March 2009
Two Events You Won’t Want To Miss
Oklahoma Business Roundtable Membership Meeting
June 16, 2009, 4:30 P.M., Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa
Featured Speaker: Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO and President, AT&T
Journey to Excellence Symposium
April 6, 2009, 8:30 – 1:15, Reed Center, Midwest City
Featuring Oklahoma Companies on “Fortune’s 100 Best Companies To Work For” list:
Devon Energy Corp. * QuikTrip * Chesapeake Energy Corp. * American Fidelity Assurance Co.
This “first-ever” event is targeted to Oklahoma CEO’s and HR executives. This is a rare and great opportunity to learn their “best practices” processes and systems that you can benchmark to your company. There will be tips for motivating and leading your workforce through the troubling issues surrounding us today as well as the communication skills need for the multi-generational workforce. The event is sponsored by the Oklahoma Quality Award Foundation and Journal Record. (Link attached) Contact the Roundtable Office for tickets.
Past Roundtable Chairmen Meet – Review Success
Fourteen past Chairmen of the Oklahoma Business Roundtable met Feb 18th in Oklahoma City to review the organization’s success and discuss the future.
The group felt the Roundtable had achieved significant results within its stated mission of serving as Oklahoma’s primary economic development “support” organization.
The group commended the work of Don Paulsen, president and Ann McVey, administrative secretary, who have served the organization for the past 18 years.
Attending the meeting were: Stanton Young (’92-’93), Jim Philion (’94), Bill Bell (’95), Gib Gibson (’96), Dave Lopez (’98), Hans Helmerich (’99), Jeanette Gamba (’00), Tom Love (’02), Ed Farrell (’05), Bill Burgess (’06), Ed Martin (’07), Steve Hendrickson (’08), Al Dearmon (’09), Tom Maxwell (’10), Mike Anderson (’11).
Project Boomerang Lures ‘Elsewhere Oklahomans’
 The following is an article by Steven Hendrickson (Roundtable Chairman – 2007-2008) and current Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Economic Development.
With all the unsettling national news about recession, layoffs and unemployment, it may seem strange to be talking about labor shortages, but that’s what we face in Oklahoma.
The state’s 2009 employment outlook is vastly better than the nation’s, and Oklahoma employers will continue to confront shortages in all kinds of jobs. Some of the most difficult challenges involve college-trained managers, engineers, executives and other knowledge workers.
That’s why the Oklahoma Department of Commerce has launched Project Boomerang, a wide-ranging campaign to round up former Oklahomans and bring them home.
Overall, Oklahoma’s high-wage knowledge-based sector has been projected to need more than 125,000 new and replacement workers over the next 10 years. The jobs are in healthcare, oil and gas, accounting and management, law, architecture and engineering, high-tech start-ups, and many other fields. They pay an average of $52,900 a year, more than 50 percent above the state’s average. And if that seems low to an outsider, we would point out that it equates to more than $100,000 in, for example, Los Angeles dollars.
Project Boomerang is making that economic case, along with lifestyle, identity, and family appeals to show “elsewhere Oklahomans” the fulfilling future that awaits them in 21st Century Oklahoma. Our targets are college graduates, age 25-60, with school or family connection to Oklahoma. That includes Millennial and Gen-X professionals and Baby Boomers with executive experience.
The new Project Boomerang website – www.okboomerang.com – features first-person testimonials, career information, housing data, social and recreational opportunities and links to employers looking for highly skilled professionals to hire right now. Expatriates can sign up for the Project Boomerang e-newsletter, and they can select from a growing list of employers they’d like to hear from directly.
We’re taking creative approaches to approaching the creative class, teaming with colleges and alumni associations; building bridges on social networking sites like Linkedin, Twitter, and Ning; and staging face-to-face events with far-flung Oklahoma alumni groups.
Our long-lost friends are responding. In the website’s first 10 weeks of operation, nearly 300 people – from 31 states and two foreign countries – signed up to get the newsletter and connect with employers. Most say they want to move back to Oklahoma within six months.
On the website, Belinda McCoy describes boomeranging from Dallas. “I realized Oklahoma had come a long way since I was in college,” she said. “The economy was much better, jobs were plentiful, and the entertainment was better.”
“It was nice to live somewhere else for a change,” said Adam Clinton, who boomeranged from Los Angeles, “but I have no regrets whatsoever about returning to Oklahoma. This is home.”
Yes, it is, even for a California transplant like me.
Steven Hendrickson
Chairman of the Governor’s Council for Workforce & Economic Development Director of State and Local Government Relations for Boeing Company THE GOOD NEWS
3 Roundtable Member Companies Join Fortune’s Most Admired List
Devon Energy, ONEOK and Williams Co’s have been named to Fortune Magazine’s list of 363 “World’s Most Admired Companies.
Oklahoma Fares Well in Salary Value Ranking
A recent survey by Salary.com shows Oklahoma City and Tulsa among the best cities in terms of salary ranking among major U.S. Cities. Oklahoma City ranked 9th and Tulsa 12th. Dallas ranked 45th and San Francisco 65th. The survey charts potential to build personal net worth, taking into account local salaries, cost of living, and unemployment relative to the national average. This year’s list also factored in qualitative measures including diversity of industry, education level of the cities’ population, proximity to post secondary institutions, percent of population below poverty level, and median travel time to work, resulting in an interesting and robust list of top cities.
Ranking
1. Plano, TX
2. Aurora, CO
9. Oklahoma City
12. Tulsa
13. Austin
45. Dallas
65. San Francisco
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