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Down in the Valley
By John Poultney
As a Silicon Valley denizen, I am loathe to resort to any sort of jingoistic hometown rah-rah, yet I do take some pride in my area being a technological Mecca of sorts.
Many folks argue that Silicon Valley is where you must be if you intend to be a force in communication technology, whether your discipline deals with semiconductors, telecom, the Internet, mainframes, or handhelds. After all, this is where the action is - the talent, the infrastructure, the history, the sense of excitement that these companies have hidden behind plain concrete tilt-up walls really are changing history.
Others scoff at this notion. They say technical centers can thrive anywhere these days, thanks, ironically enough, to the Internet. Witness all the Silicon prairies, alleys, forests, gulches, marshes, archipelagos, and isthmuses that are springing up around the country.
Add to this a number of strong tech centers through-out the rest of the world and a Silicon Valleyite gets a diminished sense of self-worth - we're not the only ones changing the world after all.
Taking the bad with the good
And Silicon Valley does have its disadvantages, among them heavy traffic, sky-high housing prices, and general overcrowding. The competition for talent is intense here; job fairs are held every week. And office space routinely rents for more than downtown Manhattan. It's enough to make a company ask, "why bother?"
In fact, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley (www.jointventure.org), a think tank that purports to be an authority in such matters, released an October report that stated some 30% of "Internet companies" located here would consider relocating due to these very factors.
To move or not to move
Sacre bleu! This is serious. So I often ask companies here if they have considered locating elsewhere, and a curious phenomenon has emerged.
Seems the companies that are directly involved in developing communication technology are having a much better time here than those treating communications as the next big fad.
Indeed some companies who fit into the latter category have told me they won't be expanding here - they'll look into other areas where the costs are lower and the traffic's not so bad. And where they don't have a difficult time hiring qualified people.
There's no place like home
But the firms for whom communications products are the primary objective - those companies tell me they wouldn't, couldn't, be anywhere else. Some have operations in other cities, sure, but one representative said it best when he said, "You have to be here. There's nowhere else we'd even consider."
That does sound a little jingoistic, I'll admit. But I think it's not so much to do with location as it is an ability to generate excitement. And that's what communication technology is doing now, no matter where you're located.
John Poultney, Executive Editor
jpoultney@cmp.com.
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