I have been keeping an eye on Indiana over the past few years – particularly after they landed the largest pharmaceutical benefits management (PBM) project I have ever seen – the HQ of Medco and 1,600 high paying jobs. In…
Continue ReadingThe famous pre-announcement
An enduring memory from the McKenna days. They would start by hinting a new project would be coming. Then they would announce the project at a press conference. Then they would have another press conference when the sod was turned…
Continue ReadingSomeone asked me to comment on the VW/Tennessee auto deal: Tennessee, for instance, has just disclosed that it agreed to give German carmaker Volkswagen $577m in incentives for its $1bn plant in Chattanooga. A senior executive at Fiat, the Italian…
Continue ReadingTBTF
If you have been following the U.S. financial crisis you will have heard this term – Too Big To Fail and its acronym TBTF. It refers to those huge, globally interconnected financial firms that if they went down would drag…
Continue ReadingSelf sufficiency – that slippery thing
Rorschach test. I am sorry to bring that up again but it seems that self-sufficiency can be defined as just about anything you want. Check out Marcel Mersereau definition: …..whether it be forward thinking and necessary environmental policy, better child…
Continue ReadingThe power of illusion
Quick. Guess the community in New Brunswick with the most IT workers. Wrong. 2006 CensusAll workers in Computer and information systems occupations (SOC C07)Fredericton – 1,645Moncton – 2,170SJ – 2,130 Of course Saint John and Moncton are bigger than Freddy…
Continue ReadingYanking the chain
A little bummed tonight. Just found out I lost another RFP bid – the fourth loss in the last month or so. What bothers me the most about these government RFPs is the language they use. In the last three…
Continue ReadingGroan. Opportunity cost = opportunity lost
From the TJ today: When governors from New England and premiers from the Canadian East met this week, they were presented with highlights from a yet-to-be released study, and one astounding conclusion: spruce up your highways, railways and ports and…
Continue ReadingEnterprise Agencies
Someone sent me note: Waiting for your comments on the city of Saint John looking at trimming Enterprise Saint John’s budget and the relations between cities and their respective CEDA’s. Ask and ye shall receive. You should note in advance,…
Continue ReadingFresh thinking?
My Tory friends and family will be annoyed but I am going to take a shot at Robert MacLeod and his ‘platform’ covered in the TJ today. “We have to think of new ways of doing things,” he said Monday.”We…
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