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By Jim Baer
When Dr. Robert
Atkinson addressed the inaugural Gateway to Innovation Conference
for IT in St. Louis, he said, "St. Louis was in the 'sweet spot'
for IT growth." By that, he meant St. Louis was a growing producers'
market, not an IT manufacturing one. Outside of MEMC manufacturing
computer chips to the world, the emphasis in St. Louis in IT growth
has been through headquarters business development. The "hiring
halls for IT" are Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Edward Jones, Scottrade,
Wachovia/AG Edwards, Monsanto, Emerson Electric, Express Scripts,
and a host of regional banks. This region does not build computer
components the likes of Dell, Cisco or Network Appliances, SAS
or IBM, but it produces IT talent the envy of other key markets.
Tim Nitti,
principal with KLG Consulting, the New York-based national site
selection firm, explained the differences.
"If you are
comparing yourself (St. Louis) to Silicon Valley (a Tier 1 region),
then St. Louis is a Tier 2 city along with the rest of the U.S.,"
says Nitti. He pointed to regions and cities that are experiencing
plus-plus hiring in the IT field. Indianapolis immediately came
to mind. So too did the Research Triangle in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
"That area has been producing IT talent since the 1970s. North
Carolina used to be one of the poorest regions in the nation.
Now, they have folks who used to plant tobacco building boxes
for computer firms," he indicates.
To a point,
Nitti agreed with Dr. Atkinson's positioning St. Louis in the
'Sweet Spot' of IT growth. Nitti still thinks of the St. Louis
region as a strong IT market that is under-appreciated. As mentioned,
the region is a headquarters location to over 20 Blue Chip companies
and home to a number of divisional headquarters for other Fortune
500 companies, pointing to Boeing's Phantom Works R&D Division;
MasterCard's Technology headquarters, AT&T, and Reuters. "Master-Card
is building a better fraud detection platform, right there at
the Wing Haven complex in Weldon Springs," he says.
KLG's mission
is helping companies worldwide develop strategies to respond to
IT challenges, so Nitti, based in New York City certainly knows
of what he speaks.
"A lot of
people around the country just don't recognize St. Louis for its
technology expertise." He claims that St. Louis struggles somewhat
to keep its top IT workers from out flowing to other regions of
the country. "We are a tremendously mobile society, and these
workers move around quite a bit," says Nitti. Some local companies
could face severe labor shortages going forward.
"Generally,
the workforce is migrating to the Sunbelt, but not everyone is
satisfied living say for instance, in Florida year round. Golf
and sunshine donŐt dictate all location decisions," he says. He
says St. Louis has a climatic advantage since it doesn't have
the heavy snowfalls or severe winters the likes of Buffalo, Cleveland,
Chicago and Detroit. "There are people who enjoy the four seasons
of the year, so the St. Louis region is attractive to them," he
figures. States like California aren't what they are cracked up
to be either. "Three-quarters of a million people have been leaving
California each year for other locations," he says. Soaring taxes,
high fuel and housing costs are driving workers off the left coast
in increased numbers.
Nitti cautions
that St. Louis needs to stay clear of heavy unionization. "Long-term
trends show that areas that are experiencing real growth are in
non-union dominated cities," he says. He was thinking of Dallas
and Atlanta, which have become prosperous non-union dominated
IT boomtowns.
Nitti thinks
it's good for a region to concentrate on one product and do that
product well. He was referring to the rapid expansion in the life-sciences
industry as being a blessing for the St. Louis region. The development
of the local biotech infrastructure is creating a variety of new
work clusters. "St. Louis is experiencing net growth, but not
net-net growth like Indianapolis. Companies have to be smart to
attract workers from the outside, not just hold onto what they
already have," he says.
Universities
need to continuously produce new IT talent, and he points to Washington
University, Saint Louis University, SIU-Edwardsville and Missouri-Rolla
for providing that talent. He equates that to the rapid growth
of the high-paying jobs in the Research Triangle with Duke, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and North Carolina State (all within
a 35 mile radius) producing their local talent. The jobs he is
talking about are primarily software engineers and scientists.
Nitti quickly
agrees that all communities have sales forces out and about promoting
themselves for future growth. "That's been going on the past 50
years. Some chambers of commerce are much better than others,"
he says. "St. Louis' chamber, in particular, is outstanding at
promoting local IT and other growth. "The St. Louis Regional Chamber
and Growth Association is a particularly strong group. They have
very professional leadership and a strong staff to execute their
plans. They also have strong budgetary support to make that happen.
It takes all these elements to attract and retain new business.
It is always about everything," says Nitti.
Manufacturing,
to some degree will always be crucial for future St. Louis growth.
He rattled off the production of computer chips, solar panels
and airplanes as necessities in order to meet future challenges.
The emphasis is currently on green products and regions that produce
those products now will be successful in the future," says Nitti.
"The whole environmental debate is becoming a popular focus,"
he says.
"Regions must
continue working hard to attract new workers. Your community cannot
just hope to be lucky, to be successful. They must work at it
each and every day to get there. St. Louis offers a high quality
of living and a good working standard, so they are achieving those
results," he estimates.
Dr. Atkinson
also has the figures to back up these notions.
According
to his figures, the average U.S. Tech/IT job pays an average of
$79,500 per year. The St. Louis average is slightly less at $65,850.
Now, comparing to all jobs, the U.S. average is $42,400 and $38,930
in the St. Louis region. St. Louis' production jobs pay an average
of $32,850 per year.
There may
be just one Silicon Valley and its center point of San Jose, Calif.
as the nation's leader for IT development. But St. Louis, with
more than 53,000 high-paying, well-benefited jobs can hold its
own with the rest of the merging cities including, Austin, Houston,
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Portland, Sacra-mento, Portland,
ME, Salt Lake City and other competitors. The experts attest to
that.
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