It’s great news that Invista is adding 60 new jobs to its corporate headquarters in Wichita — especially given Boeing Wichita’s announcement last week that it was cutting 900 jobs. The Invista jobs will average $85,000 a year, according to the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition. Even though Invista is a subsidiary of Wichita’s Koch Industries, it could locate anywhere. Thanks for choosing Wichita.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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33 Comments
Shove those jobs you fascists!!!
JFK was not a communist, as the elder Koch and the founder of Welches jellies tried to claim.
I hope this works out as well as some seem to think.
Getting Invista in the first place was good, retaining it and keeping its expansion here is good, too. But I’m still waiting for the GWEDC to hit that home run play. Are my expectations too high?? Professional job prospects in Wichita took a serious hit after we lost Pizza Hut, Rent-a-Center and Brite one right after another. I’ve been patiently waiting for that big coup, the news GWEDC has landed a significant corporate headquarters with a staff of hundreds. I’m not saying we need to lure GM from Detroit or Starbucks from Seattle (or that we could), but a multi-billion dollar nationally known company like Pizza Hut would be great in the efforts to keep young professionals here. I guess I’ll keep waiting and tolerating the 60 jobs here, 50 jobs there…
Actually Shocker07. What we need to do is spur entrepreneurialism here at home. All the large companies started here, and yes some left, but we will have more success in retaining young workers and building businesses here if we try here, instead of recruiting companies.
The loss of Boeing is a bigger hit than Pizza Hut etc.
Numbers, Ben. Do you have the numbers? Otherwise, I appreciate your OPINION.
No, just an observation. I don’t really have time to do a whole lot of research but I seem to recall an announcement last week of yet another 900 layoffs at Boeing.
Ben! Those jobs come and go in aircraft. Many are just sheet metal assyemblers.
Plus other aircraft companies are hiring, so they will find jobs here or go elsewhere or live off of unemployement until Boeing hires again. Even if 900 are let go this year, most will be absorbed in the exisiting job market here.
When Pizza Hut left, they left for good. These were executive and professional positions. Plus we lost a large tool for recuriting “Home of Pizza Hut” plus all the charitable contributions they gave to area non-profits.
The CEO of Pizza Hut at that time was from Dallas, so naturally he made the decision to bring Pizza Hut to his home city. An ouch for Wichita.
Nobody associates Boeing with Wichita, except for the people living here. Most people have no idea that Boeing even has a facility here. Now that they have less employers than Lear Jet, nobody is going to really care.
Any job loss is sad, don’t get me wrong. I hate seeing any job cuts and losses. But lossing a company headquarters is really a big blow.
You know what’s funny about headquaters. I was just in Atlanta last week and Georgia Pacific has one of the largest skyscrapers in that city. Wonder if they are willing to give that up for the Koch Building? I don’t think so.
Valid point Joe, but Boeing had lone been a major factor. Their ’shrinkage’ this time seems permanent as they outsource more and have moved their HQ from Seattle to Chicago.
You are correct that the loss of these others was also a blow – especially as it seems that whenever someone grows a company enough he bails out.
Joe is right, entrepreneurs will create more jobs than corporate headquarters. The p.r. problem with that is just as Ben states. Everyone expects a “home run” with corporate headquarters and big manufacturing plants.
But most games are won and lost on base hits, not home runs. Home grown entrepreneurs create jobs by the tens, not the hundreds and thousands that make headlines. Those jobs by the tens add up, and entrepreneurs are scoring with base hits, but the homers make more headlines.
Could that be why your economic development people keep swinging for the fences? The public loves a home run? And how many times do they strike out, swinging for the fences instead of connecting for a less glitzy base hit? Like Babe Ruth used to also hold the strikeout record along with the home run record?
And what is the number one reason people do not quit good jobs to be entrepreneurs, even if they will earn more in the long run as self employed?
You guessed it. Benefits. The cost of health insurance in particular. Many an entrepreneur went to his or her grave with a great business plan because they couldnt face the loss of health insurance.
And think about single entrepreneurs, or people in gay relationships with no spousal benefits. They cant afford health insurance on their own, so they just stick to the 9 to 5. Never mind the jobs they might have created….
Ben, not picking on you here, you just teed me up for a rant here…
I have three words for everyone interested in ecnonomic development.
Quality of life.
It seems that eveyone is stuck on that g.d. economic development model from the fifties and sixties that is called “smokestack” chasing. Now of course, you all have plenty of “smokestack” industries with manufacturing plants right there in river city.
But the term “smokestack” chasing still applies. Still looking for that home run “relocation” or industrial recruitment coup that will bring a corporate headquarters or a big plant of some kind.
First, there is no huge pool of companies just LOOKING for a new location. They may be looking to expand, but relocate? You gotta find them and convince them, and that is hard to do from kansas.
Why? Well, to start with, anyone reading a national newspaper or watching anything on tv besides pat robertson will immediately spew coffee all over their desk top when someone calls and says “I’m from KANSAS (there would be the spewing cue) and I want you to consider not only locating your business here but we want you and yours to LIVE here as well.”
See the problem? Unless they are an evangelical holy roller, kansas is not exactly an appealing place for them to live. Or to raise their children. It isnt all about money. If they wanted a low cost of living, they would go to China or India. Nope, they want a quality of life where they live and work.
Would it be too much to ask for an honest assessment of the quality of life in kansas? As seen by the outside world?
I mean, if you arent a conservative taliban, why else would anyone move here? Great schools? Good ecnonomic opportunity? Culture? Entertainment? Recreation? Water?
TOLERANCE?
I will repeat something here I say frequently. In twenty one years as an economic professional, I have never, not even once, seen a business make a location decision based on taxes. No kidding. I dont care if you believe me or not. It is a non factor except as part of the overall cost of doing business.
Lower their overall costs, and you are in the running. Lower the taxes without considering other costs of doing business, and you will be laughed out of the room.
The costs of workforce development will always trump taxes. So schools and providing an ample supply of trainable workers will always be a huge element of location decisions.
Knowledge based workers and creative people are in demand. Drones who take orders are not. They will be replaced by machines.
Getting it now about why no home run announcements in Wichita? Why the only home runs in kansas are in the Lawrence-Joco area?
Can you say quality of life? Yeah, I thought you could.
“especially as it seems that whenever someone grows a company enough he bails out.”
Does anyone down there do exit interviews? Compile the results of those interviews over time? Try to see and actuallly correct any patterns that emerge?
Why is Ben’s statement true?
I can take a guess. Quality of life. Business owners and executives want to live in a better place, so they move their business with them. It used to be the other way around. Entrepreneurs live where their businss was located. Now?
They locate their businesses where they want to live. Big difference. If you dont have new businesses locating in your community, or they leave after they grow, you can almost bet that somewhere in there is a quality of life issue or two in play.
Hard to accept, but true. And our typical kansas answer of “oh yeah, well you can always leave it if you dont like it” seems to be working. Businesses are taking your advise and leaving, or just quietly not coming at all.
Kansas… almost as empty as you think.
They locate their business not only where they want to live but also where they can find a good pool of educated motivated employees. Wichita used to score high in that regard and still does as far as ‘work ethic’ is involved. However, the technical baseline training is not there.
And to rant just a little further…
We have good paying machinist jobs available out here in western ks. In fact, I know two companies just BEGGING for machinists who would pay almost any price. Why no takers?
Um, I’ll answer that with a question.
Do you want to live out here in beautiful downtown western kansas? No? Not for ANY price?
HEHEH. People all over the world are saying that about YOUR section of kansas as well.
I mean just yesterday it was noted that western ks is such a cultural wasteland and such a bastion of intolerance that only DESPERATE people and wetbacks want to live out here.
So… if you were a successful business owner/ceo in a blue state with good schools, a roaring economy and a great quality of life….
Would you relocate your family to the land of oz? Just for some lower taxes?
Heheh. Kansas… as naive as you think.
KFG,Ok doll gotta get in the fray here.As a former joco resident (born and raised – go BVN MUSTANGS!!), I moved to Wichita for school. I applied to colleges/universities all around the continental US. The best scholorship opportunity was awarded to me by WSU, not to mention they have the best business school in the state. I immediately felt like I was “home”. I’ve lived east, west and riverside. There has never been a time where I haven’t felt comfortable. Granted I didn’t go looking to get in trouble but I always felt safe.I met the man of my dreams, settled down and am in the process of raising our family.I have no desire whatsoever to ever return to joco. It’s too important to keep up with the proverbial joneses and appearance/materialism means everything.That’s too much B__S___ for me.
My quality of life is better here and I plan to stay.
Yes Ben, you have it right. Workforce, workforce, workforce. Not just numbers but quality.
And work ethic, while important, just doesnt trump technical training or the ability to problem solve and think creatively.
Schools, workforce, quality of life and population.
Repeat ALL that three times and you have a workable formula for economic development.
Ignore them and you could have the economy of, um… Hill City?
The “loss” of Boeing has turned into a net gain for Wichita. Spirit Aerosystems pays damn good wages and when they begin receiving work from other companies besides Boeing, we won’t be seeing the cyclical downturns that took place like clockwork with Boeing.
I hope you are right Todd – I know some people at Sprit and they are hopeufl.
My view is nowhere near as dour as KFG’s but also nowhere near as rosy as some others here.
I have read some articles about the successes in places like Omaha and they focus on two issues – quality of life and education. Right now we are deficient on both.
“My quality of life is better here and I plan to stay”
Julie, I applaud that. And thousands agree with you. I have no quarrel with your post.
But just a gentle question… did you bring a business with you when you moved? Are you starting or running one that employs people now?
Not picking on you, but q of l is different for different residents. How many of the people who LOVE kansas living are the same ones who create jobs? Just a question. Not trying to start a fight.
And I think we as a state should be looking at WHY businesses dont really grow well here. Hard to do, hard to face, but unless we look at the facts and not at the emotions around q of l, we will never come up with workable answers.
Kansas is like a business that wont ask its customers why they quit shopping there or never shopped that store at all.
We need to ask questions that are not designed to draw politically expedient answers. We need to get to the truth about kansas and then act on that truth.
And BTW, I wouldnt live in joco either… Douglas county maybe, but not joco.
Oh and here is another wild statement that I can defend but I think I’ll just drop it here for now.
Economic development, as it is practiced by 80% of cities, counties and states….
…is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the american taxpayer.
KFG,Granted I did not bring a biz with me HOWEVER using the training I received at WSU and hubby’s real world training, we have started our own biz. He’s the only employee right now (I’m listed as the majority owner – I get to boss him around – yeah right, lol) but we hope to expand it. It is a commercial mortgage brokering service (the only one in South Central KS). What we do is we find financing (we have over 500 lenders we can go thru) for business needs all over the country. We help people purchase companies for sale, refinance for purchases of equipment/facilities or any other need.We have a great success rate. There have been a few loans that haven’t closed BUT that is because but client backed out NOT because we couldn’t get them the loan.
I work a 9-5 at a traditional job for Health Insurance.(Hubby is Tim Taylor Jr when it comes to home repair – have him tell the lift station story at the picnic)
Wichita has some hidden gems in the q of l area – a world-class zoo, Music Theater, the Orpheum, etc. We need to be high-lighting these more.
Good for you guys Julie. And I did note you are, at least in part, working for health insurance, so to speak.
Would you be working full time in your new business, helping to grow it faster, if you didnt need the employers’ health insurance benefits?
If so, you are a living example of so many who might be “entrepreneuring” if they had affordable health insurance.
Ben, I dont mean to be overly critical of Wichita. I know the quality of life isnt horrible there, and sorry to have been so harsh.
You do have many good things. But the questions remain. As the Japanese might ask “what can we do better tomorrow than we did today?”
Seems to me a common theme of all our posts is a lack of investment. We don’t invest in our schools. We don’t invest in our workforce. We don’t invest in our quality of life. We don’t invest in our current strengths. We don’t invest in promoting ourselves. Etc, etc, etc.
I’m not sure this will ever change until we get over this fear of government and taxes. A lot of people seem to only care about their own wallet and think a dollar of taxes back in their pocket today is better than investing in ourselves to make this a better place to live tommorrow. I don’t like taxes anymore than the next guy, but this state has got to be able to function and we have got to invest in our future–or otherwise we won’t have one.
Shocker, I have gone through this with folks out here.
They regard ALL public spending as expense and NONE of it as investment.
What we need are fewer true expenses and more true investments.
Good point, KFG. But where would the budget be cut? I am, of course, assuming that we’re transferring existing tax dollars from expenses to investments because a tax increase stands a snowball’s chance.
“They” regard public spending as an expense, because government entities (local, state, fed) are not structured (organizationally, culturally, politically) to manage our tax dollars efficiently and effectively. No core values, beliefs or guiding principles to provide a cultural foundation. No governance model using a social/financial cost benefit analysis and decision making process. No risk identification/assessment/mitigation process.
Financial decisions are influenced by the political party in power at the time. The party platform and planks serve as the only guiding principle, and that stinks (technical term).
ID, tell me with a straight face that any megalarge business is really also mega efficient and effective with its dollars. Anytime you have an enormous entity handling millions, billions, or trillions of dollars, there is going to be inefficiency and waste. Granted businesses tend to nip it faster than government, but the inefficiencies are still there.
Echoing earlier posts, I read another blog somewhere talking about how countries like China and India view education as an investment – in the US we view it as a cost. And if its viewed as a cost the concern is the bottom line of right now, not the return on investment in education.
Wichita has potential and it is finally taking care of the needs and investing in the infrustructure to make it a great city. It’s a little slow at it. We should have had Kellogg done long time ago, we should have the North West bypass already built.
But Kansas doesn’t pull in many dollars. Wichita can only do what it can do, but I hate to say this, but the leadership was a sleep on the switch during the 90’s. The Chris Churches and the Bob Knight crowd. Although I personally like Knight, I wish he were more proactive.
Everybody bow down to JoCo like they are somebody special. I’m sorry! I don’t see it. You think they got it going on? I suggest you take a trip to Atlanta.
Atlanta blows everybody out of the water. It makes JoCo look like a freakin ghetto. When I was there, I was so jaw dropping impressed I had very serious thoughts of relocating, just as my friends already have. But I’m going to stay here and make Wichita a great place. I’m not going to stand by and bitch. I’m going to make it happen, if it takes every last minute of my life.
I don’t think Wichita will ever be Atlanta, hell… No city will ever be like that. I’ve been to many of the largest cities across the USA and nothing compares to that gorgous city. Just seeing all the sky cranes going all over the place will make you envyous, not saying what is already there.
I ask many people there what makes Atlanta HOT! They all said “a can do attitude”. They knew they could beautify that city, they knew they could attract the Olympics, they knew they could attract and retain the best and brightest. We need to do the same.
I’m never going to look at the N.E. part of Kansas as a model. I’m not even going to care. Wichita is where it is at. Wichita is the jewel of Kansas and will be the jewel of the Great Plains in the future.
Go Wichita!
NE Kansas is incredibly overrated, agreed Joe. Atlanta has a “can-do attitude”, JoCo has just an “attitude”. They think the world revolves around them–or at least the state. It’s about time Wichita shows them WE are the economic and population center of the state and they are just a bunch of overgrown suburbs.
Joe Williams: If you think Atlanta is a great city, check out Austin, TX. They are the “city of ideas” and the “live music capitol of the world”.
Yeah! Austin is great and a beautiful city. I’ll give them that. But I hate to say it, but Atlanta is tons better.