Henderson

Not only is Nevada's second largest city "a place to call home" - as the city's slogan states - it has also become a premier place in the Southwest to do business. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, Henderson became a national leader when it came to the success of master-planned communities. While the population boom has continued, the past decade has established Henderson as "The Las Vegas Valley Address for Business Success."

Henderson is now the place to be in Nevada if you want to live or do business. The growth numbers of the population are staggering. In 1980, nearly 30,000 people lived in Henderson. Just 25 years later, the city's population is over 250,000. With an educated workforce (Henderson is now home to 13 higher education institutions) and an attractive infrastructure for business, company leaders from across the nation are choosing Henderson as the place for their businesses to call home.Whether it's moving a company's headquarters to Henderson, opening a new manufacturing facility to serve the West Coast, investing in the redevelopment efforts downtown or establishing a world-class medical training institute, Henderson's business-friendly environment is an outstanding choice to increase your profits. For more information on opening a business or relocating a business to Henderson, call the City of Henderson's Economic Development Division. The quality and sources of commercially bottled water is a big topic these days, conversation circulating around office water coolers should perhaps shift toward the dispensers themselves. The Good Water Co. could only be so fortunate. The Las Vegas-based water purification systems dealer/developer announced this month a product that does away with the plastic bottle completely. Dubbed the Hydration Station, it is a bottleless cooler that attaches directly to a building's water supply to vend purified water at a cost competitive with traditional cooler providers. It is the follow-up to Good Water's home purification system, Pure-O-Flow, and the second in a line of reverse osmosis products. Not to mention, Good Water execs predict annual revenue will quadruple within a few years.

Reverse osmosis is recognized as a superior means of purifying water, although only recently has technology made it economically feasible. It's hard to argue with Good Water sales and marketing director Danny Prince, as he applies an electrical charge to tap water turning it green (meanwhile the experiment has no effect on purified product). He explains that the particles originally were visible, until the Southern Nevada Water Authority added chlorine during the treatment process. "The (Southern Nevada) Water District does a phenomenal job, for what they do," Prince said, ensuring it is consumable. "But is it good for you?" Good Water touts its products' ability to remove nearly all substances found in tap water, passing it through a series of filters and membranes to reduce up to 98 percent of substances like arsenic, lead and radium.

MetroPCS and Leap Wireless Make Their Las Vegas Debut

Dialing into an 'unlimited' market MetroPCS and Leap Wireless make their Las Vegas debut: A future without limits is what the newest cellular carriers are pitching. The Las Vegas market has become more crowded with the addition of two no-contract, unlimited-minutes companies. But mainstay providers say they don't expect to lose their customer bases. MetroPCS, a Dallas carrier, and San Diego-based Leap Wireless are taking the plunge into Southern Nevada. MetroPCS has already blanketed the airwaves and billboards with ads for its unlimited-minutes plans, which start at $30. The Texas company moved into the market March 28. Leap's "Cricket" service also is planning a spring debut. Existing cellular customers are not the only ones being targeted. Both MetroPCS and Cricket hope to snare those locals who may not qualify for traditional cell phone service, as well as those who have yet to "cut the cord." PhotoM MetroPCS sales consultants Connie Mendez, left, and Freeman Harris work with customers Alma Savella and Michael Soriano on April 8 at the MetroPCS store at 655 W. Craig Road in North Las Vegas. Hispanics, it seems, are not just being wooed this year by presidential candidates for their make-or-break votes. Both Las Vegas cellular newcomers are coveting this crucial market segment. "Certainly, the Hispanic market is important, given the fundamentals of our organization," said Joe Perez, the regional vice president of sales for MetroPCS in Las Vegas. "We don't require a credit card, or driver's license, or other documentation." Many immigrants would otherwise have to go with the prepaid options or do without a phone while they establish residency in the valley, the regional manager said.

"We have quite a few Hispanics coming in from Mexico every month, so it may take a few months for them to get their hands on a driver's license or other documents," he said. "We don't specifically target the Hispanic demographic, but we are very popular with them." Leap Wireless representatives also talked of wooing Hispanics and other segments that traditional carriers may overlook, said Jason Biardo, the general manager of Cricket in Las Vegas. "We have done very well with the underserved, very well with those without outstanding credit, first-time users, Hispanics and African-Americans," the general manager said. "But I don't want to limit us. We do well with teens, with everyone."

MetroPCS sees another untapped market: land-line users. That's aiming squarely at Embarq, which provides cellular service of its own to complement its land-line service. "Embarq would definitely look at us as a threat," Perez said. "Because at $35 a month, we are definitely competition for the land-line carriers, and more and more people are cutting the cord." Embarq countered that its diverse offerings help thwart the increasing cellular competition. "Competition makes everybody better, but we are confident at the portfolio we offer," said Vicki Soares, an Embarq spokeswoman. "The land lines and all of the communications and entertainment offerings, make up all of the Embarq package."

Embarq already faces heavy phone competition from Sprint Nextel, which spun Embarq off two years ago, along with T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Soares noted. "With the already saturated wireless market, we wanted to be competitive if new parties (entered the market)." Leap, which offers its Cricket service in 23 states and 50 markets, is already aimed to overtake MetroPCS, in spite of the Dallas company's head start in Las Vegas, Biardo said. "I'll have two to three times more access points than they'll have," he said in comparison to MetroPCS.

Cricket's $35 plan includes free text messaging and voice mail. Cricket is accumulating a 150-antenna network to cover the valley. Coverage will also include most casinos. Cricket will offer Internet to its Las Vegas customers if they buy a universal serial bus broadband device for about $100. The San Diego company is also eyeing Embarq's land-line base. "We have a very high rate of adaptation of land-line users to our network (nationally)," Biardo said. "If you are moving from apartments to homes, a wireless phone is a very good replacement."

The Global Corporate Battlefield Professionals and Entrepreneurs

India may still be a novice in the global corporate battlefield but professionals and entrepreneurs born in the country proved their mettle across the world in varied business sectors during the year 2007. The year was fabulous for new entrants such as Vikram Pandit and Shantanu Narayen as well as existing members like Lakshmi Mittal, Arun Sarin and Indra Nooyi in the elite club of India-born or Non-Resident Indians running multinational empires. But the next year will be as challenging for these global Indians as this year has been rewarding. Nagpur-born Pandit, who was named the CEO of world�s largest financial services conglomerate Citigroup last week, needs to bring his bank out of the subprime mess that has already cost it more than 11 billion dollars. Pandit`s phenomenal rise up the ladder is evident from the fact that he joined Citigroup only in May this year when Citigroup acquired his hedge fund. The expectations are even higher as he beat out names like US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and is considered a novice in retail banking, a key business area for Citigroup, though he has made a name as an investment banker in Morgan Stanley and at Citigroup itself.

The same holds true for Sarin, who heads the world`s largest mobile firm by revenue. Vodafone took a 11-billion dollar bet earlier this year for making inroads into his birth country with acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar. Vodafone faces challenging times in the Indian market with established rivals like Bharti Airtel putting a tough competition and Anil Ambani group�s Reliance Communications, which was also eying Hutch-Essar, emerging as a tougher rival after the government`s new norms on spectrum allocation went in its favor. Moreover, speculation about Sarin losing his position as Vodafone CEO has been consistently doing the rounds and Indian market is being considered as one of the biggest turfs that he needs to win if he needs to turnaround the dwindling fortunes of his company in a host of other markets. Sarin has company in billionaire steel czar L. N. Mittal when it comes to expectations for delivering on acquisitions. Mittal completed his $34-billion takeover of Luxembourg-based Arcelor this year to form the world�s biggest steel conglomerate that controls more than 10 percent of global output. This was complemented with a host of other takeovers across the world, including the latest one in China.

However, China is a different ballgame with a host of government restrictions for foreign companies. Besides, India has also so far proved to be difficult to crack and his plans to set up two mega steel plants in the country are still in a nascent stage despite having announced them months ago. Another NRI making it big in the global mining arena is Anil Aggarwal, whose London-listed Vedanta Resources acquired India`s largest iron ore exporter Sesa Goa in 2007. Aggarwal, whose group companies Sterlite Industries, Balco and Hindustan Zinc are already present in India, wishes to start an integrated steel plant here and would be in spotlight in 2008 regarding his leadership at Sesa Goa and the steel project. Another big story about an Indian striking it big globally was of Indra Nooyi who became PepsiCo Chairman in May this year, following her anointment as CEO in October 2006.

The Chennai-born cola queen successfully led Pepsi`s finances during 2001-2006. But her promotion to the top has come amid growing competition from arch rival Coca Cola, and she needs to prove her leadership qualities in other business arenas also. Nooyi has now decided to take the mettle of Pepsi brand ambassador and wants to highlight its initiatives in corporate social responsibility space. Not to be overshadowed by giants like Mittal and Sarin, another India-born executive Shantanu Narayen made it big this year when he became CEO of Adobe, one of the world`s largest and most diversified software companies and famous for software`s like Acrobat and Flash, a few weeks ago. Narayen co-led the 3.4 billion dollar acquisition of Macromedia in 2005 and has been previously responsible for the company`s day-to-day global operations, product research and development, marketing and corporate development. But Adobe would need more from Narayen in the new year in an industry where competition is the norm of the day throughout the year.