Blog: Milton Dohoney, City Manager

People with even a passing knowledge of Cincinnati can easily recite that we have professional sports teams and they might know that we are bordered by a river.  They are aware of the universities, but they could guess that because one would logically assume a major city would have various institutions of higher learning.  When those who are only remotely familiar take a closer look, either by visiting us or doing a web search, they are genuinely surprised by the number of corporate headquarters (HQs) that are located here.

Major Corporate HQs are a significant asset for our community and when we talk about luring other HQ operations here, everybody sees that as a good thing.  What’s not to like about expanding the skyline as well as bringing jobs, investment, and new talent to expand our capacity.  The Regional Chamber, the City’s Economic Development Office and others charged with growing our pie of prosperity are primed to move towards any viable leads.

If you research company headquarters around the country and probe why they came to be in those places to begin with, you will find that many of them are in city x because their founders are from those cities.  They grew up there or came there for college, developed an idea for a product, were determined to make it a reality, and because they liked the city where they lived, they launched their new enterprise there.  So from the basement, garage, or virtual office a once budding enterprise blossomed into a giant corporate presence.  In the beginning they probably had a healthy dose of skeptics that the ideas being put forth would ever explode but that scenario has been repeated over and over throughout the annals of business lore.  I read just the other day about the two young men who began Google in their city with a $100,000 investment from someone who believed their idea could work and now both young men are each worth $19 billion.  Hmmm.

So while we are roving the universe looking for corporations who have outgrown the space, talent pool, politics of their current home or simply need a new strategic location to continue the growth of their company, we must also cast an eye towards Price Hill, Carthage, Hyde Park, and Mt. Washington.  While we’re at it let’s check in with UC, Xavier, NKU, and our research hospitals to find people who are developing intellectual properties that can be spun off into the future Humanas, Scripps, or Procter & Gambles.

We need local people bitten by the entrepreneurial bug who have ideas that can be translated into viable products or services that can be sold in the global marketplace.  We need them to have the determination that they will not accept anything less than success.  And we need them to love Cincinnati and have a desire to take their talent and let it flourish right here in the Queen City.  While the naked eye might be tempted to dismiss the 5 or 10 person operation starting out, the visionary will see it as the 5 or 10 thousand person HQ 15 years from now.  Admittedly, we may be able to lure someone here in less time than that, but you can never underestimate the true impact of a homegrown headquarters that has an affinity for where they are located.

For all of that to happen of course, our climate must include venture capitalists, angels, creative legal support, and systems that strive for fluid functioning not status quo mentalities.  As we labor to recruit companies and grow companies, the talent that accompanies it will also help us to expand the culture, synergy, and can do spirit that any progressive city needs.

There is room in Cincinnati for a headquarters epidemic.  The thing is, the person whose hand you shook in that business meeting last week in one of our neighborhoods or in downtown just may hold the key to help make that a reality.