Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401210031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The anguished voice of today's stressed worker.
"I hate change," groused a reporter last week after yet another staff meeting on how we have to continuously change and improve the way we do business here at the newspaper.
When you see the New River Valley Economy '94 Edition in today's paper, you can understand that she is not alone in her angst.
Change is the one constant today - and the New River Valley, despite its rural vistas and small-town feel, probably has felt more wrenching economic change in the past few years than most places in the state.
Look at just one number: Three years ago, the Radford Army Ammunition plant had more than 4,000 workers. Today it has 1,625.
It's not the only company in the valley that has seen job cuts, but it is certainly the most dramatic.
Valleywide, manufacturing jobs have dropped from 20,976 to 16,465 since 1985 - a loss of 4,500 positions - while retail and service jobs have jumped from 14,886 to 18,856. Now nearly 33 percent of our workers are in service jobs - thanks partly to the retailing boom at U.S. 460 and Virginia 114.
Each one of these changes has meant tremendous job stress for one of our neighbors, relatives or friends. They work all around us - people who have seen a "lifetime" job dissolve and disappear. Instead of an assured and comfortable future with a regular paycheck, they are now scrambling for a new job or returning to college to prepare themselves for a different career.
Those of us who just have to face change within our existing jobs are the lucky ones - if, that is, we can change and adapt fast enough to ensure that our company and our jobs survive.
No problem here at the Roanoke Times & World-News, of course. Why, we've been around over 100 years. I grew up reading this paper - just like many of our loyal readers.
It's best just not to think about all those people growing up who don't like to read, who turn to the television - and now even their computers - for news as well as entertainment. We'll try not to worry about those who want their news over the fax machine at 11 p.m. when the paper goes to press rather than waiting 7 hours for it to be thrown on their porch.
Nope, nothing we have to worry about.
Maybe that's why our company, like many here in the valley, is turning to Continuous Improvement or Total Quality Management or other management methods to make us faster, quicker, more responsive as we face overwhelming competition both locally and from companies around the world we've never heard of.
At times, the thought of constant change, the new ideas to be digested, the new methods and meetings can leave you overwhelmed and tired before you even start.
At other times, the change is exhilirating. Sharing with everyone on the staff the responsibility for developing the ideas and the constant improvements to stay ahead of the competition can generate great ideas as well as an energy and sense of achievement.
Looking ahead through the '90s, I can only see more change in store for the New River Valley.
The arsenal talks about its "ongoing process of downsizing." The universities contemplate tight budgets. Manufacturing continues to face increasing competition and streamlining of its workforce.
Locally, we'll feel a constant pressure to find and create new jobs to replace those we're losing - quality jobs that offer full-time work with benefits and decent pay. We'll be competing with every other locale in the state and nation - and in some cases, the world.
To flourish, we'll have to continue to grow our own companies from the ground up as well as continue to court those medium and big companies we still hope will instantly transplant jobs and prosperity into our midst.
Local planners, working on a defense conversion strategy for the New River Valley, are already targeting key industries that have the potential to grow in the future. Plus, high-tech businesses are continuing to sprout up here, partly generated by Virginia Tech's engineering and fiber optics research and its Corporate Research Center.
We'll have to promote and protect every advantage we have: our two universities with their research and global focuses, our community college with its emphasis on retraining workers, our quality of living and beautiful natural setting.
We'll need to exploit our valley and regional economic partnerships, both the Alliance and the New Century Council, as we try to strengthen ourselves internally as well as increase our exposure nationally.
But our future will also be determined in the more mundane decisions we and our elected officials make this year and next on the basics that underlie economic development, such as funding education for our children. The workforce of tomorrow is in first grade today. Whether they'll be ready for a competitive and changing world will be determined by how willing we are locally and at the state level to educate them.
So, the good news and the bad news is that we will determine our own future. We have no one to turn to for the answers; we'll also have no one to turn to for the blame.
Elizabeth Obenshain is editor of the New River Valley bureau of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
by CNB