Joseph Vranich, a Pittsburgh native and 15-year California resident is a business relocation expert that specializes in business growth and relocation with clients located throughout the United States. We met with Vranich at coffee shop in Orange County in an effort to better understand why California companies are taking their business elsewhere.  The Irvine-based coach was recently interviewed for a series called “Saving the California Dream” that aired this week on KTTV News in Los Angeles (click here to view the video.)  In his interview, Vranich bluntly explains the business exodus from California calling it “the most regulated state in the United States” and goes on to give a list of reasons why companies are fleeing the Golden State for more business-friendly states like Texas.

The thing I appreciated most about Vranich was his honesty. While it may seem that he’s against businesses moving to or staying in California, he’s just stating facts. The fact remains that Texas is wide open for business. Come one, come all.

To learn more about Vranich, visit his website at www.businessrelocationcoach.com.

To view the “Saving the California Dream” series visit www.myfoxla.com/.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2011 RECIPIENTS:

Corporate Headquarters Location:
MoneyGram

Corporate Facility Location:
USAA

Job Growth:
TriQuint Semiconductor – Texas

Community Catalyst:
Perot Museum of Nature & Science and
North Oak Cliff Commercial & Neighborhood Revitalization -
(Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce)

Innovation Catalyst:
North Texas Regional Center for Innovation & Commercialization (RCIC)

Global Catalyst:
Qantas Airways LTD and
Texas Instruments – RFAB

The award recipients will be honored during a luncheon at The Fairmont Dallas on Wednesday, October 12, 2011. Citi and Holmes Murphy & Associates sponsor this year’s awards luncheon. This year’s keynote is by Nicole G. Small, CEO of the Museum of Nature & Science and Forrest E.Hoglund, Chairman, Museum of Nature & Science Expansion Capital Campaign. The Museum of Nature & Science is a 2011 Community Catalyst award recipient.

To read the full press release announcing the 2011 recipients, click here. To learn more about the Dallas Regional Momentum Awards, visit www.dallaschamber.org/events or contact Erica Flores at (214) 712-1921.

This past Saturday Dallas voters elected Mike Rawlings as Dallas’ new Mayor and District 12 residents opted to send Sandy Greyson back to City Hall.

The Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) provided two opportunities to hear from Mr. Rawlings at a Mayoral Candidates Forum on May 20 and Ms Greyson at a discussion held on June 15 and co-sponsored by the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce (NDCC).

Rawlings and Greyson, along with their colleagues, will be sworn into office at the City’s Inauguration Ceremony on June 27.

Now with the campaign over, what pressing issues will the “new” council tackle? The problems Mayor-Elect Rawlings and Council Members must confront are numerous. Finding workable solutions for these issues and having a majority of the Council approve will be challenging.

Today the Dallas Morning News published a “to do list” they believe the Dallas City Council must address sooner than later.

Click here to see the advice DMN gave our new Mayor and the Council.

Chief Executive Magazine surveyed more than 500 CEOs to rank the most business-friendly states based on criteria ranging from taxation and regulation to workforce quality and living environment. Texas was rated #1 for the sixth consecutive year (since 2005).

Texas was the clear leader across all categories, but specifically around criteria important for business creation. CEOs in general seek areas with consistent policies and regulations that allow them to plan, as well as intangible factors such as a state’s overall attitude toward business and the work ethic of its population. The second lowest tax burden in the country doesn’t hurt, either. Below are the top 10 states by ranking.

These results weren’t just a matter of opinion, either. Texas created more jobs than any other state in 2010 (250,000). Texas also had the highest net inward population migration rate of any state (other net gainers were Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington).

What about startups? In venture capital, California is the leader in amount of capital invested, by far. While the state aggressively pursues policies to cultivate and retain businesses, California’s labor and other regulations are at odds with Silicon Valley.

Job growth in the Valley has flatlined – firms are keeping their headquarters there, but increasingly pursue expansion in other, more business-friendly states. This trend appears to hold for all the other states where most VC investment occurs, with the exception of Texas.
 

While the overall picture for startups and venture capital is based on more nuanced elements than just policies and populations, it’s clear that Texas is anomalous in its peer groups: it’s a state that is favorable for both starting businesses from scratch and growing them to scale. It’s clearly a good place to invest as an early-stage venture capital firm.

About Chrysalis Ventures

Chrysalis Ventures manages one of Mid-America’s largest funds for early-stage and growth investments with approximately $400 million under management. Since 1993, the firm has invested in over 65 companies, primarily in the healthcare and technology sectors. With headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, Chrysalis has offices in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor and Houston.

Alan Ying is a Houston-based Venture Partner at Chrysalis – you can reach him at aying@chrysalisventures.com. Chrysalis has two Texas-based companies currently in its portfolio: Chronicity based in Dallas and TechSkills based in Austin. A third Chrysalis investment, Houston-based MedServe, was sold last year. Chrysalis is actively investing out of its $175M fund closed in 2008.

For information on the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Venture Capital and Innovation initiatives, contact Sarah Carabias-Rush at srush@dallaschamber.org or (214) 746-6750.

Congrats to Matt Papenfus, SVP of Turner Construction and Chairman of the Chamber’s Energy & Environment Policy Committee, recently featured in a Q&A style interview in the Dallas Business Journal.

As seen in June 3, 2011 DBJ article:

Matt Papenfus has been with Turner Construction Co. for nearly as long as the New York-based construction company has had a North Texas office. Turner Construction is celebrating its silver anniversary in North Texas this year. Papenfus, the senior vice president for the firm, recently sat down with the Dallas Business Journal over an ice-water happy hour.

Early voting for the 2011 City of Dallas Run-Off Election starts today and ends on Tuesday June 14.  

Dallas voters will select a new mayor and the citizens of District 12 will decide on a new council member.

Former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle and business executive Mike Rawlings are vying to become the next Mayor of the City of Dallas and former Dallas Council Member Sandy Greyson and Dallas CPA Donna Starnes want to represent District 12 on the Council.

The Chamber urges Dallas voters to exercise their American right to vote.

Early voting locations may be found by clicking here.

The panel sessions and keynote speakers presented high level discussions around the future of health care, cost efficient trends in the industry as well as behavioral changes to improve the health of the DFW population.  “Spending in health care is growing, however there are still lots of challenges that the industry is facing: discrepancy of quality of services, improper treatment, quality and safety issues, disparity in health care, growing uninsured population, escalating childhood obesity and data tracking are some of the most pressing issues. Learning about them from the experts at this conference is key to start finding solutions to these issues.” Dr. Goyal, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, U.S. Federal Health care Division, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services.

Health care enthusiasts attended the breakout sessions with expert speakers from the business community, the government, non-profit and research organizations such as The Honorable Michael C. Burgess, M.D. from United States House of Representatives, Cyndie Ewert, SPHR, Director, Benefits & HR Shared Services from Energy Future Holdings, Peter Koo, Vice President, Strategic Business Development at Ericsson, North American Region J. Mark Lambright, President and Chief Executive Officer of HealthPoints, Inc. andTodd Whitthorne, President and CEO, Cooper Concepts, Inc.

We’ve had very positive feedback on the program and we look forward to the organization of our next one in 2012!

To view full agenda of the program, presentations and live podcast click here or visit our website www.dallaschamber.org

For more inforamation of the 2011 Health Care Conference and our health care initiatives contact Anakarina Pina at apina@dallaschamber.org or at 214-712-1968.

Yesterday the DRC sent a letter to the Honorable Hillary Clinton at the Department of State in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, a proposed 1700-mile oil pipeline from the U.S.-Canadian border in Montana down through Oklahoma to refineries in Texas on the Gulf Coast.

Because this proposed project will cross into the United States from Canada, a Presidential Permit issued by the U.S. Department of State is required for the project to proceed.

Important to the DRC is the anticipated economic impact of this new pipeline.  It is estimated by some that the added stability to the U.S. oil markets will stimulate the creation of 250,000 permanent U.S. jobs and that the construction of the pipeline will stimulate $20 billion in new spending and more than 118,000 person-years of employment.

The State Department has given the public until the end of May to comment before it makes a determination on whether issuance of this permit is in the U.S. national interest.  A decision is expected before the end of 2011.

For more information on the project, the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) or how to comment, see the Keystone XL Pipeline webpage on U.S. Department of State website.

Author: Lane Sorgen, General Manager, South Central U.S. , Microsoft

Take a few minutes and think about your business’ current IT strategy. Every company, large and small, needs one and with it, you can chart a course for your business that leads to continued growth and innovation, likely even in unpredictable times. 

Today, an integral part of any business’ IT strategy should be the cloud. Cloud computing, which leverages the power of the Internet to deploy technology more efficiently, is helping businesses cut costs and streamline operations, and is also spurring the development of a new cloud-enabled IT services economy. 

In Dallas, cloud computing has already begun to take hold, as evidenced by a recent Microsoft “Cloud as an Engine of Growth” survey. The survey assessed the opinions and attitudes of local information technology decision makers (ITDMs) toward cloud-based services and found that Dallas ranks among the top third of enterprise companies when it comes to  attitudes and opinions toward cloud-based services. More than half of Dallas enterprise ITDMs agree that the strategic IT opportunity is high with cloud computing and 41 percent of enterprise companies have a cloud services project planned or underway. 

For small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Dallas, the move to web-based services has been slower, with only 19 percent of Dallas SMB ITDMs familiar with cloud computing. Yet, almost half of SMB ITDMs in Dallas are motivated by how the cloud offers more reliability and security and lower total cost of ownership. 

As you consider the role cloud computing will play in your IT strategy, here the top three things to keep in mind:

• With the cloud, you don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. The cloud gives you flexibility and can be integrated with on-premise software to complement existing IT platforms.
• The cloud is secure, depending on the online services provider you choose. Make sure your provider has a strong track record for providing highly secure IT solutions and has robust measures in place to protect its customers’ data.
• The cloud can help you grow your business. Its pay-as-you-go model keeps costs low and enables companies to create new lines of business without large amounts of capital. 

In my daily work, I see how cloud computing is positively shaping the future of business in Dallas and this excites me. It’s truly an engine of growth, so make it a part of your IT strategy today. 

For more information on harnessing the power of the cloud, visit www.microsoft.com/cloud.

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About the author:  Lane Sorgen is a general manager for Microsoft’s Enterprise Group. He works enterprise businesses throughout Dallas.  For more information on cloud computing, visit http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/Features/2011/jan11/01-12CloudSurvey.mspx

Intern: Is there anything else I can do?

Dwight: Yes, um… [looking around the office] See those files behind Kevin’s desk?

Intern: Mm-hmm?

Dwight: Go put them in random order.

Intern: Ok…

Dwight: Then come back here for your next assignment, concerning their order.

The above excerpt from The Office may be all-too reminiscent of your own past internships — days filled with stapling and filing — but I can assure you our interns here at the Chamber have a much different experience.

We said goodbye to and recognized our spring interns today during a DRC hosted luncheon.  They were joined by our President and CEO, Amb Jim Oberwetter, who provided an informal Q & A and career advice, which our interns really seemed to enjoy.

DRC interns graciously volunteer numerous hours of their time each semester, and for that we are very much appreciative.  The farewell each semester is bitter sweet, because our interns become a part of our work family.  But they’re always off to do even more exciting things, so we’re happy for them, as well.

The goal of our internship program is three-fold.  First, of course, the Chamber benefits from their volunteer efforts.  We are able to accomplish even more with their behind-the-scenes help.  Second, and more importantly, we plan internships with coordinated efforts to give each intern the individual experience they are seeking.  Third, and more long-term, we strive to give our interns enough exposure to the array of different businesses and opportunities here in DFW, that they are able to find their career path in this area.

Here’s a photo of a few of our interns.

Two of these interns did such a great job, that they were recently hired on full-time!

If you are interested in the Chamber’s Internship Program, please contact Amy Gibson at agibson@dallaschamber.org or visit our Career Opportunities page for summer internship openings.

Written by Amy Gibson, Manager, Public Policy and Chamber Intern Coordinator