WorldCity Business Magazine

(1) Publisher's Note - Measuring the Muscle

by Ian McCluskey

Last September, in this same column, we posed the question How many billion-dollar companies reside in South Florida? We assumed that most readers couldnt identify more than a dozen. We also figured that few people were aware of the real clout of the many regional headquarters of multinational companies based in the tri-county area. That same month, we embarked on a long-overdue research project to answer that question by measuring the revenues managed by the offices of South Floridas 1,200 multinational companies.

These include companies such as Office Depot, Ryder System, Carnival Corporation and LAN Cargo that have their global headquarters here. They also include companies such as DHL, Hellmann Worldwide and Tracfone Wireless that have their U.S. or Americas headquarters here, as well as companies such as General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, AIG, Caterpillar, Nokia and many more that have their regional headquarters in South Florida. These regional offices most commonly oversee operations in Latin America and the Caribbean (or some subset thereof), but, in some cases, such as GM, responsibility extends well beyond the Americas. Finally, the study includes hundreds of what we call local offices of multinational companies that serve the South Florida, Florida or southeastern U.S. markets.

We knew it would be no easy task to gather the revenue data, as most companies are loathe to share it. But thanks to the dogged persistence of Tak Takasu, a recent MBA graduate from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, hired specifically to coordinate the study, we came up with reliable although, in many cases, clearly conservative data for 728 companies, 61 percent of the total.

Among those 728 companies, we catalogued more than 40 billion-dollar operations. And the combined annual revenues of all the companies for which we obtained data is over $200 billion. (For a detailed analysis of the studys results, see our cover story, page 18-24.) That figure larger than the GDP of Colombia, but still only a low-ball approximation of the precise total is a measure of the global decision-making power of South Floridas broad and spectacularly diverse multinational business community.

The $200+ billion figure will surely open a lot of eyes. No doubt, many people will say Wow, I knew that the South Florida gateway economy was home to a large number of multinational companies, but I had no idea that they had so much clout. But now that we have a clearer measure of South Floridas global economic muscle, there is an even more important
question to be answered: How do we leverage this number to promote Miami as an international business center and world city? How do we use this information to encourage even more companies to set up regional and global headquarters here.

A word of thanks. Our study would not have gotten off the ground without the encouragement and support of The Beacon Council. I want to thank The Beacon Council and our other generous sponsors Auxis Consulting, Baptist Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CB Richard Ellis, Diaz Reus Rolff & Targ, Seitlin Insurance, Telefonica and the University of Miami School of Business all of whom enthusiastically backed this endeavor. May we all profit from and build on the results.

Contact: imccluskey@worldcityweb.com