Whittaker Associates provides the knowledge clients need to hit their targets, shorten the sales cycle and increase profitability. For a closer look at how we've helped clients in our three key industries, view these case studies:

An Economic Roadmap for the City of Greenville, Michigan
Like many small Midwestern cities, Greenville, Michigan (pop. 8,000), had a dilemma: though its citizens agreed it was a great place to live, with amenities, a friendly community, and a vibrant city core, it couldn’t efficiently communicate those facts to the kinds of industries it hoped to attract to keep the economy healthy.  And it needed a good dose of economic health: plant closures and job losses made city leaders aware that they needed a proactive way to promote the city.  The city set about creating an industrial park and developing speculative buildings in the belief that “if you build it, they will come.”

Next, the City of Greenville, the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Coalition of Greater Greenville joined forces to create a strategic plan that could attract desirable companies and industries to the area without sacrificing the very things that made Greenville a great place to live.

With a combination of a state grant and local matching funds, they hired Whittaker Associates to help them develop the plan, a road map built on evaluating the area’s current amenities and needs and recommending tactics to attract the perfect companies for Greenville.  Whittaker began with a thorough analysis of the local economy and the industries already in place.  Then it collaborated with the Greenville partners to create an ideal “target,” a fictional company in a highly desirable industry with the perfect size and fit for Greenville.  From that ideal, Whittaker could create a database of companies that came closest to the “target,” and could sort those companies via phone contact into categories depending on their relative interest in moving to a place like Greenville.  The final product for Greenville was an informative, pre-screened database of companies likely to listen to their invitation to visit the area and consider relocating to Greenville.

After the completion of the road map, but before the database of prospective companies was created, proactive city leaders successfully recruited Solar Ovanic, a solar shingle company that will eventually employ 1,100 workers.  Dean Whittaker helped the city through the recruitment process, preparing the city to welcome Solar Ovanic for the initial site visit, coaching it through the interview, and helping with follow-up. After that experience, and now that it is receiving the lists of prospective companies being generated by Whittaker Associates, the city has a distinct advantage when it comes to recruiting future partners for Greenville.

• An overview of the air courier services industry
• An existing analysis of businesses located within a 10-mile radius and a 30-mile radius of a major distribution center
• A new and expanded analysis of businesses located within a 10-mile radius and a 30-mile radius
• Current industry trends

Those findings were then used to research prospects likely to relocate or expand.  Prospects were further narrowed to candidates that fit the objectives of the Winston-Salem area’s plans for development.

The result was a pre-screened list of candidates with a greater likelihood of needing the assets Winston-Salem Business was primed to promote.

Biographical Data Gives Oklahoma City Tools for Attraction and
Retention
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
In its quest to retain local companies, entice those companies to bring their headquarters to the region, and attract outside companies, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce (OKCC) came to Whittaker Associates for help.

Whittaker took a two-pronged approach to give OKCC the information it needed to begin to fulfill its goals.

First, Whittaker identified 250 outside companies with a high probability to relocate or expand major operations within the next 12-18 months with needs that fit the attributes of the Oklahoma City area.  After prioritizing the firms by company qualification using primary research, Whittaker developed biographic sketches of the leadership from the top 15 firms.  Those sketches included the leadership’s board affiliations, education, special interests, and any other information that could make relationship-building easier. 

Then Whittaker went to work on the local companies. The OKCC gave Whittaker a list of 50 companies with existing relationships within the Oklahoma City area.  Whittaker’s secondary database resources produced information to create biographical sketches of the leadership (President and CEO) within each of these 50 firms.

As a result of this intelligence gathering, OKCC made successful contact with 111 new firms with potential interest in the Oklahoma City area.  With the biographical data about the most promising companies’ leadership at its fingertips, OKCC can begin to forge relationships with those companies.  Best of all, it also learned about the leadership of local companies, so it can work at keeping local companies local, and perhaps entice them to bring their company headquarters to the region.

Whittaker researched companies likely to expand that needed the amenities Southwest Michigan had to offer, using its proprietary formulas and database.  It provided an industry intelligence report to update expansion trends and growth patterns in fitting industries.The next strategic move was to compile intelligence on promising companies.  Southwest Michigan let its staff off the hook by taking advantage of Whittaker’s contact services, using Whittaker researchers to make initial calls to confirm company interest.  Using Whittaker’s WALT computerized tracking system, both Whittaker and Southwest Michigan could track the rate and results of each contact.

As a result of Whittaker’s involvement, 8 projects were developed.  Six strong companies are currently being pursued. Southwest Michigan’s economic development work is now more focused, efficient, and accurate, and it uses its staff to do what they do best: persuade companies to consider a move to Southwest Michigan.

Whittaker implemented a plan that included research on expansion for the area, tactics for identifying desirable companies, and a way to track prospective companies online.  After determining which companies would be the best targets, Whittaker provided First Coast with a comprehensive list of prospects and their own tracking system, WALT, to record contact information as those companies were approached.

From the Whittaker research, 985 companies were identified as potential targets.  Once contact began, 65 companies were deemed qualified (6.6%), 65 were suspects (6.6%), 488 had no interest (49.5%), 303 became “works in progress,” with more calling needed (30.8%), and 63 were not reached.

Their collaboration with Whittaker Associates means that First Coast can continue to mine the list for candidates that can bring jobs and investment to the region.  Business intelligence assures that those candidates will be high quality and a great fit for First Coast.

Oklahoma Objectives Spur Two Approaches
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Department of Commerce (ODC) came to Whittaker Associates with a two-fold objective: to target companies likely to relocate or expand to any part of the state of Oklahoma, and to target companies likely to relocate or expand a new manufacturing or distribution facility to rural Oklahoma.

Over the course of a year, Whittaker Associates identified twenty companies a month that were highly likely to relocate or expand to the state of Oklahoma to address the first objective.  The second required a deeper foray into business intelligence.  Whittaker compiled a brief study of industries in non-metropolitan areas and used new and expanded facility announcements, average wages, and average investments as measures to determine which companies to target for rural Oklahoma. Those parameters helped Whittaker to develop a list of 200 companies from its proprietary database of likely candidates for relocation and expansion to rural areas in the Southwest.

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce received intelligence for pursuit of both objectives from the same convenient source.

From that study, Whittaker created a process for implementing quarterly lists of companies from suitable industry segments. Georgia Allies now receives a list of at least 100 prospects to follow up with each quarter, allowing staff to work with limited numbers on a regular basis.  This process has been in place for two years and has greatly helped the client better identify promising target companies.

With predictive modeling, expansion research, and an industry intelligence report, Whittaker Associates prioritized prospects, which separated potential companies into four groups.  Those groups were then ranked according to their potential for expansion and relocation to Tennessee.  Whittaker provided business profiles of the most desirable and feasible companies for TDECD to try to recruit, updating that information to help TDECD develop a continuing business relationship with each company.

With that support, TDECD could craft a focused approached to pursuing and tracking the best prospects, something that could not be done with its internal resources.  It also became better at understanding important variables that mattered to potential clients, and more adept at recognizing areas of improvement and strong selling points as it marketed the state.

Partnership Identifies Prospects for Spain’s Trade Commission
New York, New York
Whittaker Associates delved into international economic development when the Trade Commission of Spain, based in New York City, asked for help identifying chemical and plastics companies that might want to relocate to Spain.  Whittaker joined forces with Development Counselors International (DCI) to identify 250 companies with potential interest in establishing operations there.

Remarkably, this business intelligence resulted in 152 companies from these two industry segments with some connection to or interest in Spain.  From that list, the Trade Commission of Spain implemented contacts with16 desirable companies and collaborated on 5 projects, a fine return on its investment.

Commonwealth Edison Increases Service Territory Clients with Intelligence
Chicago, Ilinois
Whittaker Associates began working with Commonwealth Edison to target companies with a high probability of relocating or expanding to the power company's service territory.

To identify key industries that would benefit from Commonwealth Edison’s range of service, Whittaker Associates completed an Industry Study, which tapped plastics, lithographic printing and food processing as important industries to target. Over the course of a year, Whittaker Associates researched 50 companies a month likely to relocate or expand within those industries.

The resulting lists were so helpful to Commonwealth Edison that it chose to update and repeat an Industry Study and another list of targets with Whittaker Associates.  Ed Star, Program Administrator at Commonwealth Edison, said, “I would certainly recommend using Whittaker Associates for any regional economic development organization.  The value they can bring to your business attraction effort is much higher than any other business lead provider and the cost is extremely reasonable.  Whittaker Associates provides a quality service to us and we have been extremely satisfied during the last three years.  We will be continuing next year despite a weakened economy and internal budget pressure.”

A Specialized Ranking Tool for PricewaterhouseCoopers
New York, New York
For their consulting work with clients, PricewaterhouseCoopers of New York contacted Whittaker Associates for a mechanism to handle lists of companies that might outsource major business components.  Specifically, they needed a way to prioritize those companies most likely to outsource so they could deliver that valuable intelligence to their clients.

Whittaker responded by creating an industry intelligence report and a prospect-ranking program that effectively ranked 2,000 U.S. and international companies by their likelihood for future outsourcing.  This “Propensity to Buy Outsourcing Services” instrument became a vital component of the consulting business’s sales process.

In addition, Whittaker worked with CES to create a revolutionary communication tactic for one of their affiliate organizations, Aircond.  A Whittaker Associates’ proprietary online tool, i-Op, was the basis for a dialog strategy with Aircond’s customers.

Using the corporate advisory services of Whittaker Associates solved the problem.  Through one-on-one telephone research on 50 companies, Whittaker identified the primary individual making each company’s insurance decisions.  As a third-party, non-vested entity, Whittaker then conducted a survey on each company’s current and future insurance needs.  Through this collaboration, survey respondents were willing to share crucial, constructive feedback that would have been difficult for Grotenhuis to obtain on its own.

The results of the 50 surveys give Grotenhuis accurate information for serving their customers better, saving time and resources in their bid to provide services guaranteed to grow the company.

Putting it All Under One Roof: Consolidating Volkswagen/Audi in Southeastern Michigan
350,000 sq. ft. State-of-the-Art Facility

Whittaker Associates’ CEO, Dennis Burnside, brings commercial real estate expertise to the company that dovetails with Whittaker’s dedication to using careful planning and research to create the best possible fit for companies, economic development teams, and their chosen communities.  This story demonstrates the range of skills the Whittaker Associates’ team can put to work for you.

Volkswagen/Audi of America’s North American Headquarters came to Burnside with a complex real estate problem: it needed to consolidate several facilities in Southeastern Michigan into a large, multi-use facility that would make its processes more efficient and save the company money.  What the company needed were ways to overcome multiple obstacles, find a suitable location for both employees and suppliers, and design the facility so it would indeed consolidate many processes (including administration, engineering, research and development, and testing) and achieve the efficiency and cost-cutting the company desired.

First, a case needed to be made that a 350,000 sq. ft., state-of-the-art facility could contain and consolidate the critical functions of Volkswagen/Audi.  Acting as the owners’ advocate and an extension of the client’s corporate real estate department, Burnside developed a proposal and provided financial analysis of the project.  He helped the development community get on board with the project, reviewing and integrating its responses, and easing the way to solve location and zoning issues.

Once the proposal was adopted, Burnside also helped interview and select the project team to identify the best location, then design and build the new headquarters.

The outcome was a new facility that succeeded with both the company and the community.  The project was completed on time and under budget, and the consolidation achieved what Volkswagen/Audi intended, with an excess of $2 million savings in annual operating costs.  But the benefits went beyond financial: the new headquarters created a positive impact on corporate culture by increasing morale, employee retention, and recruiting, and enhancing collegiality and work flow among the various departments.  The numerous community, professional, and design awards achieved by the project attest to the positive impact it had on the entire Southeastern Michigan area.  In this case, putting everything under one roof did more than solve a problem for Volkswagen/Audi—it created a whole new company identity with its employees and the community.

When a consolidation left Zenith Data Systems with a vacant 75,000-square-foot Class A office facility in St. Joseph, Michigan, it asked Whittaker Associates to create a list of prospective buyers.

First, Whittaker identified a variety of potential users of such a versatile space and also focused on nearby firms likely to want to expand locally.  Intelligence turned up 46 mutual fund companies, 47 computer equipment and software distribution firms, 30 assorted firms within a 75-mile radius of the facility, and 93 varied companies located in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Within only four months, Zenith Data Systems had accepted an offer at the appraised price from a firm on the Whittaker Associates list.

Within six hours of receiving the order, Whittaker Associates had mailed the borker a database of 124 potential warehouse and distribution users. Within two weeks, an offer was received and accepted at the asking price from a firm on the targeted list of companies. But because the deal was contingent on a failed merger, it fell through.

Whittaker came through a second time with an additional database of 95 manufacturers of greeting cards, compact discs, or Christmas products.  A third database provided a list of 140 additional warehouse/distribution users.

Within six months of Whittaker Associates receiving the assignment to market the facility, the broker sold the building at the asking price of $10,300,000.

Food Lion/Grubb & Ellis of Dallas, Texas, had decided to leave the Texas grocery market.  But that saddled them with a particularly large and unusual asset they no longer needed: a vacant, 1.2 million-square-foot refrigerated warehouse.

Using Whittaker Associates’ Corporate Real Estate Advisory Services, Food Lion requested business intelligence to speed their search for a company that might actually need that large a fridge.  Whittaker researched and compiled a qualified list of potential buyers for Food Lion to approach.

Results came with great speed, especially given the nature of the property.  In just over a year, Food Lion had sold the property for $30 million to a developer from the prospects Whittaker supplied.  The developer then leased the property to another grocer tenant.

After an acquisition and merger, Giddings and Lewis, a manufacturer of machine tools in Wisconsin, no longer needed a 600,000-square-foot heavy manufacturing space on 40 acres in West Allis.  They contracted Whittaker Associates for intelligence on industry segments that might want such a space, plus companies they might target as potential buyers.

Whittaker’s intel tactics revealed printing companies and machine tool companies as the likeliest industries for the space. More research resulted in a list of 37 U.S. printing companies and 206 U.S., German, and Japanese machine tool companies as likely candidates.  In addition, Whittaker created a list of 59 retail developers and 102 Milwaukee retailers who might buy the property to use in alternative ways.

A firm on the Whittaker Associates list bought the property within eight months.

Finding itself with redundant facilities after a theological split in the church's beliefs, the Worldwide Church of God decided to dispose of its education facility, Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. The campus included 60 buildings, 985,000 total sq. ft. on 75 acres.  It contacted Whittaker Associates’ real estate division for help in finding a buyer.

Knowing that only select buyers would even consider such a large and specialized property, Whittaker Associates brainstormed ideas for a wide-ranging pool of potential candidates, finally compiling a targeted database of 6,541 prospects.   The diverse list included Japanese and Hong Kong colleges and universities; companies with California headquarters; all major two-year and four-year trade schools, colleges, and universities; evangelical and other large religious organizations; assisted care and retirement communities; and hotel conference center developers.

Within three years, a buyer for the property emerged from the list and tendered an offer. The final price for the campus will be in excess of $100 million.