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Business

  San Francisco, Business

Business Profile: Following the rollercoaster ride of its dotcom industries, business in San Francisco now has a decidedly different feel. Not so long ago, new media was muscling in on the back of neighbouring Silicon Valley’s general success in the computing industry. The dynamic energy of the new kid on the block swamped the bohemian enclave South of Market, known as SoMa or Multimedia Gulch. Former warehouses were quickly converted into trendy office spaces in the area that actually runs north and south of Market Street, from Keary Street to The Embarcadero. Corporate investment in the area caused long‐term city residents to be forced out by skyrocketing rent. They began a movement to temper the city housing and planning decisions that had displaced residents – a struggle that is still in progress.

Although many of the dotcoms once based here have all but evaporated, some of the area’s more successful ventures included CNET Networks, technology and information (), search engines Northern Light () and Ask Jeeves (), and Imagine Media (), set up by Englishman Chris Anderson, to archive print and online computing magazines. Rapid downsizing and severance checks have become as normal as a morning cup of coffee and thousands of techies and new media employees have lost their jobs in the past four years, leaving a pool of professionals in a city with few vacancies and exorbitant rent.

The thriving tourism industry is as strong as ever, however. Each year, more than 16 million people pour into San Francisco, spending in excess of US$6.5 billion. The industry employs 61,000 people, although the largest private Bay area companies are scattered throughout various industries – Bechtel Group Inc (construction and engineering), Levi Strauss (clothing), New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (car manufacture), Visa International (financial services), Core‐Mark International Inc (distribution) and Wilbur‐Ellis Co (agricultural products). After tourism and computing, the city’s key industry is finance. San Francisco is the West Coast’s main centre of finance, with Montgomery Street often called ‘The Wall Street of the West’. Although reverberations of the dotcom collapse have been felt in this industry too, suited finance workers get on with the business, as millions continue to pour in and out of the city’s banking, insurance, brokerages and corporate headquarters – the symbol of which is the Transamerica Pyramid building.

Before the American economy bottomed out, California enjoyed one of the world’s healthiest economies, and one of the nation’s lowest rates of unemployment. Despite this, San Francisco’s extremely low unemployment rate of 4.3% in 2001 climbed in 2002 to meet the national average of 6% – an indication of both the new media industry downturn and the shaky post‐September 11 American economy.

Business Etiquette: Visiting businesspeople will enjoy the informal attire worn by new media workers. However, it would be a mistake to think that this reflects a lackadaisical attitude to work. Workers often start late, eat lunch at their desks and work late into the evening. In the Financial District, dress is more formal and working hours are usually 0900‐1700. San Francisco is an informal city and business meetings, especially in the new media industry, may include a casual breakfast or lunch with casual attire to match. Business done by bankers and lawyers, however, will be more formal in terms of dress, with ties and jackets worn, even if these are slowly loosened or discarded. ‘Power’ breakfasts, catered lunches and coffee meetings are common, while dinners at private homes are more rare. Fashionable restaurants or wine bars are the more likely settings for financial types. When making a private visit, gifts of wine, sweets from home or flowers are a good bet. Visiting businesspersons should note that equal opportunity in race, creed, gender and sexual orientation is standard practise in San Francisco.

The new media industry, once filled with young and competitive employees who traded jobs every two years, is undergoing a change of heart, due to sheer necessity. The slim number of workers that remain seem grateful for any job at all.