Let’s Refuse to Participate in Last Place Reports
Written by Brian Alcorn on August 23, 2007
Okay – unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the July 11 special report from Forbes.com, entitled “The Best States for Business.” The business report placed West Virginia at number 50. Dead last!
I do business mostly in two states, West Virginia and Virginia. The latter ranked number 1 in this report. However, I can’t say I’ve noticed great differences between the two. From my perspective, business is excellent in the Mountain State and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Just the other day someone came up to me and said, “Brian, have you heard about the latest report. West Virginia is dead last place again in another business report.” He continued to tell me his ill feelings about the government, taxes, insurance, litigation, and so on. I thanked him for his perspective, but indicated that I had chosen not to participate in this report. Puzzled, he looked at me and said, “What do you mean? You can’t choose not to participate! I mean you own a business in West Virginia!” I decided to give him some of my perspective.
I am an executive director with BNI (Business Network International) in West Virginia. There are nearly 180 BNI regions and 68,000 members throughout the U.S. With access to the basic stats for each of these regions, I am glad to report that the West Virginia BNI region ranks at least 50% or higher in most of the business success measures when compared to other regions. Given that every single BNI region is well run and taking business seriously, West Virginia should be proud of its performance.
Let’s refuse to participate in last place reports about business in West Virginia. Last place is hardly the target we’re aiming for. Sure there are challenges we all face and hats off to those working toward solutions. We should all push for positive change. But the biggest factor of business success in West Virginia is rather simple — we need to make it happen! What we do with our time and energy each day has a much greater impact on success than anything else.
Do you participate in last place reports or do you refuse to do so? Do you believe we can’t overcome report negatives or do you believe that personal actions determine success?
Posted in Business, Economy, West Virginia
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August 23rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
IT IS ALL RELATIVE!!
I do not know what criteria were used to determine what makes one state first and another last and if you know me I am not going to find the article to find out. I also do not get excited about someone that lives in New York (I’m guessing) educating me on how bad or great a state is based on a list of statistics. An SWAG tells me that the criteria used rank in importance differently for each of us. I travel regularly between each state and I think that West Virginia has more considerate State Troopers than Virginia. The rest areas are cleaner in West Virginia. I’ll bet these aren’t part of the criteria.
It is really about the people in the state and what they can do to make the changes that are important, if indeed changes are needed. It is relative to what is important to each of us as individuals.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
How can people who’ve never been to West Virginia give us any kind of a grade? We can do things they can’t even dream about. I would give our teachers an A+, as they are the best in the area. Our teachers are willing to stay all night long to get their jobs done, though they are underpaid. Is that something we get a grade for?? Our State Road Workers risk their lives to clear roads during the worst storms, so that someone’s child can make it home for Christmas break. How do you determine how good a person can be or a state? Does this determination mean we won’t get a new company to build their 10,000 job business in our beautiful mountains? Well so be it. I would much rather look at those mountains than a large ugly business. I know we need more jobs. There are a lot of needs in our state, just as there are in many other states. I think someone needs to get into their car and drive through the state to meet our people and witness firsthand how beautiful our West Virginia is. It would be nice to see us on the top of the list.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Business Reports Seem to Contradict Each Other
Also according to Forbes Magazine (April 5, 2007), Huntington and Charleston are among the top 200 best places in the U.S. for business and careers (Huntington #130, Charleston #166). The April 5 and July 11 articles seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Huntington, according to the April 5 article, is ranked #1 in the country for Cost of Living, 85th in Cost of Doing Business, 51st in Income Growth, 45th in Job Growth and has the 47th lowest crime rate. Sounds to me like a great place to live, raise a family and start a business. We apparently have all of the resources to make good things happen in West Virginia. Like Brian said “the biggest factor of business success in West Virginia is rather simple — we need to make it happen!”
A huge stumbling block for West Virginians seems to be we listen to what researchers say about the doom and gloom of our state and let it bring down our attitude. We who live and work here need to focus our consciousness on the positive and good things about our state. Not only the state’s obvious beauty and the splendor of its mountains, but the honesty and integrity of its people. West Virginia’s people are, by far, its greatest natural resource. That is why the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant in Buffalo is Toyota’s #1 facility in the country. That is why Alcon Manufacturing, Ltd.’s facility in Huntington is their #1 manufacturing plant in the world. The people of this state need to keep a top of mind awareness that we have it all. We have our beauty, our natural resources and our people. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. We just need to change our attitude. Perhaps our attitude will be contagious and spread to all West Virginians and then, to the rest of the country. With the correct, positive mental attitude of its people there is no limit to the success of West Virginia.