Oregon Business Team Economist Bill Conerly tackles the challenges that business leaders will face in 2011. Up first: sales representatives get discouraged in a recession. Sales staffs may have been reduced, and sales reps are spending too much time taking orders from repeat customers. What should a manager do?
Oregon homeowners can now go solar with no money down, thanks to a lease program that will install solar panels for low monthly payments.
San Jose-based SoloPower Inc. is seeking a $20 million state loan to build a 75-megawatt capacity manufacturing plant in Wilsonville.
Forest Grove’s Gray & Co. shut down its cherry processing facility last week, laying off 23 of its 25 employees.
Mallorie’s Dairy of Silverton is closing after 56 years of producing milk, due to declining milk prices.
Columbia River shippers are taking advantage of a subsidy program from the Port of Portland while the barge system is shut down for a repair of the locks.
The craft brewing scene in Oregon expanded in 2010, with over a dozen new pubs and breweries opening in the Portland area alone.
Day after day, rail cars full of a mysterious white powder, marketed by a cartel and desired by people all over the world, stream into Portland. This powder, responsible for hundreds of local jobs and millions of dollars of revenue for local businesses, illustrates an important, if not often discussed, strength of our region’s economy.
Many CEOs feel creativity should be limited to new-product development and advertising. They are missing out in a big way.
According to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report, per capita income dropped in each of Oregon’s metropolitan areas.