Articles about Business
Dallas Has Its Employment Mojo Back, But Houston is Making Us Look Like Slackers
American City Business Journals has analyzed numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and determined the biggest job winners and job losers over the last 10 years.
Texas in particular come off looking compartively great. Dallas-Fort Worth has the second-biggest gain in jobs during the last year (among the nation’s 100 biggest markets), the fourth-most gain in the last five years, and the fifth-most in the last 10 years. (Houston finishes No. 1 on all three lists.) Of course, the picture is slightly different if you rank cities by their percentage gains in jobs, with DFW ranked 10th, 8th, and 27th looked at that way.
Only 13 of the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas have showed a gain over the last five years. Six of them are in Texas.
Portlandia is ranked No. 52.
Super Bowl Smackdown: Host Indianapolis Makes Dallas-Fort Worth Look Like a Bunch of Chumps
As the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast came back from one commercial break, NBC’s Al Michaels said something like (paraphrasing): “What’s so great about Indianapolis as a Super Bowl host is that it’s one of the places where everything is within walking distance.”
Sitting, as I was, in a living a room amidst the exurban sprawl of Frisco on Sunday, that comment stung. I mean, he wasn’t talking about North Texas, and yet he was.
And Michaels isn’t alone. Indianapolis is getting rave reviews for its hosting of the NFL’s championship extravaganza. Having been blessed with unseasonably pleasant weather this year (as opposed to the ice and snow we greeted fans with in Dallas for Super Bowl XLV), there’s already speculation about how soon the capital of Indiana will get to host another. It’s very unlike the “Will North Texas Ever Get to Host Another?” headlines that followed our region’s turn.
Much of the praise for Indy is about its compactness. Whereas North Texas had some activities in Fort Worth, others in Dallas, and the game in Arlington, with driving required to get anywhere, Indianapolis was walkable. Sports economist Patrick Rishe wrote a column for Forbes yesterday where he noted that “Bigger is not always better” — another slap in the face of Texas?
DeGeneres Flap Making J.C. Penney Look Cool
Jason mentioned a while back the changes that new CEO Ron Johnson is bringing to J.C. Penney, including hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson. Seems that decision didn’t sit too well with a group called One Million Moms, which thinks Ellen shouldn’t have the job because she’s a lesbian. Bill O’Reilly locked horns with a Million Moms sympathizer on Fox News Channel last night, and wound up defending Penney’s right to hire whomever they want. Given the dust-up, Johnson’s move seems more than ever like a genius one, positioning the Plano-based department store as hip and diverse and cutting edge. (J.C. Penney: cutting edge?)
Rating Super Bowl Ads With Dallas-Fort Worth Locals: Words With Friends and Double the Deion
Here’s a breakdown of how North Texas residents fared in their Super Bowl commercial appearances. We’re rating their contributions only, not the entire ad. Starting with the cream of the crop:
The guys who came up with the greatest time-waster known to man, Words With Friends, had the best moment in this Best Buy ad, tweaking the recent Alec Baldwin-American Airlines brouhaha over playing the game on the plane. They show up at about the 30-second mark. Rating: 9 out of 10
Why Mark Cuban is Dominating the Shark Tank, Needs to Invest $25,000 in Me
It's good to be Mark Cuban.
I’m a fan of the ABC show Shark Tank, in which entrepreneurs ask for investments from a group of venture capitalists (the “Sharks.”) Some of the business ideas are great (like the “Netflix for kids’ toys”) but others seem to be ideas that the producers only allowed to get on the air because they’re so laughable.
During the second season Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made several appearances, and in this current season he’s become a regular. At first I found him to be a nice addition, but his celebrity power — he’s by far the most famous of the “Sharks” — is killing the game of it. Entrepreneurs seem to get weak-kneed when they see Cuban, and they’re willing to accept lesser deals from him (rather than a better deal from another Shark) just for the chance to continue to bask in the glow of his star power. The playing field is tilted in his favor.
Also, on last week’s show, he invested in a website where a guy will draw a cat for you for $10. The idea was worth a good laugh on TV, but I thought surely the Sharks would say thanks-but-no-thanks. Cuban put $25,000 into this “business.” He said he was investing more in the guy himself than in the cat-drawing enterprise.
And because of Cuban’s star power? TMZ says the cat-drawing website has gotten over a thousand orders in a few days, when it had been averaging fewer than 40 in a week. Cuban tells TMZ he is “fired up.” Basically he thinks he’s found himself the next Cosmo Kramer.
Mr. Cuban, I will sell you 33% of any of the following ideas in exchange for $25,000:
Komen Changes Its Story
On the heels of quite a bit of backlash, like this New York Times editorial, executives from the Komen foundation are in super crisis management mode. (So far, they haven’t gone the zebra blood route, but it’s still early.)
I’ll briefly paraphrase Komen President Elizabeth Thompson, responding to questions from reporters: “Investigation?” Did we say “investigation?” No, we meant, um, that other thing anti-abortion people are saying, that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have on-sight mammograms. Or they aren’t good enough. Something like that. Abortions? Oh, we didn’t even realize that was the same Planned Parenthood. Nope, that had nothing to do with it. What’s that, we also pulled funding for stem cell research that was working toward a cure? Total coincidence. Hey, isn’t the Super Bowl soon? We know how you folks like to watch football! Why don’t you go over there and rest until the game starts.
UPDATE 10:36: read a public statement (apology) from Nancy Brinker, and a response from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards here.
Fired Realty Exec Hires Gloria Allred
For a dozen years, Dallas’ Liz Trocchio Smith was one of the few women holding a senior executive post at a global commercial real estate company. Then, last October, she was fired. Now the former Cushman & Wakefield executive VP — she oversaw the C&W region including Dallas, Chicago, and Minneapolis — has turned to a legal heavyweight for some advice. As Christine Perez reports exclusively on our RealPoints site, Trocchio Smith has retained Gloria Allred — the highest-profile women’s-rights attorney in the country.
‘Shower of Affection’ Greets Emirates Flight
The Dallas-Fort Worth drought ended just in time to greet the first Emirates flight from Dubai. Photography by Jeanne Prejean
The Eagle, er, the Emirates, has landed. At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, at about 8:45 this morning, to great fanfare — as shown in the photo above of the so-called “shower of affection” that was accorded the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft upon touchdown. (”Shower of affection” means something else where I come from, but apparently this is an aviation ritual.) The plane had left Dubai about 16 hours earlier, becoming Emirates Airline’s first-ever daily, non-stop flight to D/FW. It was scheduled to turn around and head back to the United Arab Emirates a couple of hours later.
Dallas’ Pavestone Is Sold to Atlanta Company
Thirty-two years after its founding, Dallas-based Pavestone Co. LLC has quietly been sold by businessman Robert Schlegel to the Quikrete companies, a big, family-owned manufacturer of packaged concrete out of Atlanta. Under the deal, which closed last month for an undisclosed sum, Quikrete gets Pavestone’s 22 U.S. manufacturing plants and about 1,100 employees. The corporate headquarters including finance functions will move from here to Atlanta, though Pavestone’s other local operations will remain. At its height around 2007, Pavestone had revenue topping $360 million.
Pavestone and the Canadian-born Schlegel took a roundabout route to the Quikrete buy. In 2008 the Federal Trade Commission blocked Pavestone’s proposed sale to another Atlanta company called Oldcastle Architectural, on antitrust grounds. Two years later Schlegel sold half of Pavestone to Oklahoma Publishing Co., which in turn was snapped up last year by an outfit controlled by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz. When the Anschutz deal happened Schlegel says he exercised his “right of first refusal” and bought back Oklahoma Publishing’s half of Pavestone, giving him 100 percent ownership again. Asked what he’ll do now, Schlegel says he retained one $20 million division of the company — something called Bedrock Logistics — and will concentrate on growing that.
DMA’s New Director Straight Out of Central Casting
Peter may have a complete report on FrontRow about Tuesday’s media luncheon with Maxwell Anderson, the new director of the Dallas Museum of Art. But at first blush Anderson’s a big-time arts guy straight out of central casting: polished, corporate, carefully spoken. Tailor-made for Dallas, in other words. Asked about lessons he’d learned after sometimes rocky stints at the Whitney in New York and the Indianapolis art museum — institutions where he reportedly clashed with board members and big donors — Anderson replied the problem was that too many of those people were not art collectors themselves, in contrast to the situation here.
The new director is married, by the way, to the beautiful, Houston-reared actress/entrepreneur Jacqueline Buckingham Anderson, who’s likely to give Anna-Sophia a run for her money as a head-turner on the social circuit. Just now Jacqueline — who literally does hail from central casting — is said to be overseeing the building of a new home for the Andersons in Preston Hollow. (She’s had practice at such things, having “redecorated” the couple’s 12,000-square-foot, museum-provided residence in Indy with buying trips to California and Europe, according to the NYT). According to John Eagle, president of the DMA board, she may eventually start her own business here putting art into public or corporate spaces like hospitals.
USA Today Says Baylor Health Care Has Gone ‘Down a Dangerous Road’ With Tobacco Ban
Baylor Health CEO Joel Allison
USA Today opines that when a company refuses to hire anyone who smokes tobacco it “crosses a troubling line.” The newspaper singles out Dallas’ own Baylor Health Care System, which formalized its anti-smoking policy as of January 1, in an editorial:
Treating smoking, in essence, like illegal drug use takes Baylor and an increasing number of other employers down a dangerous road, one that extends far too deeply into the private lives of prospective workers.
Joel Allison, the CEO of Baylor, discussed the ban with me during our recent breakfast at the Original Pancake House on Lemmon Avenue. The policy is not limited merely to smokers but includes use of any nicotine products:
“Is that legal?” I ask him, only half-serious.
“We would not do anything that would be considered illegal,” he says, completely serious. “We’re in the healthcare business, so we want people to practice good health.”
Allison also believes it’s important for Baylor to do what it can to keep its own costs down. Before this all-out ban, the company had already placed a surcharge on smokers who participated in its health insurance plan. “Five percent of the population uses up about 50 percent of the health care cost,” he says.
To which USA Today declares a SLIPPERY SLOPE ALERT:
Inspired by the Dallas Opera, Texas Motor Speedway Bringing NASCAR to Park Cities
Vowing not to be outdone by the Dallas Opera’s move to screen The Magic Flute at Cowboys Stadium, Texas Motor Speedway says it’s decided to run its April 13-14 NASCAR Sprint Cup race through the streets of the Park Cities. The unusual plan was announced this morning by TMS CEO Eddie Gossage and the mayors of Highland Park and University Park. “We want to get NASCAR out of the speedway, and bring it to a whole new audience,” Gossage said. “So we gonna do it up right.”
Under the plan, stocks cars competing in April’s Samsung Mobile 500 will follow a circular route bounded roughly by University Boulevard on the north, Preston Road to the west, Armstrong Parkway/Byron Avenue on the south and Hillcrest Avenue to the east. Those streets will be blocked off to usual traffic, and the cities will waive some noise ordinances, open-container laws, and restrictions against RV parking for the weekend event.
As a result of the latter, tailgating by NASCAR fans will be allowed during the weekend at Highland Park Village, on the grounds of some gated mansions along Preston Road, and on the golf-course fairways at the Dallas Country Club. Food trucks from Denny’s, KFC and other restaurants will cater the event. Tailgaters with special permits also will be allowed to relieve themselves in Turtle Creek during the weekend, the officials said.
Plano’s J.C. Penney Gets a Makeover: New Logo, Ellen DeGeneres, and Apple-Style Genius Bars?
The new logo. Kind of makes you want to put your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance, no?
When Joseph Guinto wrote about Ron Johnson, the new CEO of Plano-based J.C. Penney, in the September issue of D CEO, he raised a number of questions about what the former Apple and Target executive could do for the department store. On Johnson’s branding expertise:
If an executive from Apple is supposed to know anything, it is what the kids (under 35 counts, right?) want these days. And, anyone at Apple—where products launch with a similar look, feel, and level of hype—should have a solid understanding of branding. But Apple products cost a lot of money. The average price for a women’s blouse at J.C. Penney is $15. And, besides, is it fair to compare a shiny iPod to a pair of cotton underpants?
Well, J.C. Penney unveiled its big makeover plan this week, and it would seem that cotton underpants may be getting something closer to the iPod treatment. Stores will begin sporting a new logo (above), the company’s third in three years.
They’ve also unveiled new three-tiered, simplified pricing that they’re calling “Fair and Square Pricing,” which is meant to be represented by that subtly patriotic new logo. Ellen DeGeneres has been brought in as a spokesperson to “help bring the new jcpenney experience to life in her own fun-loving, sneaker-wearing, laugh-making way.”
But most remarkable of all? Johnson, the man behind the creation of Apple’s retail cathedrals hipster havens orgasmatrons shops is bringing some of that same philosophy to transform the staid department store design:
A Star is Born at Fort Worth ISD
I’m not entirely sure what it is that Fort Worth ISD business support services manager Ed Spears is selling, but whatever it is, I’m buying it.
American Airlines on Bankruptcy: We Need Fewer Workers, More Consultants
Bankruptcy is complicated, no doubt. But when American Airlines’ parent company sought to hire four additional law firms (in addition to its lead bankruptcy counsel) and eight consulting firms to advise it on how to navigate through the Chapter 11 process, the United States Trustee overseeing the bankruptcy objected. There’s a court hearing on the matter set for Friday.
As Bloomberg notes, Tracy Hope Davis stated that “The scope of services set forth in each application is so broad that the potential for duplication with the other firms is apparent.”
I am continually astonished by the corporate consulting industry, the way that a company will insist its CEO and other top executives are worth lavishing millions of dollars upon but is just as quick to feel it must hire an outside firm for “strategic” advice that apparently none of its C-suite stars could come up with themselves. My guess is that there’s a CYA motivation to much of it.
On the other hand, bankruptcy is not part of a company’s normal operations, and it shouldn’t be surprising that AMR could use help. This is how much help they requested:
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