So a few pieces of bad news have been dampening the holiday spirits of Oklahoma City. Last year, our Christmas lump of coal was GM shuttering its Oklahoma City vehicle assembly plant. But why be surprised? They did it to Michigan, and many other North American plants. Chances are, like many motor companies, cheaper labor will be sought after over seas. Don't even expect any of this to change. Just as we were sobering up from the loss of some 2,000 good paying jobs, Dayton Tire decided to follow suit by announcing it was idoling the Oklahoma City tire plant. A double whammy. Not good. Another 1,500 good paying jobs gone. Dayton blames tough competition and a decrease in demand in its line of tires. Honestly, I expected GM's Oklahoma City plant to close its doors after they retooled the plant to manufacture SUV's. And as far as Dayton Tire is concerned, if their tires are back in high demand, they'll knock on our door and ask if they can have their help back.

Then comes AOL. America Online. The rotary phone of the internet, a company that became so dependent on dial-up internet services that they didn't lay out a proper roadmap for the future. Take it from an IT guy, that's poor planning. And they left AOL's Oklahoma City call center hanging on dial up instead of adapting to the high speed world and getting gung-ho on competition. Yes, AOL DOES offer high-speed internet, but they are late in the game thanks to Road Runner, Cox High Speed, AT&T, and a laundry list of other companies jumping on the band wagon years ago. So, AOL decided it would close its doors in Oklahoma City, laying off yet another 1,300 employees who mostly did tech support over the phone. After the AOL announcement, I noticed from here in Texas that people in OKC began to wonder if the local economy is trouble?

Think about this. Vehicle manufacturing is no longer a dependable source of income for a community, not in paychecks or tax collections. Anytime a company goes belly-up, the administration stays and the plants go elsewhere. As far as AOL is concerned, they were simply a call center. And yes, Dell is also a call center but their plans for their company campus go far beyond what AOL had invested in our city, so I'll let them be. However, I don't feel that plants and call centers are the economic answer anymore. Not for Oklahoma City. It's not our goal. It shouldn't be our goal. What city leaders should be and have been focusing on long term are company headquarters, financial institutions and bio-technology. All are nearly resistant to the typical layoffs industrial cities face, and those cities with such a base recover quickly from the economy. I see Oklahoma City as a city where companies are based and thrive, where new companies are born and where employees aren't clocking in for the assemly line, they are walking into an office with their latte in our hand, a brief case in the other hand and their laptop ready to be fired up. Just ask those who work for Devon, Chesapeake, Sonic (HQ), OG+E (HQ) and a number of smaller firms. They are already doing just that. We already have the government base (again, administrative, although not high-paying), and now it's time to focus hard core in company headquarters and start-up capital, as well as continue strong support for companies already here.

okcpulse.com - Oklahoma City's Online Magazine December 2006 Edition