Question 3 Cisco executives are big data initiative as looking to make a $100 mi

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Question 3 Cisco executives are big data initiative as looking to make a $100 million investment in Europe to support the growth of their it relates to the Internet of Things (IOT). The company is looking at sites in . Lille, France, . Hamburg, Germany Gothenburg, Sweden and . Krakow, Poland The facility will require about 150,000 M2 of space for the servers, a reliable electric supply and easy access to trains and airports. Personnel staffing is of high concern. The site must have a trained local staff to handle computer maintenance and an attractive atmosphere that will attract the "creative class" employees who will design customer solutions. The business language done at the new site will be English. Please prepare a memorandum to CISCO senior staff with your analysis of: Infrastructure at each location Transportation connections 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Quality of local staff, including technical training and English language capabilities Attractiveness of the city for "creative class" employees Local university partnerships Based on the above, which city would you recommend (and why)?

Explanation / Answer

Memorandum to senior staff at Cisco

For Cisco’s new big data facility in Europe, the location must be chosen based on the infrastructure and quality of personnel. We evaluate the four shortlisted cities of Lille, Hamburg, Gothenburg and Krakov that will give best value for Cisco’s investment.

1. Infrastructure: In terms of size, Hamburg has a larger metropolitan population of 5 million compared to others which have about 1 million. All cities have advanced infrastructure with strong local governance, healthcare, reliable power supply and existing industrial infrastructure. Lille has over 65,000 enterprises, while Gothenburg is home to large industries led by Volvo, Ericsson, SKF and ship building comoanies employeeing blue collared workers. Hamburg has big steel and metal industries and is home to Airbus. Hamburg is developing a new town called Hafencity on a 2.2 square kilometre land to house ecommerce companies and a township with all modern facilities. Krakov is a rapidly growing city that has developed into a global BPO hub with infrastructure catering to technology companies. Krakov is Home to the Knowledge and Innovation Community for Sustainable Energy set up by EIT.

2. Transportation: All four cities have good transportation and connectivity with rest of Europe. Lille has a small airport, but is well connected to other cities in France and neighbouring Belgium by 5 autoroutes. Lille has a light rail system for daily computers and a river port. Hamburg has 2 airports, tunnels, sea port, S-Bahn and U-Bahn train services and 669 bus routes. Gothenburg has a sea port, ferry services, trains and 2 airports. Krakov has a tram network and bus services and is well connected to other European cities, but being inland, it does not have a sea port.

3. Quality of Staff: Of the four cities, Hamburg being the largest city, has the highest number of white collared resource pool. Hamburg also has several local English-speaking communities and clubs like The British Club Hamburg, the English Speaking Union, the German American Women’s Club, etc. Lille has a smaller pool of workforce compared to Hamburg, with most of them working in the services sector in small business enterprises with average employee strength of 17. The English language skills in Lille is average. Gothenburg has traditionally been a city of blue collared workers, mainly employed in traditional industries. Most of the workforce is well versed in more than one Scandinavian language. Krakov has emerged as a hub for modern technology-based multinational companies like IBM, Motorola and Hitachi.

Attractiveness to creative class: Lille is comparatively smaller city with limited number of industries and may not be an attractive city for young workforce. Gothenburg and Hamburg are attractive to blue collared workers due to their ports and traditional steel and car industries. Krakow with its BPO hub has been abke to attract a large talent pool of knowledge workers, who are available at lower costs compared to the other cities.

Universities: Lille has over 100,000 students in its metropolitan area with a good variety of higher education disciplines. Hamburg has 200,000 students in 19 universities including some of the top ranked European institutes. Gothenburg is Home Tom 2 major universities with about 25,000 students each and 49 high schools. Krakow is known for its acedemic and cultural centres. It has 24 institutes of higher education and research including the prestigious AGH University of Science and Technology that has 30,000 students.

Based on the above criteria, the choice can be narrowed down to Krakow. While, Hamburg has a strong industrial infrastructure, larger workforce and new city development projects, Krakow has emerged as the Silkcon Valley of Europe with the presence of the knowledge and innovation community, over 50 technology multinationals and a low cost and high skilled workforce. The other two cities Lille and Gothenburg are comparatively smaller in size and have traditional industries with high costs.

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