There Are No Projects in the USA Except on the Coasts?
Just the other day, another consultant told me that the only projects going on here in the USA are on the East or West coasts — that that’s why we should all be willing to travel to those coasts to projects — that those are the only really “quality” projects, in any case.
My Response
Ridiculous! That’s not what I said, just what I thought. My actual response consisted of my jaw dropping down and giving the person a look as if they had two heads.
Examples
Just here in the Cleveland area, alone, there’s a big LabWare LIMS project at the Boehringer Ingleheim site. I know that Nestlé has a site here and has had ongoing work on their LabWare installation happening at their worldwide plants. Going a little further from town, there’s a LabWare LIMS installation at Goodyear, which is closer to Columbus. Going over just one state, I believe that Eli Lilly’s massive LabWare LIMS implementation project is still keeping a multitude of consultants busy, as well. Those are just the few I know about so I’m sure there are even more than that and I’m not even talking about the entire state or area.
So, these do qualify as projects and not coming from either the East or West coasts. Let me stretch myself a bit to say that some of these might even be “quality” projects but since I’m not on them, I can’t comment on that.
If These Projects Are So Plentiful and Terrific, How Come I’m Not Working on Them?
So, before you ask why I’m not working with these customers, why I’m working with customers in other states and countries and why consultants are flying in from all over to service these customers when I’m so close, there are plenty of reasons and none of them have to do with whether I believe these projects to be lower or higher quality than any others. Here are the reasons why I’m not working on these projects:
- These projects that are closer to me are serviced by their preferred services vendors and my company, GeoMetrick Enterprises, is not on those preferred vendor lists.
- The timing doesn’t always work out. Thus, consultants work on projects that they can fit into their schedules, which aren’t necessarily the closest projects.
- Not all projects need the same types of talent. So, just because I provide some specific expertise doesn’t mean necessarily every company would need that expertise. It can depend on the personnel that a company has employed as full-time staff, specific project needs, and a number of other factors.
- Since travel isn’t always necessary, some companies don’t care that much about the location of the consultant, which is why some of my customers are in places like Switzerland and Belgium (and California and Boston and etc…). It’s not that these customers are willing to spend a fortune on travel but that they have needs that can be met and are willing to have them met by my services and without extensive travel.
- Some companies aren’t interested in saving money on travel. I know it’s hard to believe, especially in these tough economic times, but there are still plenty of companies that are happy to pay whatever they have to in order to have consultants travel to their sites. Some of you find this incredible to believe, but those companies I see that have people doing a lot of travel don’t seem like they’re cutting back on this travel, either.
Bottom Line
Don’t sneer at the center of the country. It exists, has people and projects in it, and doesn’t feel bad about it. Well, you can sneer at us but we’ll just laugh at you when you do it. 
And, yes, as ridiculous as it might sound, people do travel from the East and West coasts to service projects here in the center just as people travel in the other directions to service the East and West cost projects. But they wave at each other as their flights pass each other so that makes it all okay.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/
