{"id":18681,"date":"2011-06-17T15:27:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T14:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/business-la-quintessence-americaine-20110617.html"},"modified":"2016-02-10T09:56:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T08:56:42","slug":"business-the-american-quintessence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/business-the-american-quintessence","title":{"rendered":"Business - The quintessential American"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chicago, the working city<\/em>in other words, \"Chicago, the city that works!<\/em> It was with these words that Richard Daley introduced the city over which he reigned for a quarter of a century, until last May. It was a way of demonstrating that the capital of Illinois is a long, long way from the bling-bling of Los Angeles; a long way, too, from the excesses of Wall Street's 'money years' in New York. For Chicago is a blue-collar America, a city that loudly and clearly asserts its American identity, which is reflected here in large, even very large, stone, glass and steel. Even if, with globalisation, the superlatives that have long been the city's glory have lost some of their lustre.<\/p>\n

Grandeur and permanence<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
For decades, Chicago was proud to be home to the Sears Tower, the world's tallest skyscraper, which was renamed Willis Tower in the summer of 2009, when British insurance company Willis Holding took over 14,000 m2 of office space. Asian buildings have since cast their shadows over the former Sears Tower, notably Dubai's impressive Burj Khalifa, 828 metres high, but that doesn't matter. For Chicago continues to proclaim that, at 442 metres, its Willis Tower remains the tallest in the western world. The same downward trend can be seen at O'Hare airport, which for decades was the busiest airport on the planet... until Atlanta took the title in the 1990s. However, Chicago can still boast of being the hub of the two biggest American airlines, United and American Airlines. It even won hands down over Houston the privilege of retaining the headquarters of the holding company created by the merger between Continental Airlines and United.<\/p>\n

\"Grandeur<\/p>\n

1 ) The Chicago Board of Trade<\/em><\/strong> regulates the course of world trade in raw materials.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even so, for many Europeans, Chicago's prosperity was still largely overshadowed by the appeal and prestige of New York. \"But on closer inspection, it's actually the real economic engine of the United States. In the city and its region, we have some 400 head offices of major companies, including 28 ranked in Fortune magazine's top 500. With a GDP estimated at 480 billion dollars in 2009 (editor's note: 335 billion euros), the Chicago metropolitan region would be the 20th richest country in the world if it were independent, overtaking Belgium and Sweden!<\/em>says Dennis Vicchiarelli, director of the economic development agency World Business Chicago, which was set up in 1999. When we talk about the city, we're talking about the headquarters of Boeing, Motorola, Caterpillar, John Deere tractors, AON insurance, United Airlines, Hyatt hotels, the food giant Kraft and McDonald's!<\/p>\n

On the financial side, the city is the third-largest American marketplace, and even ranks first in the world for the listing of agricultural commodities and derivatives such as fuels. This power is embodied by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007. \"With the tensions in these markets, the CME is set to play an even more important role in the future\".<\/em>predicts Dennis Vicchiarelli.<\/p>\n

Strategic crossroads<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
Unlike other cities in the country, led by New York, Chicago has weathered the recent economic crisis relatively well. \"The property market has certainly suffered and unemployment is hovering around 10 %, exactly in line with the national average. But the city has demonstrated its resilience thanks to the diversity of its economic fabric and the presence of the largest logistics centre in the United States. Every day, the equivalent of 600 km of freight trains leave Chicago bound for the rest of North America\".<\/em>says Pierre Bonnard, Director of UbiFrance in Chicago, the local branch of the economic mission attached to the French Embassy.<\/p>\n

Chicago's strength lies in its strategic position in the United States. From Chicago, you can fly to any point in North America and back,\" continues the head of the economic mission. That's what we're trying to explain to French companies who might tend to look only at New York or California. But for a company with activities spanning the whole continent, Chicago is the obvious choice.<\/em>. This was a convincing argument for the V\u00e9olia group, which chose the Midwestern metropolis as the location for its Environment headquarters in the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Strategic<\/p>\n

1 ) The shadow of a statue by Picasso<\/strong> which is projected onto Daley Plaza, the city's first 'civic centre', or the symbol of a highly ambitious municipal cultural policy.
2 ) The Loop<\/strong>The busy financial district, which takes its name from the metro that surrounds it, is a must for any business traveller.<\/em><\/p>\n

This group is not the only one to fly the flag for France in this land. Alstom, BNP Paribas, Danone, Publicis, Sanofi-Aventis and Schneider Electric also have a presence in Chicago, as do a host of SMEs. In all, nearly 115 French companies have made their home on the shores of Lake Michigan. The French Consulate lists 3,000 officially registered French citizens. In reality, however, the expatriate population is more like 7,000.<\/p>\n

\"The city that works<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
Setting up in the \"working city<\/em> would be a wise choice. Not least because costs remain low. \"Property here is cheap and the crisis has helped to keep prices down. It's no joke, but here you can get a nice flat in the city centre for rents similar to those you'd find in the suburbs of a medium-sized French town\".<\/em>emphasises the director of UbiFrance. What's more, the foreign companies that set up here quickly feel at home. \"If you want to work in Chicago and you have energy and ideas, the city and its people will welcome you with open arms. There's no room here for preconceptions about foreigners. The proof: there are some 1,500 foreign companies in our city\".<\/em>says Dennis Vicchiarelli.<\/p>\n

Last January, the city and its mayor proved this once again by pulling out all the stops to give a fitting welcome to Chinese President Hu Jintao, who came surrounded by an armada of 450 business leaders. On the programme for his visit to the city, Hu Jintao visited an institute dedicated to the philosophy of Confucius - a unique case in the United States - as well as secondary schools where Mandarin is taught as a second language. A way of showing that Chicago could well emerge as China's new gateway to the United States, in direct competition with the West Coast. The successive opening of passenger routes from Chicago to Beijing (American Airlines) and Shanghai (United Airlines) attest to the ongoing development of this Chicago-China axis.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/p>\n

3 ) Businessmen<\/strong> The Magnificent Mile is a chic thoroughfare for luxury shoppers.
4 ) Frida Khalo, Tapi\u00e8s or Christo<\/strong> These artists were exhibited for the first time in the United States at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the country's largest collection of modern art, housed in a building designed by Josef Paul Kleihues.<\/em><\/p>\n

While its industrial supremacy and role as a hub no longer need to be demonstrated, it should be noted that Chicago is one of the world's major healthcare capitals, with the Abbott group in particular, ranked in the top 10 of the pharmaceutical industry. The region is also a major centre for university research. \"Do you know that our city's universities and research centres have given the world 96 Nobel Prizes?<\/em>asks Dennis Vicchiarelli.<\/p>\n

But this is the Achilles' heel of this metropolis, where everything seems to work. While the third largest city in the United States is indeed a breeding ground for talent in every field, including the creative and new technology sectors, it is having difficulty retaining them within its walls. \"You can't imagine the number of inventors and designers who come from Chicago. But it's true that they tend to move to New York for the fashion industries and to California for communication technologies\".<\/em>continues the director of World Business Chicago.<\/p>\n

\"OvercomingOvercoming the rigours of winter<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
Could the lure of the palm trees and the mild Californian climate be irresistible in the face of the blizzards of a winter that never ends on the shores of Lake Michigan? \"First of all, winter is not as harsh as you might imagine. On the other hand, it's true that Chicago's 'reasonable' image can be a handicap. One advertising agency explained that, while New York is the city that never sleeps and San Francisco an island outside reality, Chicago is the example of the productive city with solid shoulders. And yet, in times of crisis, this is certainly an asset\".<\/em>analyses the UbiFrance representative.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the year, Newsweek magazine described the city as one of the most exciting in America, indicating that the metropolis had definitively broken with its status as eternal number two behind New York. A media plebiscite; almost a consecration.<\/p>\n