How are jobs created in Kansas City? We hear a lot about how we need more jobs, better jobs and new-to-the-region jobs, but how does it happen? When we say “better jobs,” what does that mean? Is there more involved than compensation?

Bob Marcusse, KCADC president and CEO, explores the answers to these questions with his three pillars of job creation – grow what exists, support our entrepreneurs and recruit outside our region. In Bob’s words, “if we do it all well … we will win.”

 Read more on pg. 11 of the April 2013 issue of KC Business.

When it comes to foreign direct investment (FDI) Kansas City is among the top ten large cities* in the world for its economic development strategy. 

Kansas City was joined in the top ten list of the large cities category with the Canadian cities of Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary, as well as San Salvador, El Savador. Other US cities in the top ten were Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Fla., and Austin.

To create the shortlist for fDi’s American Cities of the Future 2013/14, fDi’s research team collected data using the specialist online FDI tools fDi Benchmark and fDi Markets, as well as other sources.

Data was collected for 127 cities in the FDI strategy category. Cities submitted details about their current strategy for FDI promotion and this was scored by fDi’s judging panel.

View PDF of the complete results.

*Large (52 cities)
This category included those cities with an immediate city population of more than 500,000 plus a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people.

Dr. Jim Riviere recently joined the Kansas State University School of Veterinary Medicine, as the college’s first National Academies Member.

In a recent article featuring Dr. Riviere in K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Fall 2012 issue of Healing Hands magazine, he compares the energy found in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park to what he’s found in the KC Animal Health Corridor.

“The first five to 10 years [at NCSU] were very exciting because there was a pulse of things happening. I get the same kind of feeling here with the state of Kansas being so supportive of veterinary medicine … I wanted to focus on animal health, so that’s why I’m here …”

In the same article, Dr. Riviere discusses how he was drawn to the KC Animal Health Corridor due to its growing national and international reputation.

“[The Kansas City Animal Health Corridor] is … an area that is becoming recognized nationally and internationally as the place where progress in animal health happens, so it’s great to get involved in that.”

Members of the KC Animal Health Corridor recently had the opportunity to hear about Dr. Riviere’s important contributions to global food safety and three decades of pharmacology research.  At the last Corridor Conversations, held at the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus, Dr. Riviere presented some of his work focused on drug and food safety in developing countries, and the inconsistencies found in global food and drug regulations.

Dr. Riviere also took time to lay out his vision for the new Kansas State University Institute of Computational Comparative Medicine (ICCM). The ICCM has already been selected as the first Certara Phoenix Center of Excellence focused on applying cutting-edge pharmacometrics to animal health.

Dr. Riviere explained the opportunity to create a true center of excellence focused on applying the latest mathematical modeling and simulation techniques to animal health issues. Plans include hiring four tenure-track faculty over the next two years to complement the dozen existing KSU faculty across multiple colleges. The ICCM should be fully operational by spring 2014, and will be located in the 15,000-sq.-ft. newly renovated space in Mosier Hall on KSU’s main campus in Manhattan, Kan.

Dr. Riviere emphasizes that the KC Animal Health Corridor is a fantastic environment to provide cutting-edge training to scientists in animal health fields working with real data. Dr. Riviere plans on engaging the KC Animal Health Corridor companies and federal regulators to develop an initiative to improve and potentially transform regulatory science as applied to animal health issues.

The KC Animal Health Corridor is very fortunate to now include Dr. Jim Riviere among the outstanding animal health research assets in our region.

No radio nearby? No worries – you can listen live online from your office or smartphone.

 The ranking is part of the annual New Plant Scoreboard published in conjunction with Site Selection magazine’s Governor’s Cup rankings. The ranking measures new corporate facility projects with significant impact. It does not track retail and government projects, or schools and hospitals. New facilities and expansions included in the analyses must meet at least one of three criteria: (a) involve a capital investment of at least $1 million, (b) create at least 50 new jobs or (c) add at least 20,000 sq. ft. of new floor area.

About Site Selection

Site Selection is the senior publication in the corporate real estate and economic development field. The newly redesigned magazine is the official publication of London-based Red Hot Locations and the Industrial Asset Management Council. Site Selection’s yearly analyses are regarded by corporate real estate analysts as “the industry scoreboard.” The magazine’s circulation base consists of 45,000 subscribers, most of who are involved in corporate site selection decisions at the CEO/President/COO level.

 We are so appreciative of the support of our KCADC investors, and congratulate all of our private sector, local and state economic development partners for this recognition.

 No radio nearby? No worries – you may listen live online from your office or smartphone.

As a first tier suburb in the Northland, the city of Gladstone is actively embracing the arts. Arts in all mediums from the canvas to sculpture to performing arts, the community sees them all as important today and for Gladstone’s future.

Gladstone residents enjoy regular art shows throughout the year.

One of the key points to embracing the arts is recognizing that professional artists are business people. They require the same things as all other businesses including ready access to consumers, suppliers and resources; affordable space for developing their goods and services; and strong connections to a supportive community of peers, other business people and leaders.

Unfortunately, all too often “the arts” and creative professionals are not seen as profitable by other business people.  However, the prosperity that artists create in an economy is perhaps not only in dollars and cents. If we are to look a little deeper it is clear to see that “the arts” and the people involved in creating art have an unprecedented effect on the economy, community stability and development. Artists do in fact require community and like any good relationship, their community needs them back.

A local ukulele band plays live at Linden Square in Gladstone.

In 2010, Ann Markusen from the National Endowment for the Arts coined the phrase ‘Creative Placemaking.’ Creative Placemaking is defined as an effort taken to shape the physical and social character through arts and culture to a neighborhood, town, city or region. It ultimately brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire and be inspired.

Ice skaters perform on the new ice rink in Gladstone.

Gladstone is moving in that direction with the recent completion of Linden Square. Linden Square, located centrally in the city, is that place that is bringing people together that might not otherwise come together with outdoor activities like a performing arts stage, live music and green space for exhibits. This is only the beginning. Keep an eye on Gladstone to see what comes next, and visit Gladstone Arts for upcoming events and artist spotlights.

Kostas Kontopanos (with Ruby) is the 2013 KC Animal Health Corridor Advisory Board Chair.

As we look ahead to the eighth year of the KC Animal Health Corridor, I am so proud to be among the passionate leaders in the Kansas City region whose commitment got us to where we are today. In particular, Joerg Ohle of Bayer Animal Health, George Heidegerken of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica and Craig Wallace of Ceva U.S. Holdings, who held the position of KC Animal Health Corridor Advisory Board Chair before me.

I had the pleasure of sitting on the Advisory Board with Craig Wallace throughout 2012 and witnessed first-hand the dedication and strategic focus he brought to the KC Animal Health Corridor effort. Craig led a renewed structure and accountability to the work we do, including the development of a new three-year strategic plan. Outside of his role as chair, Craig incorporated the Corridor message and brand into everything Ceva did and fully embraced being the public face of the Corridor.

Craig Wallace, 2012 KC Animal Health Corridor Advisory Board Chair, addresses 750 animal health leaders at the 2012 Homecoming dinner.

Under Craig’s leadership, the Corridor experienced the most well-attended KC Animal Health Investment Forum since its launch four years ago, successfully attracted four new animal health companies, and celebrated new investments at Ceva Biomune, Ceva U.S. Holdings, Bayer Animal Heath and Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica.

2012 Animal Health Corridor leadership included Daryl Pint, CEO of CEVA Biomune; Kim Young, vice president of biosciences development for the Kansas City Area Development Council; and Craig Wallace, CEO of Ceva U.S. Holdings, Inc.

The KC Animal Health Corridor Advisory Board is currently hard at work on a set of achievable and measurable strategic priorities focused on key areas such as public policy, workforce development and promotion of the region’s business assets in animal health. Our work in 2013 will largely be guided by these priorities, all aimed at the continued growth of our global assets and contributions to the worldwide animal health industry.

Hill’s has called Kansas home for more than 60 years. We wholeheartedly support and have leveraged the rich heritage of animal health, innovation, research and collaborative assets that make the Corridor unique. I welcome the opportunity to lead the Advisory Board and look forward to our new opportunities ahead.

The Kansas City region plays a very important role in the e-commerce supply chain – and all of that distribution means big opportunity for a direct economic impact on our community. KC SmartPort leads the marketing and promotion of Kansas City’s opportunities for investment from distribution, warehousing and e-commerce companies. Keep reading for some important insight to help you better understand how your holiday purchases may have a direct benefit on jobs in our KC region.

New Trends

With the introduction of smart-phones and tablets, e-commerce is everywhere. Consumers can access online stores with their wireless devices, whenever and wherever they are. As the largest and most efficient inland port in North America, the Kansas City region offers unique assets for fulfillment and distribution by companies engaged in e-commerce.

The Facts

E-commerce is big business in the U.S. and around the world. It is predicted that US e-commerce sales will reach $254.7 billion by the end of 2013. Global business to consumer e-commerce sales will pass the $1.25 trillion mark by 2013. The total number of Internet users is rising and is expected to reach 3.5 billion in 2013. The number of online shoppers in the United States is forecast to reach more than 150 million people in 2015, with almost 80 percent of US Internet users shopping online.

FedEx and UPS both have multiple distribution centers in the KC area due to the region's central North American location.

E-commerce and logistics

Traditional e-commerce relies on economies of scale by delivering in bulk amounts and focusing on regions that have centralized stores. Disaggregated retailing distribution relies on big box warehouses located outside metropolitan areas to ship large numbers of small parcels to individuals. It requires fulfilling each order from a huge variety of inventories, and sorting them into separate parcels. With disaggregation, parcels are delivered by several different modes of transportation and depend on shipping companies such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS to deliver to individual homes to complete the order.

Most companies have already perfected the online shopping process, now the key is whether companies can fulfill their promises, including delivering the right product in the agreeable time frame to the right customers. Third party logistics (3PL) providers offer a great solution. 3PLs can handle many e-tailers, and have the expertise to handle smaller order fulfillment. By focusing exclusively on fulfillment, 3PLs are able to increase efficiency and accuracy through the use of technology that small e-tailers cannot afford. Also, because 3PLs have more than one client, economies of scale help lower the cost of shipping and warehousing.

The Kansas City Solution

Kansas City is ready for e-commerce. There is plenty of capacity for big box warehouses with a variety of vertical ready sites to choose from. With many intermodal parks available in the region, Kansas City provides a variety of transportation modes to accommodate e-commerce companies. Whether it is from truck to rail, from air to truck or any other combinations, Kansas City has the services to fulfill those needs. Kansas City also has great logistics companies that can help e-commerce companies grow and sustain their businesses. According to Inbound Logistics magazine, 13 of the top 100 3PLs in the U.S. have a presence in the Kansas City region.

Fulfillment center logistics is leading in the industrial market.  E-commerce companies need big box fulfillment centers that are usually larger than 500,000-sq.-ft., which can be difficult to find at a reasonable price in larger urban cities. That is why an inland region such as Kansas City presents the perfect solution. As demand increases for big box space, the Kansas City region is well positioned to compete for companies wanting to cut costs and take advantage of multiple modes of transportation in the region.

The KC region offers three-day fulfillment shipping to nearly every U.S. location.

Case in point

Last spring, Zumiez, a leading national online retailer, relocated its e-commerce fulfillment center from Everett, Wash., to Edwardsville, Kan. According to Zumiez, best practice for standard delivery is two to three days to most of the cities in United States. Zumiez selected the Kansas City region because this location allows them to focus on the company’s growing online business and increase the speed of product deliveries to online customers.

Visit KCSmartPort.com to learn more about the supply chain advantages of the Kansas City region.

My first visit to Kansas City was as a 14 year old 4-Her participating in a national junior show for Simmentals.  As I walked my heifer into the ring at the American Royal, I was in awe.  For a farm kid from Kentucky, this was the big time and I knew this was a place I wanted to visit again and again.

Ragland with his prize winning heifer at the 1982 American Junior Simmental Show.

Moving on to high school meant joining the Future Farmers of America (FFA) where earning a trip to Kansas City was synonymous with success.  As a state officer, a national finalist in the prepared public speaking contest and eventually a recipient of the American Farmer Degree, Kansas City was the stage upon which these memorable moments would be set.  I will never forget the view from my 12th story room at the Muehlebach hotel where I witnessed a river of blue and gold as fellow FFAers made their way through the streets of Kansas City.  No matter where the FFA hangs its hat in the future, that organization and Kansas City are forever linked and fondly so in my memories.

1979 FFA chapter livestock judging team; Ragland is second from the left.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I again find myself drawn to this great town, but this time for a different reason. This time, it’s business.  As one of the fortunate few blessed with a having spent a career in the field of agriculture and specifically in the animal health industry, there is no place more important than Kansas City and the surrounding environs we now refer to as the KC Animal Health Corridor.

The KC Animal Health Corridor covers a broad region from Manhattan, Kansas to Columbia, Missouri; Emporia, Kansas to Fulton and Maryville, Missouri.

Whether you consider the industry’s historical roots to the area or the continued presence of great companies such as Bayer, Boehringer, CEVA, Merck, Pfizer and so many others, the KC Animal Health Corridor is uniquely associated with our industry.  Add to this access to a large and highly educated workforce, the traditional Midwestern work ethic, the presence of leading agricultural academic institutions at Kansas State University and the University of Missouri and the support of an outstanding community organization such as the Kansas City Area Development Council, and you have a truly unbeatable package.

We are proud to have the opportunity to bring new businesses to the Kansas City area and look forward to a bright and prosperous future in this great community.