The big news here last week was NCR's decision to leave Dayton. Basically, three reasons have been given:
- "the high availability of a skilled work force"
- More direct international flights from Atlanta than from Dayton
- $60 to $80 million in incentives from Georgia
That leaves shorter plane flights for those who fly to Europe - seems a strange reason to move 1,300 people - and a large amount of cash. Many people think Ohio should have tried to outbid Georgia, but that would have to come at the expense of companies that don't threaten relocation - and it begins to blur the line between "private company" and "state-funded entity", anyway.
Moving itself, of course, gets rid of those employees who choose not to relocate. I predict that most Ohioans who choose not to move with NCR will not be replaced; the company will use the natural contraction in place of one of its periodic downsizings.
Anyway, it's sad for Dayton, since the company had such a history here, but that's pretty much what NCR has been about here for years - history. For decades now, growth for Dayton - as for most cities - hasn't come from big, stable, traditional companies but from small companies, appearing and disappearing quickly as new opportunities appear and change and dry up. It's a less predictable business world, but that's the century we're in. No amount of sighing will prolong the 20th century
2 comments:
Interesting blog post and Dayton Daily News article. As a formerly single NCR professional who spent 22 months in Dayton, I can tell you that even back in the early 90s we called it "Dayton Duty". I always felt Dayton was a great place to raise kids, but a poor place to be single. Had I not known it was temporary and necessary for career advancement, I never would have moved there at all. Where do I live now? Well Atlanta, of course :-)
Would there be any correlation between this relocation and the appointment of a new CEO? I think it was Philip Greenspun who alerted me to this interesting trend where within a year or two of a new CEO starting the firm's HQ for all sorts of interesting reasons ends up moving to the city where he previously worked.
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