Monday, July 24, 2006

Why Did This Happen?

Does anyone care to comment on why this Happened?
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8 comments:

Tim Murray said...

I say to Alcoa, don't let the aluminum door hit you on the way out. But Pittsburgh being Pittsburgh, this move likely will prompt us to name a bridge, a street or a museum after Alcoa, just as we are wont to do for anyone else who leaves town (e.g., Carnegie, Frick, Warhol, August Wilson etc.) Fortunately, Alcoa's "move" seems more legalistic and hopefully won't have much impact on jobs.

5:42 PM
Lisa Hunter said...

Hmm. Usually it's the other way around -- companies flee New York because of expenses.

6:57 PM
John Morris said...

I am very unsure about the job impact. For now they are kind of set. But, I think that what ALCOA is saying is that this is not a great place to have the companies high skill and high value people. That is something that in the long term is likely to have a bigger effect,

9:19 AM
John Morris said...

I think that the latest trend is to have a lot of the highest value functions in a city like NY and then to outsource a lot of the other stuff around.

In this case it had to do with Belda's accurate opinion of the cultural attitudes in Pittsburgh

9:24 AM
Anonymous said...

My guess is that corporate relocation is limited to a few people at the top of the pyramid. In the 60s and 70s, William Whyte remarked on corporate flight to places in Connecticut, where, remarkably enough, the CEO's home and country club were located.

There's been a reverse in the trend and the few top executives that can move back to NYC do so so they can rub elbows with similarly powerful people. Alcoa just happens to be in a similar situation as the corporations that previously moved out of NYC.

I don't think it's merely back office functions that are in Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and New Jersey, though. Plenty of highly-skilled and connected people still work in the hinterlands. It still makes economic sense.

10:41 AM
John Morris said...

Oop's! I really don't know him so the reason he is doing this but have a little knowledge.

12:00 PM
Merge Divide said...

The rumor is that Belda ran into a lot of cultural insensitivity while he lived in Shadyside. He's a French Morrocan and liable to be a bit prickly about ethnic tension. That having been said, I have a very low opinion of Shadyside, and I wouldn't be surprised if their welcome of Belda did lead to his decision to pick up his ball and go back to NYC. He was said to have spent most of his time in NYC anyway, even when he lived in Pittsburgh.

4:03 PM
John Morris said...

I think it's a really interesting subject sice all the cost factors seem to point towards leaving NY and yet NY is getting more headquarters.

I think it comes from the fact that NY, still fuctions so well in terms of convenience as a meeting place and generator of ideas.

I kind of feel that Belda has a pretty poor opinion of the burgh as a place to center such a multinational company around and i think that doesn't bode well for stuff.

4:37 PM

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