siting Today's Distribution Centers" states that location decision-making is on a faster track than previously, 6 months or less, as compared to 1-2 years. Source: www.bxjonline.com

~~~10, 9, 8,... the count down has begun. Have you decided how you are going to up your attitude? Up your performance? Up the level of care you provide your clients? This is not about a resolution. This is about taking care of what is important.

~~~Some clouds have silver linings... Mirro Corp. of Two Rivers, WI closed its plant in 2003 without advance notice to the 800 employees. The new owners transferred production to China. Production output was of lesser quality. (This scenario is probably familiar to many of you.) Low quality pieces were sent back to a group of former employees in Wisconsin for repair. Although the number of employees at the "new" operation is quite small, poor overseas quality generated some new opportunities.

~~~Synchronist Business Information System Version 3.1 released... Version 3.1 includes major upgrades resulting from User input and our on-going R&D.

New features include: Synchronist xTool, Technology Orientation Analysis (patent pending), Data Quality Index, Interviewer Scheduler, as well as a variety of new reports. Synchronist Users can upgrade on request. For upgrades or questions, call Eric or Andrew at 630-462-9222

~~~Synchronist Users' statistics from BREI's (Business Retention Expansion International) Annual Conference...

    8 of 12 BREI Award Winners were Synchronist Users (www.brei.org)

    45 of 120 development professionals at BREI were Synchronist System Users.

    "At the recent BREI certification course in Nashville, two-thirds of the participants were Synchronist System Users."  IA participant.

    "I've been here less than 24 hours and I have already heard nearly 50 references to Synchronist in conversations."  AL participant

Synchronist Users are increasing their influence and impact...

~~~"Move Over, India... "Romania looms as the next offshore tech powerhouse with its low costs, language proficiency, burgeoning infrastructure, and engineering skills." Most Romanians speak English and also speak French, German, Swedish, Finnish, Greek or Danish. Oracle's European Development Center in Bucharest employs 300. Add to that base 45,000 software developers. Business and technology executives from 26 Romanian companies recently exhibited at the outsourcing expo in New York. They are a power house percolating just under the scope. Where's your competition? Source: InformationWeek, Nov. 14, 2005

~~~ Advice shared by 25 of the top economic developers in the US at a recent executive forum: Web Resources... www.companyslueth.com; www.specialissues.com/lol; www.mytopo.com; www.salesandmarketing.com; www.nasvf.org; www.wikipedia.org; www.searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch (If having difficulty accessing a site, copy and paste for a Google search.) Books... "The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman; 'The Pursuit of Wow!" by Tom Peters; "Nuts" by Kevin Feiberg; "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis; "Collapse" by Jarred Diamond; "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell; "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt; "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson; "Synchronicity" by Joseph Jawobski  - Concerns... Differentiation in a world where there is no attention to detail; Lack of federal policy on tech-led ED; Term limited legislature that does not know how to react quickly to change; Maintaining momentum; Finding proper balance between personal and professional; Are my kids going to live the American Dream; Fast changing world - slow changing leadership; Waking up with cleat marks on my face left by the competition; Depth of the ED bench.

~~~Global Insight... offers a conference, "Maquiladora Industry Outlook", Jan. 27 in San Diego. Maguiladora are established commercial zones located at the U.S.-Mexican borders. For details go to www.globalinsight.com

~~~Spam Index... Healthcare 41.4%, Finance 31.2%, Direct Products 14%, Pornography 4.8% Gambling 2.2%, Scams 0.9%, Spam-related 0.1%, and Others 5.4%. Doesn't leave a lot of room for doing business some days. Filters trap more and more communications. Just because you sent it doesn't mean it got through to your intended recipient. Source, CRN magazine

~~~Life-long learning should be your goal... Employees with fewer skills and education have less to offer.

~~~Value... becomes measurable when you prove to your prospect that your product or service is worth more to him or her than it costs in money, time, effort, or commitment." Pay particular notice to the fourth of these five costs.

~~~The Federal Technology Center... offers information for technology transfer and government contracts. Information at www.TheFTC.org is specific to California. However, other sources can be accessed by calling 916-334-9388.

~~~If productivity or efficiency increases... is that enough to avoid a plant closure?

~~~Advanced R&E course... "Great session! It has been so long since I have attended a conference that offered the level of substance you provided - thank you!" said a Wisconsin attendee. Our next "Advanced Business Retention: Beyond the Basics", will be held in Chicago April 20-21. Market your calendar now!

~~~Scale... The scale for thinking of economic development is region, not community. We live our lives on a regional scale. People move from place to place to shop, work, and play. Employers look at your place as part of a region. Limiting your scale limits your potential. What do your numbers say about your scale? Source: Charles Wheelan, University of Chicago.

~~~Great tag line... "Accelerating Life's Possibilities" Tampa Bay. Need we say more?

~~~False info on the Internet... We were about to share some information with you about the invasion of telemarketers. Andrew on our staff alerted us that this might be spam and recommended the following site to check out the validity. Go to http://www.snopes.com/ This covers politics, business, college, etc.

~~~If there are 15,000-20,000 economic developers in North America... with many going after your area companies, are you fighting to keep your assets in place by staying in regular contact with local companies?

~~~PG&E... Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is a strong ally in California's economic development program. In 2004 the utility distributed over $290,000 in grants to 58 local government and community-based organizations throughout Northern and Central California. Source: CALED, Sept. 2005

~~~"Job Shocks: Resuscitation or Suffocation?... How local economies react after suffering a major decline in employment" is addressed in an article in the Nov. 2005 Fedgazette. Is it a Humpty Dumpty situation? (All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.) "Do local economies bounce back or merely find a euphemistic "new normal"? Source: www.minneapolisfed.org

~~~You might also want to read "Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings... Community Abandonment and the Dismantling of Basic Industry" by Barry Bluestone of Northeastern University

~~~Noted with sincere appreciation... "I just wanted to drop a note after seeing you at ____, I started thinking about the events you host as well as your training. I wanted to thank you for the quality of your training experiences.  After attending ___, I was reminded of the dramatic contrast." Jim Anderson, MI

Blane, Canada Ltd.
1506 Cadet, Suite 100
Wheaton, IL 60187-7380
ph 630.462.9222
fax 630.462.9210

info@blanecanada.com