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| City Guide - Minneapolis-St Paul - Business | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Business Business Profile: The Twin Cities metropolitan area is a giant in American business, with many top national and international corporations headquartered here. The commodities firm Cargill is thought to be the largest privately held company in the world, with annual revenues of over 50 billion Dollars. America's fourth largest airline, Northwest, is based here. The metropolitan region is also rated as one of the top ten large cities for small businesses. There is no one central business district; firms are scattered throughout the area. With a host of major corporations and a diversified industrial base, the region's economy is strong. The workforce is well educated, with one of the highest (91%) rates of high-school graduates in the country. The unemployment rate is 2%, about half the national average. The Twin Cities also enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the nation. Twelve Fortune 500 companies are based in the Twin Cities. These include 3M, maker of Post-it notes and Scotch tape; General Mills, producer of food and cereal products; and retailers Dayton Hudson, Best Buy and SuperValu, the largest wholesale foods company in the country. In the nineteenth century, Minneapolis thrived as a flour-milling centre and, today, food processing remains one of its main industries. Leading brand-name companies include Pillsbury, General Mills, International Multifoods and Land O'Lakes (dairy products). Several of the nation's top retail companies are located here, including the Musicland Group, the discount catalog firm Fingerhut, and the electronics chain Best Buy. Medical manufacturing is a key industry, with companies such as Medtronic, where the pacemaker was invented. Others include Honeywell, 3M and Weyerhauser. Carlson Companies, owners of the Radisson hotel chain, American Express Financial Advisors and the St Paul Companies (insurance underwriters) are leading players in the service industries. Business Etiquette: Business Etiquette Businesspeople in the Twin Cities dress well and, while suits are still the norm for both men and women in many offices and financial institutions, business dress has generally become more relaxed, particularly on Fridays when many companies allow casual dress. In winter, practicality takes precedence over style, and a heavy coat, hat, gloves, and waterproof boots are essential. Outside work hours, the Twin Cities are definitely informal - only a few of the top restaurants require men to wear jacket and tie, and people attend theatre and classical music performances in everything from smart clothes to jeans. After work, it would be more common for a visiting business colleague to be taken out for drinks or to a restaurant by the host, rather than back to someone's home. The normal workday is 0800-1700, with lunch generally taken between 1200 and 1300, or 1230 and 1330. By and large, people are health-conscious and smoking or heavy drinking may be frowned upon in a business environment. |
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