Chicago is a city that revels in the "idea" of greatness. In the end, that is one of the qualities I love most about the city. It always strives to be GREAT, GREAT, GREAT! Even its most famous motto is "Make no small plans".
One of Chicago's greatest assets is something less tangible than its neighborhoods and its skyline--it's Chicago's role as an international business powerhouse. Sure, it does not hold up to NYC, but Chicago has slowly been converting itself into the nation's second headquarters city. If you liken it to the human body, NYC is the cerebral cortex and Chicago is the cerebellum (LA is the skin haha )
Anyways, one thing Chicago does to maintain and enhance this status is to fight to keep corporate HQ. An abundance of Fortune 500 companies has a lot of face value, but in reality Chicago's enormous importance in finance and in those midde-sized companies is really what defines this city's sphere of importance. Nevertheless, Chicago has a good chunk of whales as well. But how does Chicago stand on this issue?
For now, Chicago has continued to maintain its dominance as the US's 2nd metro for Fortune 500's. Despite a loss of HQ due to mergers or relocations, it has always managed to pick up a couple more. Chicago lost Bank One but is now gaining BP's subsidiary. Chicago is now JP Morgan's midwest HQ, and even though that sounds wimpy, in reality with William Daley as the head of the division you can be sure a lot of corporate money will be doled out for the city's benifit (lastest news, $1 million is already being given to the City of Chicago for a neighborhood development fund). The Chicago metro also gained the HQ of Office Max as well as a large amount of its assets. Cosi, our favorite little urban diner, recently moved to Chicago from NYC. Eurex created their North American branch in Chicago (although, thank God, it has failed to steal any market share). And I cannot discuss this issue without mentioning Boeing! Nevertheless, the list of losses and gains go on and on .
So where is this whole trend going? Will Chicago continue to have this level of dominance? Is the process of globalization eventually going to leave Chicago behind or catapult it to a new level? Early signs show the latter, but what about 30 years from now? If we always have Daley, surely Chicago will reign supreme, but who knows what jackass will take his place in the future?
And my final question, focused more on people who REALLY know the financial situation in the city. Are their any big companies already headquartered in the area that are close to becoming Fortune 500 companies? What are they?
I am excited to see you guys give your input on this topic. Whether you know anything about business or whether you're just an architecture geek, I look forward to any opinions you can offer.> |
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