• COVER PAGE

  • MOTOWN RULES

  • 1998 PROPORTIONAL
  PERSPECTIVES

  • METHODOLOGY

  • NEW CORPORATE
 FACILITIES AND
 EXPANSIONS

  • THE LONG VIEW:
 MICHIGAN

  • 1999 FORECAST

  • 1998 TOP 20 U.S.
 FACILITIES

Poets, baseball players and business expansion patterns?

Granted, an unlikely threesome. None-theless, the poet and the player say much about the validity of focusing on long-term corporate location patterns.

Endurance, after all, is what distinguishes business climate success. Moreover, state- and local-level record-keeping inconsistencies can inordinately skew one-year totals, experience demonstrates. And a single year of flash-in-the-pan success isn't unheard of in the business attraction business. That's why SS's annual analyses level out such anomalies by examining location patterns over a three-year span.

By that yardstick, SS has a new long-term champ for 1996-1998: Michigan, which jumped all the way to No. 1 from No. 4. Michigan rose on the strength of its No. 1 rank in SS's overall totals for new facilities and expansions in both 1998 and 1997.

Michigan takes the No. 1 long-term crown from Ohio, which still ranks No. 2 long term after finishing first, second and third, respectively, in SS annual overall facility tallies in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Similarly, Georgia and Pennsylvania make a strong case for enduring effort. Though the two failed to make both 1997 and 1998's overall top 10s, their 1996-98 totals are strong enough to rank Georgia No. 9 long term, with Pennsylvania No. 10.

Michigan Tops, Too, in Manufacturing

Although finishing No. 2 to California in new manufacturing plants for 1998, Michigan's 1996-98 total also moves it past Ohio to No. 1 in SS's long-term manufacturing analysis. Another major upsurge came from New York, which moved to No. 7 from No. 10 in long-term manufacturing.

Tenacity's worth is again underscored at the bottom of this top 10. Though unranked in last year's long-term manufacturing top 10 and in 1998's manufacturing top 10, Indiana's strong 1996-98 effort rates No. 10 in the long-view manufacturing pecking order.

As Shakespeare wrote, with more economic development wisdom than he could've know, "How poor are they that have not patience."