Target Industry: R&D Services for Engineering and Life Sciences

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in conducting research and development in the physical, engineering or life sciences, such as agriculture, electronics, the environment, biology, botany, biotechnology, computers, chemistry, food, fisheries, forests, geology, health, mathematics, medicine, oceanography, pharmacy, physics, veterinary and other allied subjects.

Research can be carried out within a laboratory environment or it may involve field studies. The research is used by industry, government, universities, colleges and other organizations.

The primary activities of firms in this industry are:

Agriculture research and development laboratories or services
Bacteriological research and development laboratories or services
Biology research and development laboratories or services
Biotechnology research and development laboratories or services
Botany research and development laboratories or services
Cancer research laboratories or services
Cerebral palsy research laboratories or services
Chemical research and development laboratories or services
Computer and related hardware research and development laboratories or services
Dental research and development laboratories or services
Electronic research and development laboratories or services
Engineering research and development laboratories or services
Entomological research and development laboratories or services
Environmental research and development laboratories or services
Experimental farms
Fisheries research and development laboratories or services
Food research and development laboratories or services
Forestry research and development laboratories or services
Genetics research and development laboratories or services
Geological research and development laboratories or services
Guided missile and space vehicle engine research and development
Guided missile and space vehicle parts (except engines) research and development
Health research and development laboratories or services
Industrial research and development laboratories or services
Life sciences research and development laboratories or services
Mathematics research and development laboratories or services
Medical research and development laboratories or services
Oceanographic research and development laboratories or services
Physical science research and development laboratories or services
Physics research and development laboratories or services
Veterinary research and development laboratories or services
Observatories, research institutions

The major products and services in this industry are:

Other Physical and Engineering Sciences
Other Income
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Biotechnology and Other Biological Sciences
Medical Sciences
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Other Life Sciences

Sources: Various, DTIA database

Bank of America

Bank of America (BOA) is one to keep your eye on for a variety of reasons. Be aware of BOA's appepite for acquisitions. MBNA is one. Are any of the companies listed below headquartered in your area, or do they have major opeartions in your area?

Top Competitors

Citigroup
Wachovia
Wells Fargo

All Competitors

American Express
AmSouth
BB&T
Citigroup
Citizens Financial Group
Countrywide Financial
CSFB
Golden West Financial
HSBC Holdings
HSBC USA
JPMorgan Chase
KeyCorp
MBNA
RBC Financial Group
SunTrust
TD Banknorth
UnionBanCal
U.S. Bancorp
Wachovia
Washington Mutual
Wells Fargo

Most Watched Companies In St. Louis

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
Emerson Electric Co.
The May Department Stores Company
Express Scripts, Inc.
Monsanto Company
Graybar Electric Company, Inc.
Kellwood Company
Charter Communications, Inc.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company
Panera Bread Company
Amdocs Limited (US Headquarters)
Furniture Brands International, Inc.
Brown Shoe Company, Inc.
A.G. Edwards, Inc.
Energizer Holdings, Inc.
Ameren Corporation
Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
Ascension Health
Olin Corporation
Sara Lee Bakery Group
Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P.
Solutia Inc.
Hardee's Food Systems, Inc.
Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.
Peabody Energy Corporation

Source: Dun and Bradstreet

What Will Katrina Cost the Nation?

---Reprint from Global Insight, August 31, 2005---

Impact On US Economy of Hurricane Katrina
by Nariman Behravesh, Global Insight

Unlike prior hurricanes such as Ivan, Katrina could inflict a lot of pain on the US economy, as a whole, because of the potential for extensive damage to oil and natural gas supplies in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as to the many refineries in Louisiana.

It is still too early to determine exactly how much harm was done by Katrina. Because of this uncertainty, Global Insight has made a preliminary assessment of a couple of scenarios based on the level of damage to the energy infrastructure and how much supply is lost leading up to the winter months. Even in the best-case scenario, US efforts to build inventories of crude oil, natural gas, and refined products will be set back.

Best-Case Scenarios: Oil at $70 to $75 a barrel for a couple of weeks; gasoline prices over $3.00 for a couple of months; and the economy takes a small hit (between 0.5% and 1.0% on growth in the third and fourth quarters).

This scenario assumes that the damage from Katrina is very limited: oil, natural gas, and gasoline supplies are cut by 5% or less for a couple of weeks.

In this scenario, oil prices could rise to $75 a barrel for a couple of weeks and fall to low $60s per barrel by the end of the year.

Gasoline prices could rise to $3.00 or a little higher for a couple of months, but would likely fall back to around $2.50 by year end.

Real GDP growth would be reduced 0.5% to 1.0% in the third and fourth quarters.
Worst-Case Scenario: Oil at $100 a barrel for a month; gasoline prices at $3.50 a gallon for a few months; and the economy closer to a recession by the fourth quarter.

This scenario assumes that because of the damage from Katrina to oil rigs and natural gas production infrastructure and oil import facilities, US oil and natural gas supplies could be cut 10% for a couple of weeks. Likewise, because of damage to refineries, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and home-heating-oil supplies could also be cut 10% for up to a month.

In such a scenario, oil prices would spike to $100 a barrel for a month before falling gradually to around $70 per barrel by the end of the year. Prices would fall back due to slower growth in the economy, release of the SPR, and an increase in US-imported refined products making up for the domestic shortfall.

In this worst-case scenario, gasoline prices would average around $3.50 per gallon (for unleaded regular) for the next four to six months. This could be mitigated, if the US EPA temporarily relaxes some of its gasoline standards.

The impact on consumer spending in such a scenario would be very dramatic, cutting the growth rate by as much as 3% and pushing real GDP growth in the fourth quarter closer to zero.
Bottom Line: Early estimates suggest that the worst-case scenario is unlikely to happen. However, much in the same way that after Hurricane Ivan successive damage estimates kept being revised upward, the impact of Katrina could well be considerably larger than the best-case scenario estimates (and what the markets seem to be expecting).

R&D Construction is Growing

Everybody loves the high tech sector. Construction industry firms have long followed science, designing and building structures that allow research to move from untested concept to proven reality. As 21st-Century R&D explodes in new directions, industry forces are taking a more active role in the still-unfolding market and technology adventure.

The promise of life science and nanotechnology R&D to improve the quality of life has generated a new rush for bricks-and-mortar testing and manufacturing facilities. Federal agencies have more expansive funding missions, while corporate developers speed new products to market. Universities want glitzy facilities to vie for research dollars and "name" scientists, while municipalities see high- tech "parks" as a more acceptable economic development lure than casinos. Participants are linking up fast to share research, project development and perhaps, most importantly, funding.

More here. (Paid Engineering News Record subscription required.)

Gulf Coast May Look to Land-Based Casinos

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast gambling industry could sway Mississippi legislators to consider allowing land-based casinos and scrap the law that placed them on the water in vulnerable spots.

"I think that will be a public policy question that will be on the minds of every legislator when they come in for the next session," said Larry Gregory, the Mississippi Gaming Commission's executive director. "That discussion will be the No. 1 issue in this legislative cycle. This will definitely put the fire under their feet."

More than half of the 13 casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis were destroyed by the hurricane that roared in off the ocean.

More here. (Paid Engineering New Record subscription required.)

Families and Work Institute

Here is an interesting resource for economic developers. Families and Work Institute (FWI) is a nonprofit center for research that provides data to inform decision-making on the changing workforce, changing family and changing community.

The Institute offers some of the most comprehensive research on the U.S. workforce available, including The National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW ), the largest and most far-reaching study of a representative sample of U.S. workers. The NSCW traces trends in the workforce over the past 25 years and explores topics such as the glass ceiling, changes in men's and women's involvement in family life, the role of technology in our lives, workplace flexibility, and working for oneself versus working for others. Other recent research includes Overwork in America: When the Way We Work Becomes Too Much and Generation & Gender in the Workplace.

Arts Businesses by Metro Area

Americans for the Arts has done some interesting research on the arts industry across America. Take a look at it.

The Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts study is our new, research-based approach to understanding the scope and importance of the arts to the nation's economy. While most economic impact studies of the arts have focused on the nonprofit sector, Creative Industries is the first national study that encompasses both the nonprofit and for-profit arts industry. For the purposes of this study, the creative industries are composed of arts-centric businesses that range from museums, symphonies, and theaters to film, architecture, and advertising companies.

Download the data here.

Indian Gaming

Here's a tidbit from my current work in the Indian gaming area:

Indian gaming exhibited significant growth in 2004. There were 228 tribes operating 405 gaming facilities in 30 states. In total, these gaming facilities generated approximately $19 billion in gaming revenue, a 12 percent increase over the $17 billion generated in 2003. Total non-gaming revenue rose about 16 percent, from about $1.8 billion in 2003 to $2.1 billion
in 2004.

The industry is posied for even stronger growth in 2005 and 2006, according to industry sources.

Stay tuned.

One Blogger Interviews Another

Click on the links below to read the results of 2 of the 3 Q&A sessions I did with Michael Meckler, an historian and news commentator, and the Publisher of Red-State.com, a Columbus-based blog.

August 31: http://red-state.com/0805/#083105

September 1: http://red-state.com/

September 2: Check back tomorrow.

Canada's Top Tech Companies

The top Canadian IT companies produced, on average, a 12 per cent increase in revenues over 2003 — impressive given that Canada, on average, experienced a little more than 2.7 per cent growth. And increases were experienced by companies ranking throughout the top 250 positions.

This demonstrates that the ICT industry is an important driver for our economy. Some companies attributed their success to outsourcing, the release of new products, and the emergence of new alliances, but in most instances, the increase was fostered by a greater understanding of customer needs and a clear mandate to satisfy those needs. As for 2005, many see new or greater opportunities in continuing to meet customers’ needs specifically in the areas of security, mobility, storage, VoIP, RFID, outsourcing and integration.

Who are these companies? Click here to download the 300 best in Canada.

Top Pharma Companies

Many areas are chasing the pharma companies, especially those that are reearch-oriented. Click here to get the run down on the top 20 along with their R&D budget estimates. It's a good starting point.

Hunting Top Chain Retailers for Your Community?

Find out which companies are the largest U.S. retailers. Compare their sales, earnings and store growth year over year. Data based on 2004 revenues. Analysis includes detailed financial comparisons of specific publicly held retail companies segregated by retail category.

Date: Aug. 1, 2005

Product: PDF Format. 32-pages with charts and graphs.

Price: $49.95

Go here.

Top 50 Hotel Chains

Several communities are in the hunt for a new hotel for their area. Here is a starting point. At the American Hotel and Lodging Association you will find profiles and contact information for the 50 largest hotels and many others.

Target Industry: Healthcare Informatics

Looking for a very cool target industry to go after? Try healthcare (0r medical) informatics.

From Wikipedia: Medical Informatics is the name given to the application of information technology to healthcare. It is the: "understanding, skills and tools that enable the sharing and use of information to deliver healthcare and promote health" (British Medical Informatics Society).

Medical informatics is often called healthcare informatics or biomedical informatics, and forms part of the wider domain of eHealth. These later-generation terms reflect the substantive contribution of the citizen & non-medical professions to the generation and usage of healthcare data and related information. Additionally, medical informaticians are active in bioinformatics and other fields not strictly defined as health care.

To find out about the players, click here and download the Top 100 companies in the business. Note: free registration is required.

Biomimetics: Future Target Industry

Also known as Bionics, engineers are increasingly taking a leaf out of nature's book when looking for solutions to design problems. More from the Economist here. (Subscription required.)

Also, read more here.

From Wikipedia: Biomimetics is a short form of Biomechanics - from the Greek word "bios" - pronounced "vios" - which means life, and the word mechanics) is the application of methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.

This technology transfer is desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces natural systems to become highly optimized and efficient. A classical example is the development of dirt- and water-repellent paint (coating) from the observation that the surface of the lotus flower plant is practically unsticky for anything (lotus effect). Examples of bionics results in engineering include hulls of boats imitating the skin membrane of dolphins, sonar, radar, and medical ultrasound imaging imitating echolocation of bats.

Is this an industry that could take some roots in your area in the future? It's worth a look.

Promoting Innovative Academic Research

Here is an example of the positive coverage a university lab can get for it innovative research. This one talks about the Univeristy of Wisconsin at Madison, which is working on next gen technology beyond bar coding as we know it today. Does your local university have a good news story like this that Business Week might cover? Go here.

Biotech Stocks

If biotech is an industry you are trying to develop in your area, you should know how biotech stocks are preparing.

Go here to see the big picture.

Get the company list here.

State Biotech Profiles

Click on the links below to read state biotech profiles prepared by Battelle Institute. This is a good way to see what your competition is up to.

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Biotech Companies: Where Are They?