he Mayflower vans rolled in during the night in the middle of a late-winter snowstorm. The job: pack up a major Baltimore company and move it to its new home in the Midwest.
        That night, dozens of workers strained feverishly to cram everything from filing cabinets to office furniture, to computers and other equipment into the trucks. When loaded, the moving vans (all 15 of them) started up their engines and began a 590-mile trek to Indianapolis.
        Thus ended a bitter one-month relocation battle involving the cities of Baltimore and Indianapolis. The contest included an 11th-hour, $40 million buyout offer for the company to keep it in Baltimore, where it had been headquartered since 1946. But Indianapolis prevailed, in part, by having previously constructed an impressive 92,000 square-foot facility in hopes of luring just such a company.
        Though one of the more dramatic examples, this corporate relocation typifies an increasing willingness by many companies to uproot themselves geographically in a bid to gain financial and competitive advantage.
        In this case, the company was the Baltimore Colts professional football team; by most accounts, their March 1984 "stealth" move to Indianapolis paid off. In addition to a new facility, the 56,127-seat RCA Dome (then called the Hoosier Dome), the Colts extracted other concessions from Indianapolis. For 12 years, the city's Capital Improvement Board (CIB) guaranteed $7 million in ticket sales for the team, along with broadcast revenues of more than $800,000. The Colts secured a $12.5 million, ten-year loan at preferential rates from Merchants National Bank. And for the same period, the team was allowed to keep the first $500,000 annually from luxury suite rentals at the Hoosier Dome.
        "It was a great situation for (then owner Robert J. Irsay)," said retired Colts safety Nesby Glasgow in a 1994 Baltimore Sun story. "The biggest benefit was to the franchise itself. His bottom line improved dramatically."
        According to recently revealed financial figures for the National Football League, the Indianapolis Colts saw a 75 percent increase in total revenues to $109.4 million between 1995 and the beginning of 2000. Out of the 31 NFL franchises, the Colts ranked 13th in total revenues.
        Operating earnings for 1999 of $4.1 million reversed losses of $325,000 and $4.8 million in 1998 and 1997, respectively.
        And yet, a corporation's decision to pick up and move shouldn't be taken lightly. Whether it be Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. looking to site a new manufacturing plant or Boeing Co. looking for a new headquarters city, a number of conditions need to be satisfied. Three areas are crucial:

• A diverse and well-educated employee base
• A business-friendly political environment
• A vibrant financial sector

Employee base

The quality of a company's work force is critical to the achievement of strategic business objectives. In this regard, many experts agree that diversity-racial, ethnic, educational--is an important component of a quality work force because it infuses the company with creativity and many layers of knowledge. Indeed, a 1996 report by the National Institutes of Health's Office of Equal Opportunity points out that a diverse corporate culture: boosts employee morale, increases employee productivity by utilizing all talents, creates an environment that allows everyone to reach their full potential, and helps companies acquire multiple perspectives on problem-solving.
        Just as critical as diversity is education. According to the U.S. Department of Education's 1998 report "The Corporate Imperative: Results and Benefits of Business Involvement in Education," well-educated employees: have solid basic skills, feel comfortable working in a team environment, and can "hit the ground running" and search for creative solutions to problems. Having access to an educated workforce (i.e., locating in a city or state with top-flight institutions of higher learning) can help reduce expenses and significantly grow human capital.

Political Environment

For a corporation looking to relocate, a business-friendly political environment can yield benefits in everything from tax incentives, to worker training programs, to construction grants and preferential access to capital.
        Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove's enticement of Nissan is an example of the public sector's role in creating such an environment. In November 2000, Nissan decided to locate a $930 million manufacturing plant in Canton, Mississippi. Under Musgrove's "Advantage Mississippi" program, the company will receive a 10-year tax exemption (minus school taxes), tax-credit incentives and workforce training. Additionally, the company could get rebates of up to 4 percent of its payroll per quarter.
        While some critics would label this as 'corporate welfare,' regional economies also win. In Mississippi, 4,000 new jobs will be created when the plant begins operation, adding significantly to the state's tax base.
        In the case of Boeing, which recently announced its move to Chicago from Seattle, the company will receive a package valued at up to $64 million over 20 years. Up to $41 million will come from the state in the form of tax incentives, relocation assistance, job training and development grants.
        Illinois state officials estimate that Boeing's relocation will bring $4.5 billion in economic benefits to the region over the next 20 years.

Financial Sector

When Boeing moves into its new confines in Chicago's Loop area, the company will be right up the street from one of the largest financial districts in the U.S. This means that Boeing will have convenient access to banking services and senior investment counsel through some of the world's largest financial institutions.
        In fact, Chicago has more than 300 U.S. banks and 40 foreign bank branches doing business in the region. In addition, five major exchanges are at the heart of Chicago's financial prominence. They are the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Mid-America Commodity Exchange, and the Midwest Stock Exchange.
        How should a company looking to move its operations rate a region's financial resources? The Corporation for Enterprise Development's 24th annual Development Report Card for the States, issued in October 2000, has a list of guidelines:

• Commercial Bank Deposits--The higher the level of deposits, adjusted for population size, the more dollars available to lend.
• Loans to Deposits--An indicator of a bank's aggressiveness is the ratio of a bank's loans to deposits.
• Loans to Equity--Measures how aggressively commercial banks use their resources to further business investment and expansion in the state.
• Commerical and Industrial (C&I) Loans--Although loans made out-of-state can't be separated, a way to measure how well financial institutions are serving businesses is to divide their total commercial and industrial loans by the number of nonagricultural employees in a state.
• C&I Loans to Total Loans--Focuses on how well banks serve businesses by comparing C&I loans versus those for housing and consumer purposes.
• Venture Capital Investments--Active venture capital is an indicator of a rapidly developing economy and multiple investment opportunities.
• Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Financing--SBICs offer hard-to-find, patient, growth-oriented capital in the form of long-term loans, equity, or covertible debt.
• Private Lending to Small Businesses--Captures the extent to which commercial bank branches within each state provide loans to small businesses.

For a company looking to shift its operations, there are other criteria for determining optimum site selection. Among them are proximity to vendors, the possibilities for forging new strategic partnerships, the presence of centralized transportation hubs and the availability of cultural amenities.
        To be sure, personal preferences sometimes dominate, as when cable set-top-box manufacturer General Instrument Corp. relocated its headquarters from New York to Chicago in 1991. The move accommodated then-Chairman Donald Rumsfeld who, at the time, was a resident of the city's North Side.
        During the Colts relocation saga, it was suggested that owner Irsay wanted to move the team closer to his home state of Illinois (though Memphis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles and Phoenix were also mentioned as possible sites). Alas, the state already had its own NFL franchise in the Chicago Bears.
        In the latest news about a company relocation, household products maker Newell Rubbermaid Inc., based in Freeport Ill., is reported to have hired a real estate firm to scout potential headquarters sites. One possibility mentioned in the media: Baltimore, the home of CEO Joseph Galli, Jr.
        But that move likely won't be in the dead of night.