NCR to move headquarters to Georgia

[AngryOldDem]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/ncr-to-move-headquarters-to-georgia-143611.html

<<NCR confirmed Tuesday it will move its corporate headquarters from Dayton to Duluth, Ga.

An NCR statement said the move would bring 1,250 jobs to Duluth, with another 870 headed to Columbus, Ga., where NCR will manufacture ATMs.

A last-ditch $31.1 million offer by Ohio’s governor to keep the company in Dayton fell short of Georgia’s bid, an NCR official said.

“We did not receive offer until this evening. … It pales in comparison to what Georgia is giving,” he said.<<

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And yet, Dayton is still trying to present itself as a viable, growing region. This is also bad news for Ohio, because NCR is basically saying that the state has nothing to offer in terms of tech companies or technological growth.

This is it, folks. The end. Finito. There is NOTHING left. The era of manufacturing-based cities and states officially died today.

[OilemFirchen]

1. This has NOTHING to do with Dayton

Nuti was hired to sell the company and this move is simply profit above all else.

Corporations should be good citizens. Nuti wouldn't even move to Dayton, wheere the cash register was invented. NCR, for most of its 125-year history, was an integral part of the Dayton community and, of course, economy. Much of Dayton owes its existence to NCR, dating back to Patterson's selfless commitment to the city's survival after the 1913 flood.

NCR didn't just build cash registers. It was a phenomenal breeding ground for innovation, and much of this country's industry was spawned by its founder, his circle of friends, and those who it employed. The airplane? Think the Wright Brothers, who worked in tandem with Patterson and others, sharing space and ideas throughout the city. The automobile? Think Charles Kettering, whose inventions led to Delco and numerous local auto manufacturers - ultimately helping create the basis for what is now General Motors. Computers? Think Thomas Watson, one-time NCR manager who created IBM. Or think NCR itself, which holds the patent for the first electronic computer.

And NCR, BTW, owes its existence to the City of Dayton, courtesy, at the very least, of the hardworking, innovative employees who dedicated their lives to its success.

This isn't simply a headquarters move. It's a rending of the fabric of a once great hub of invention, all at the expense of a greedy and unethical short-term profit grab. And it's wholly unnecessary. If Nuti had any interest whatsoever in history, or stewardship, or even fucking ethics, he'd have understood that sometimes there's a corporate interest that supercedes profit.

This is a very sad day for Dayton. We don't need belittling atop everyting else.

[AngryOldDem]

2. It has a great deal to do with Dayton.

As a lifelong Daytonian, I am well aware of the history you outlined above. In addition, I had family who worked for NCR -- I knew a lot of people whose families worked there for generations. I also knew many longtime GM families. Some of them worked at the plant in Moraine; most, though, worked at plants that are now vacant fields. I am also well versed in the legacy that John Patterson, Charles Kettering, etc., left us. Sadly, I still maintain that Dayton squandered that legacy over the course of four-plus decades. All of the historical factoids are nice, but they don't address the issues that Dayton has finally been forced to face.

This move has been inevitable because of a largely stagnant and incompetent leadership dating back to the 1960s. There has been no regional cooperation. It has been largely community fighting community while the infrastructure rotted. When it became clear a decade or more ago that a purely manufacturing base would not sustain this area anymore, nothing was done. Dayton sat by and watched as factories downsized and eventually closed. "Urban renewal" of the '60s and forced desegregation of a strong neighborhood school system in the '70s also contributed to Dayton's decline and polarization. But, instead of looking regionally for revitalization; instead of retooling its government from a weak, city manager-led structure to a stronger mayoral-based system, Dayton turned inward, intent on making the status quo work.

It's becoming clear that companies don't owe the cities that gave them their start a damned thing, and to blame them for not staying in a dying region is petulant. The question becomes: What now? I heard Jon Husted on the news earlier and he says he is now turning his attention to attracting those entrepreneurial businesses that will make a commitment to investing in Dayton. Sounds good -- but the thing is, we need people with foresight -- modern-day John Pattersons and Charles Ketterings -- to pull that off, and I just don't see it right now with the kind of leadership this community has. Maybe the University of Dayton and Wright State are potential saviors of this area. Maybe they can bring tech industries and innovation to town through their research and academic pursuits. But again, it all starts with cohesive, coherent leadership, something that Dayton has been lacking for years.

And before you pile on, I'm not excusing NCR's behavior here since it's apparent that it was not dealing in good faith with either the city or state. And of course Nuti is the hatchetman, hired solely to facilitate NCR's exit from the area (which by the way, has also been going on for years). But that does NOT totally excuse the shortsightedness and provincialism that's come to define (for me at least) Dayton, and I hope that this is finally the wake-up call that this city and region need.

[OilemFirchen]

3. I don't disagree one bit with your analysis

We may well be of the same generation; certainly we seem to have experienced and bemoaned the same boneheaded moves over the decades.

I simply disagree with this observation of yours:

... NCR is basically saying that the state has nothing to offer in terms of tech companies or technological growth.

This, in and of itself, says nothing about NCR's perspective on the area, and everything about NCR's desire to turn a quick, dirty buck. Without, BTW, even the courtesy of informing Dayton and/or Ohio about the decision. Moreso, in fact, with the despicable rudeness and insolence they've exhibited toward us of late.

I don't think we disagree about that, either. But, for the sake of those not familiar with Dayton who might have stumbled across this thread, it's important to note the uniqueness, and the tragedy of this specific move. It's (weakly) analogous to moving Times Square to Jersey because... what? More Jerseyites frequent the place? The real estate is cheaper? The governor of New Jersey made someone a sweetheart deal?

For now, I don't give a rat's ass about the ineptitude of Dayton's leadership. For now, my posts are a mere FUCK YOU to the once-great NCR and the goddamned con men who now run it.



Now, then... do we know each other perchance?

[AngryOldDem]

5. NCR checked out years ago.

It was a done deal beginning back in the -- shit, I don't know, 1980s? -- when it slowly began to diminish its corproate presence here one white collar job at a time, thinking people wouldn't notice. I say it began even longer before that, when it started to dismantle its huge manufacturing buldings between Stewart Street and Main Street. (Anyone with any ties to Dayton remembers how impressive those structures were.)

I see no point now in flipping off NCR as it packs up its trucks and heads south on 75. It doesn't care about its history here -- sentimentality and nostalgia rarely figure into any business move. But Dayton has to care about what happens now, not only to itself, but to the region as well. The last major industry with Dayton ties is gone -- now the question becomes: Where do we go from here? How does Dayton retool itself to be a competitive and attractive city for new business, especially now when the economy is in a depression and the auto industry is (for all intents and purposes) dead? How do city and county leaders dialogue (to use Commissioner Mark Foley's words) with existing business to see what can be done to nurture and keep them here, and by extension, how do we attract new, outside business?

City (and county) leaders should have been pondering these questions years ago, when the signs of trouble first popped up with Delco, GM, and NCR. They didn't. And now we're all paying for it. That's why **I** give a rat's ass about inept leadership because I see it very much complicit in this area's downfall and (as I said in my first reply to you) the squandering of the industrial and entrepreneurial legacy left to us by Kettering, Patterson, Deeds, etc.

One final point of interest: NOT ONCE did I see/hear Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin yesterday comment on NCR's move. I would think of all people, she would have been right up there on the Courthouse steps with Nan Whaley, Foley, and Lee Fisher. Speaks volumes.

As for us knowing each other...I was born and raised in East Dayton and went to the neighborhood public schools there. (I spent a lot of summers at NCR's Old River Park, and whenever I drive by it, a part of me hurts.) I moved to Indianapolis for a short time (which, by the way, is a textbook case for true, meaningful urban renewal that Dayton would be well to follow), and am back here, for now -- like the line goes in the Billy Joel song "Allentown" (another fitting analogy for Dayton), "It's getting very hard to stay."

[geiger]

4. Like I heard yesterday, there is something wrong with the Ohio Dept of Development

when it takes six people to approve a sidewalk handicapped accessibility permit.

It is interesting to me that Fisher bailed on the economic development thing; the whole operation should be scrapped and re-organized.