Failure to hook Fluor shocks city officials
Denver economic-development officials don’t snag many of the firms they go after. Sometimes they aren’t even in the running.
Engineering giant Fluor Corp. surprised local officials when it announced in May it would move its headquarters from Aliso Viejo, Calif., to Irving, Texas. “It was a shock,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
Clark checked in with Fluor once or twice a year since the late 1980s, and he visited the company whenever he was nearby in Southern California. His hope was to land jobs for Denver. But it came to naught.
When Fluor looked to relocate its headquarters, Denver didn’t make the list of cities under consideration, said Fluor spokeswoman Lisa Boyette. “Denver is wonderful, but it wasn’t a city that was being considered at all,” Boyette said. Unlike Texas, Fluor doesn’t have employees or projects in the state, said Boyette, who has come to appreciate the state while visiting her brother in Evergreen.
A key advantage that Dallas had going for it were international flights out of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Boyette said.
If there is any consolation, the relocation will bring only 120 or so new jobs to the Dallas area, about half of them local hires.
Elite clothiers to mix for work and play
The men and women who keep some of America’s best-dressed in top form are gathering in Denver to share some knowledge and tricks of the trade.
Local clothier Andrisen Morton is hosting the fall meeting of The Forum Group, an elite association of upscale clothing-store owners. The meetings kick off today and run through Wednesday with talks on everything from marketing to hiring to disaster planning.
Membership to The Forum Group doesn’t come easy. Members can be invited in only after a unanimous vote by current members.
Forum Group members collectively represent more than $250 million in clothing-industry sales. Members are Andrisen Morton; Gary’s of Newport Beach, Va.; Hubert White of Minneapolis; Kaps of Boston; Kilgore Trout of Cleveland; Larrimor’s of Pittsburgh; Malouf’s of Lubbock, Texas, and Burlingame, Calif.; Mario’s of Portland and Seattle; Mitchells/Richards of Westport and Greenwich, Conn.; Oak Hall of Memphis, Tenn.; Rodes of Louisville, Ky.; Rubenstein of New Orleans; and Stanley Korshak of Dallas.
While the group uses its twice-yearly meetings to learn about business practices and to help one another solve problems, it won’t be all work and no play: The group’s agenda includes a private gambling trip to Black Hawk and a tour of the Coors brewery.
“Presenteeism” a growing problem
Once again, someone has seen fit to expand the English language by adding letters to a previously unadorned word.
The word is “present” as in “Hey, I am here.” And if the “here” is on the job and the speaker is a raging source of contagion, the employer has a problem called “presenteeism,” according to a 2005 unscheduled-absentee survey by CCH Inc., which provides businesses with information on human resources and other issues.
CCH didn’t make up the word, said company spokesman Leslie Bonacum. “It was a word that was kicked around for the past few years in the HR profession, so we started to track it,” she said.
CCH found 48 percent of the 323 companies who took part in its 2005 unscheduled-absence survey found “presenteeism” a problem. That’s 20 percent over the previous year.
Some of the same folks who show up hacking and wheezing may be staying home when they are healthy, though. The study found that only 35 percent of unscheduled absences are due to personal illness.
In 21 percent of cases, family issues led to the absence, personal needs were responsible for 18 percent, an entitlement mentality caused 14 percent, and 12 percent were related to stress.
Quiznos’ Baby Bob may get pink slip
Baby Bob may be out of a job.
The gruff-voiced infant pitchman for Denver-based Quiznos could have his career cut short, according to a report on AdAge.com.
Quiznos has hired WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather to handle a so-called strategic assignment for the company, and the agency could take over creative duties for the company next year, according to the trade publication. AdAge cited two unnamed executives who said the company will end the Baby Bob campaign by the end of the year.
Quiznos officials did not return messages Friday.
AdAge attributed Baby Bob’s possible departure to chief concept officer Tom Ryan, who recently took over marketing duties for the company following the departure of chief marketing officer Trey Hall. Ryan, according to one of the sources “loves Ogilvy, and he hates Baby Bob.”
