{"id":5948,"date":"2017-02-01T09:38:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T15:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5948"},"modified":"2017-02-01T09:45:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T15:45:35","slug":"apparently-wont-play-peoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/02\/apparently-wont-play-peoria.html","title":{"rendered":"Apparently, it won’t play in Peoria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3APeoria_-_Caterpillar_Administration_Building_from_Savings_Tower.jpg;<\/p>\n

OK, that\u2019s a lame post title; maybe I\u2019ll come up with something wittier later.<\/p>\n

But Caterpillar just announced that it is moving 300 top executives and support staff from Peoria to the Chicago area. \u00a0The local Journal Star<\/a> reports that Caterpillar\u2019s explanation is that this puts them closer to transportation networks:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re really after here in terms of the location is access to flights and the ability to get to markets more quickly,\u201d [CEO Jim] Umpleby said. \u201cOne of the reasons we chose Chicago is it allows us that easier global access but it also is close to where we\u2019re going to still have the majority of our people. We have more people here than any other location in the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Chicago Tribune<\/a>\u00a0adds a further explanation: \u00a0it\u2019s easier to recruit talent to work in Chicago than in Peoria. \u00a0It reports,<\/p>\n

Last year, Caterpillar opened an innovation-focused office in the Merchandise Mart that the company hoped would attract young, tech-savvy talent.Employees in the Merchandise Mart focus on digital marketing, analytics, digital development and other innovation projects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a local columnist<\/a> gives this explanation:<\/p>\n

Perhaps Caterpillar\u2019s seventh floor is leaving Peoria for a more simple, personal reason, at least in part: Umpleby and other executives want to live somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Granted, we are speculating. But after talks with plenty of well-connected people the past few days, we believe this theory deserves at least some consideration.<\/p>\n

Umpleby is a Caterpillar veteran, with more than 30 years of service. But it appears little of that time has been spent at a Peoria base.<\/p>\n

The Chicago-area native worked for Caterpillar all over the country and world, including Malaysia, San Diego and Singapore. How you gonna keep them down on the farm after they\u2019ve seen Kuala Lumpur?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, indeed, all the articles report that senior management has increasingly been coming from other industries, rather than working their way up the ranks or even coming from heavy-equipment companies. \u00a0As the daughter of a GM employee, I know well that there\u2019s a deep suspicion of people coming from other companies, other industries, and thinking that all companies can be run with essentially the same management toolkit. \u00a0Dad was even skeptical of senior management that came from accounting rather than being a true \u201ccar guy.\u201d \u00a0And \u2014 well, without naming my current or prior employers \u2014 I also harbor a suspicion of executives who come in and profess commitment to a company and make radical changes but can\u2019t even be bothered to relocate.<\/p>\n

I get that there are a lot of reasons why people prefer large cities. \u00a0It\u2019s difficult to find high-skill jobs for both spouses in a small town, and what\u2019s more, in a large city it\u2019s much easier to job-hop without relocating. \u00a0You want your kids to go to a top-rated school, and you want them to have all the extracurricular options a large city affords, and you yourself want\u00a0plenty of options in shopping, entertainment, and so on. \u00a0And if you\u2019re wealthy, you want a social circle composed of people like you that you can find in the tony suburbs or wealthy urban enclaves of a big city.<\/p>\n

And I get that in the year 2017 companies want to believe that they have the top talent in the world, not just the top talent in their local employment base.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still a concerning trend. \u00a0It\u2019s a problem for the future of the U.S. for the country to consist of a small number of massively growing megalopolises, and a large number of shrinking, struggling smaller towns.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just that. \u00a0Think about everything that\u2019s been written about the growing divide between red states and blue states, rural and urban, the left-behind white working class and the elites, watchers of Duck Dynasty and whatever HBO show it is that snooty people watch these days. \u00a0And now consider how many corporations are physically separating their top executives from the rest of their employees. \u00a0Conagra<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ADM<\/a>\u00a0are cited in the Tribune article, but they\u2019re not alone. \u00a0Yes, you might say that top executives are already so far removed from the \u201clittle people\u201d even when\u00a0their offices were located in the same town anyway, so it doesn\u2019t matter \u2014 but it does matter. \u00a0In the year 2017 it very much matters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3APeoria_-_Caterpillar_Administration_Building_from_Savings_Tower.jpg; By Roger Wollstadt from Sarasota, Florida [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, that\u2019s a lame post title; maybe I\u2019ll come up with something wittier later. But Caterpillar just announced that it is moving 300 top executives and support staff from Peoria to the Chicago area. \u00a0The local Journal Star reports that Caterpillar\u2019s explanation is that this puts them closer to transportation networks: \u201cWhat we\u2019re really after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":5949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[546,547,548],"class_list":["post-5948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-caterpillar","tag-corporations","tag-urban-v-rural"],"yoast_head":"\nApparently, it won't play in Peoria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK, that's a lame post title; maybe I'll come up with something wittier later. 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