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As part of our region’s new five-year economic development campaign to bring new jobs and investment to the St. Louis metropolitan area, the RCGA recently engaged two firms to perform research on how the marketplace perceives St. Louis. The researchers interviewed more than 700
business leaders. Locally and nationally about 300 were CEO or other C-level executives, national site selection and real estate executives, and venture capitalists from around the country who scout the country for new business locations and investment opportunities.
The researchers asked these out-of-towners, as well as local executives, what are the most credible and compelling selling points of St. Louis. Both groups cited distinctive quality of life attributes, ranging from the region’s business and residential affordability, to the area’s cultural, educational, parks and trails and artistic attractions. Curiously, when the researchers asked the local leaders the second question, which was to what extent do these attributes drive business decision making, the locals answered they did not think that the quality of life attributes were a very big factor for external decision-makers.
The external decision-makers, however, said just the opposite. They not only said it was important, but just under half of them could name and document specific quality of life attributes in St. Louis, whether it was quality parks, extraordinary neighborhoods or great research, educational and business institutions. The decision-makers noted that today’s knowledge workers have a lot of latitude on where to locate, and that employees are increasingly accepting positions based on quality of life attributes.
Executives were also asked where they wanted to get their information about
St. Louis. The C-level executives said they wanted to get their information from their colleagues here in St. Louis. That’s why we’re about to launch a long term, systematic effort to enlist the direct support of business leaders in our region as we target business leaders from around the country.
The national site consultants, the real estate executives and the venture capitalists said they wanted to get their information through a “second-to-none Web site” and regular online substantive communication from our economic development team. Therefore, we have recently put a substantial amount of energy and resources into a totally new RCGA Web site. Check it out at www.gotostlouis.org.
In this month’s issue of St. Louis Commerce Magazine we’re honoring companies both for their business success and their contributions to the region. For starters, congratulations go to the United Way of Greater St. Louis and 2005 Campaign Chair David Steward. United Way recently met its ambitious goal to raise $65 million. It is worth noting that this is the same dollar amount as the United Way campaign in New York City.
In addition to the Greater St. Louis Top 50 companies saluted this month, we have the Spirit of St. Louis Technology Award going this year to Express Scripts Inc. Since starting in 1986, the pharmacy benefit manager continues to grow and is now ranked #137 in the Fortune 500.
A new award this year is the Boeing Corporate Citizenship Award, and it is going to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Not only is Enterprise a remarkable business success story—with a record $8.23 billion in revenue this year–but Enterprise, lead by the Taylor family, has also made substantial civic contributions to improving our region.
We hope you enjoy this issue of St. Louis Commerce. Happy Holidays to you and your families. As always, please send your comments and suggestions to us at dfleming@stlrcga.org.
RICHARD C.D. FLEMING
President and Chief Executive Officer
St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth |
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