“We had a blinding fash of the
obvious in the ’80s, when we
had a one-horse economy and
saw that sector cool off.” —Jeff Moseley
dollars on a wine-and-dine tour. When
the company requested information
on local university research, the newly
enlarged partnership team quickly
responded, detailing the strong ties
between Houston’s business community and schools such as Rice and
Texas A&M, as well as their experience commercializing intellectual
property, especially in energy. That
convinced Vestas’s Madsen that siting
in Houston meant “access to the best
brains within our feld.”
Now Vestas is working to fnd the
right location for its new research
center, a task that will be made easier
by the innovative tech tools that
Opportunity Houston’s hefty budget
has enabled it to develop. The partnership is sinking seven fgures into a
geographic information system (GIS)
that could be called a H^b8^in lover’s
dream. It will give companies and
consultants instant online access to
detailed information on any location
in the 10-county region. In addition to
maps, the system contains 100 layers of
data, from details of nearby hazardous-waste sites to specifcs about power and
water lines and even graveyards. No
other city in America has a system this
sophisticated. In addition, Opportunity
Houston tracks its leads with state-of-the-art software that’s an economic-development cousin to customer-relationship-management systems.
Still, attracting new investors can
be as much art as science. It’s an open
question whether tech-heavy investments will bear much fruit; “at some
point, it’s overkill,” says John Boyd,
president of the Boyd Co., a New
Jersey–based site-selection consultancy.
Plus, Houston has some Texas-specifc
problems. While its leaders want to lure
emerging industries like nanotech and
renewable energy, Texas doesn’t have
aggressive, sector-specifc tax incentives
offered by states including neighboring
New Mexico. And while it weathered
Ike well, “the hurricane potential scares
the bejeezus out of everybody,” says
James Renzas, a relocation consultant
at Bedford International.
McDaniel insists that “every city,
every region” has hazards—say, earthquakes in California—“that are the
cost of doing business.” As she sees it,
today’s Houston has more opportunities
than problems. And you could also say
it has the wind (power) at its back. 1.
There’s nothing like the freedom to choose your own path and be your own boss. For fifty years, we
have been helping people own their own businesses. If you’re ready to get yours off the ground, contact
your AMWAY GLOBAL™ Independent Business Owner, visit AmwayGlobal.com or call 1.800.950.7732.
Now You Know
© 2008
