Arizona is a unique place. And over the past 50 years, its capital city Phoenix has become one of the largest cities in America, known for its tourism and for its real estate opportunities. While the past three years have been tough on real estate as opportunities and jobs have diminished, our state has weathered this downturn well.
Business has been the saving grace. We are business-friendly; corporations like to come here to expand or make it the home of innovation because we embrace the healthy and strong economic development that brings people, jobs and prosperity.
Our cover story takes a hard look at where the opportunity is, what the “new role” of real estate means to our economic development and what today’s investors are looking at as opportunity. In her story — “Finding Our Path: Is Arizona real estate leading us to recovery?” — In Business Magazine editor RaeAnne Marsh identifies the opportunities and explains some of the legislation, incentives and programs that entice investing in both residential and commercial real estate in Arizona. Job growth and other economic variables are factored in, giving cause to believe that Arizona will begin to thrive again soon.
In this month’s “Trickle Up,” Alison Stanton speaks to Bob Meyer, president and CEO of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, about his efforts to revitalize the organization and create one of the most profitable and respected hospitals in America. The Valley’s growth and a vision of what was in store for Phoenix prompted him to focus on the future, resulting in an 11-story patient tower and ranking Phoenix Children’s Hospital as the third largest in the country.
Succession in business is a very real issue as business owners and key executives look at exiting a company. J. Rentilly speaks to three business owners/executives who are facing (or have faced) succession for their company once they retire. He looks at the process, emotional toll and effect on day-to-day operations. Whether you are a family business or a Fortune 500 corporation, the next in line to take over the company will have an effect on business, and ignoring this facet of leadership can be quite detrimental to a company’s ongoing success.
And finally, Steven Dinkin uses his experience as the president of the National Conflict Resolution Center and his years of teaching mediation courses to introduce four tips for turning any disagreements, disputes and differences in the workplace into clear resolution through concise conversation and management tools to engage workers at a time of conflict. His article for In Business Magazine demonstrates the power of smart conversation to bring opportunity out of conflict within your business.
There is so much more in this issue of In Business Magazine. I know you’ll get something from it as we, as business owners, continue to work hard on our individual companies, knowing it will bring prosperity to Arizona.
Sincerely,
Jerry Colangelo
Principal Partner, JDM Partners
Co-Chair, Arizona Commerce Authority
Jerry Colangelo brings to real estate development and management company JDM Partners his reputation as one of the most influential sports executives in the world. His management has taken the Phoenix Suns from expansion team to one of the most successful organizations in the NBA. He brought major league baseball to the Valley in 1998, serving as managing general partner of the once-World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Colangelo is also an active leader in the community, and currently co-chairs the Arizona Commerce Authority with Gov. Jan Brewer.
