Why Kansas City?

THERE ARE MANY REASONS – ALL OF THEM GOOD – TO OPERATE A BUSINESS IN KANSAS CITY, TO WORK HERE, RAISE A FAMILY AND PUT DOWN ROOTS. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS, IT’S GOOD FOR MORE THAN THE BOTTOM LINE. JUST ASK THESE EXECUTIVES WHO KNOW. 

“If I had to do it all over again, I’d put the pin on Kansas City.  One, because we’re in the center of the country. If we were in California it’d be much harder to track the New York client and if we were in New York it’d be much harder to track the California client. What I’ve found is the coasts love that we’re in Kansas City. They really attribute a strong work ethic and values to Kansas City companies so it’s been a big positive for us. Logistically, it’s been great and we’ve found excellent people because of our location.” – Peter Mallouk, President, Creative Planning

“Kansas City has always been a great place to call home, for families and businesses alike. The network of civic-minded leaders throughout the city’s public and private sectors is deeply committed to fostering a climate that encourages growth and partnership. This has resulted in the impressive growth and development the region has seen over the years. I’m certain we’ll see more of the same well into the future.” – Danette Wilson, President & CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City

One of the things that I’ve always appreciated about Kansas City is that when you talk about what are our industries are, you never list t just one thing. So when one industry reduces or one organization goes away, there’s always something else there. We have a well-diversified community in terms of the industries that are represented here. And what makes all of that work is that the community, the citizens, are engaged in the
conversations about who comes and why they’re coming and whether they’re going and why. It’s not just one small pocket of people.  Kansas City has a very, very large group of people who invest time in making sure that the right things get done.” – Sandra Lawrence, CFO, Children’s Mercy Kansas City 

“The economic development that’s gone on, the quality of life that we see in Kansas City, has improved greatly. We have all the best shows that come to town, we have incredible fine arts, we have some of the best museums in the world, we have an employment base with a lot of creative folks. There are more people in Kansas City who mark themselves as working in the arts, per capita, than anywhere else in the United States. So that drives a lot of creativity.  A lot of great businesses have been formed here and grown here in Kansas City. We have a wonderful employment base. We found that Kansas City is a great place to call home for our international home office and the ability to attract great talent here has been fantastic for us.” – Dan Duffy, CEO, United Real Estate Group 

Philanthropy “is not an aristocratic or an elitist type of activity in Kansas City. It’s heartfelt. Purely generous people who want to help others. In some other communities it might be sort of a club. … Here, it’s interesting, because you’ll see even with some of the biggest buildings and most amazing philanthropic structures we have here, there were big gifts, but they really encouraged people to give at every level and be a part of it and feel a part of it.” – Debbie Wilkerson, President/CEO, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation 

“I think Kansas City has the absolute Goldilocks situation. Folks around here are absolutely looking out for each other, are hoping to see each other win, doing whatever they can to go out of their way to support people who win. I’m talking about the scions of business that I know that have generations of success to the startup. And you won’t find that in many other cities where a startup founder can meet somebody who has a publicly traded business and that they can meet and interact in a very casual and real way.” – Neal Sharma, CEO, DEG Digital

“I’ve lived in the same home in the Brookside area for 31 years and I’ve raised my children here, I love Kansas City! My father was in the Air Force so I grew up in a lot of different places in the U.S. and three years in Japan. What I have found in Kansas City is that people are warm, they’re open. We talk about the U.S. being a land of opportunity, but Kansas City exemplifies that on an even larger scale. It’s a city that’s big enough to have a lot of opportunities and to have corporate headquarters, to have thriving mid-size businesses, to have start-up businesses. We have the jobs, we have the educated population, we have the work ethic, we have the people who are willing to do what needs to get done to make America successful, to make Kansas City successful.” – Theresa Schekirke, CEO, Samson Dental