World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Houston  - Business
Business

Business Profile: Traditionally, Houston's prosperity has been linked to oil and, in 1981, the statistics proved this with 81% of the economy dependent on petroleum. Today, however, only 52% of the economy depends on oil with the city having diversified into areas such as aerospace, computers (hardware and software) and biomedical technology. The main business areas are downtown, the Galleria area and the Greenway Plaza area. Texas Medical Center is the largest medical centre in the world and the largest employer in Houston with around 50,000 employees working in its 42 member institutions. Houston is also home to NASA and the Johnson Space Center, which trains all astronauts and coordinates much of the development of the space shuttle and international space station. NASA employs around 20,000 people. Houston is also the home of Continental Airlines and Compaq Computer Corp, which are both Fortune 500 companies. The Port of Houston is the second largest major port in the USA for total tonnage and handles more foreign tonnage than any other US port. It has also become an important departure point for cruise ship companies, including the Norwegian Cruise Line with weekly cruises into the Caribbean. In 1999, Houston had an unemployment figure of 5.5%, which is high compared to the metropolitan and statewide figure of 4.6% and the national figure of around 4.2%.

Business Etiquette: American businesspeople tend to be more informal than their European counterparts and are likely to use first names on initial contact. Business attire for both men and women is usually suits, especially in the large corporations, but some of the smaller companies have adopted a more relaxed approach to dress and allow employees to wear smart-casual clothes, although definitely no jeans. The use of business cards is commonplace. Appointments for meetings should be made in advance and punctuality is expected. It is quite common for meetings to be held over lunch but these tend to be alcohol free and strictly business. Business dinners tend to be in restaurants rather than at home. The exchanging of gifts is not usual practice. After-work drinking is commonplace as many bars have happy hours until 1900. Business hours are generally Monday-Friday 0900-1730 but in reality working hours are often much longer.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
GENERAL
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ENTERTAINMENT
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