“Kansas is the most quintessential of American states. It is, after all, where Superman and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz grew up, and all the towns I went through had a cozy, leafy, timeless air to them.”

he more the worldwide capital crunch puts the squeeze on companies to reduce costs and improve margins, the more attractive Kansas becomes to global giants like Quintiles.
      The largest clinical research organization (CRO) on the planet, Quintiles maintains its second largest campus worldwide in Overland Park, Kan., a Kansas City suburb that's bursting with headquarters expansions and other business facilities.
      If writer Bill Bryson was right – "Kansas is the most quintessential of American states" – then he has found a soulmate in Stan McDermott, vice president of clinical development services for Quintiles in Overland Park.
      With 900 employees in 236,000 sq. ft. (21,924 sq. m.) of office and lab space, the Overland Park campus of Quintiles has been growing steadily since the company moved there from across the state line in Kansas City, Mo., in December of 2006.
      "Overland Park offers an attractive business setting, very good schools and a business-friendly environment," McDermott tells Site Selection. "We received support from the City of Overland Park, the Kansas Department of Commerce and the Kansas Bioscience Authority. We had very good cooperation at the state and local level."
      McDermott says that the most critical site criteria included access to a well-trained work force, "good colleges and universities to pull employees from," and a high concentration of other CROs in the area.
      The company, which has 22,000 employees in 50 countries, was sold on the state. "Kansas is a very progressive state. It works hard to put together an environment and financial incentives that make this a very good place to be – a place where you can be prosperous and grow," McDermott says. "It is reasonable to expect that an expansion could occur in the future. We still have room for growth."       In fact, notes McDermott, while other companies in his industry are cutting back due to the credit crisis, Quintiles is growing.
      "In recent years, the increasing costs and financial pressures on biopharmaceutical companies have caused them to outsource more of their research and development work to CROs like Quintiles," he adds. "This has caused our business to increase as pharmaceutical companies try to leverage their risks and better control their costs."
      Kansas' cost-competitive location in the center of the country (Smith County is the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states) entices corporate site seekers in tough financial times.
      "We are still seeing good project activity flow from our clients, both out-of-state and in-state, in considering Kansas for business recruitment or expansion projects," says Barbara Hake, business recruitment manager for the Kansas Department of Commerce. "Like the rest of the country, we are seeing them take a cautious approach to making a final decision, and some projects are being placed on hold. However, we exceeded our job and capital investment goals again last year and look forward to doing the same this year, thanks in part to the significant aviation industry expansions we have had in this state."
      Those expansions include two major projects in Wichita: a $780-million investment by Cessna Aircraft Co. to assemble the Citation Columbus business jet and employ more than 1,000 workers; and Spirit AeroSystems' decision to build a 375,000-sq.-ft. (34,837-sq.-m.) factory to handle the manufacturing and testing of the Columbus fuselage.
      Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius paved the way for the Cessna deal by signing a bill on April 23 to expand the Economic Revitalization and Reinvestment Act to provide new resources for the aviation industry. The bill provides $33 million in bonds for Cessna to build the new jet, some 100 years after Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech first came to Kansas to join the state's fledgling aircraft industry. Today, more than 50 percent of the planes flown worldwide are made in Kansas, and Cessna is the state's second largest private employer.       Tracey Hyatt Bosman, associate director of the Strategic Consulting Group of Grubb & Ellis Co. in Chicago, says that packages like the one signed by the governor are not unusual in Kansas.
      "Kansas has a solid reputation with our clients, especially those with existing investments in the state," the site selection consultant says. "Economic development efforts in Kansas at the local and state levels are sophisticated and highly coordinated. This can be seen as being a result of a favorable business climate, but, in turn, it also provides a clarity that leads to an ever-improving business climate. Kansas is proud of what it has to offer, and rightly so, while simultaneously not shying away from any opportunity to improve."
      Various business climate rankings substantiate the case for Kansas. In May, Site Selection named Kansas the 10th most competitive state in the annual Competitiveness Awards. This followed the Beacon Hill Institute naming Kansas the 17th most competitive state and Forbes calling it the 21st best state for business.
      According to Beacon Hill, Kansas ranks 11th in infrastructure, 13th in human resources and 12th in environmental policy. According to Forbes, Kansas ranks ninth best for its regulatory environment and 19th in labor attractiveness.
      More recently, CNBC.com ranked Kansas No. 11 on the list of America's Top States for Business. The CNBC study looked at a variety of issues including cost of doing business, work force, economy, education, quality of life, technology and innovation, and business friendliness.