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Make no assumption
by Robert
Powell
Editor, Virginia Business
May 2006 Business in Virginia is not business as usual. The Old
Dominion is constantly changing, and longstanding assumptions
are being challenged.
One of those assumptions is that
Hampton Roads’ economy will always be
dominated by military spending. While the region is still very dependent on
the military, Richmond-based contributing writer Lisa
Antonelli Bacon reports on
efforts to develop its modeling and simulation industry for domestic use.
Hampton
Roads’ “Sim City” is one of the nation’s major hot spots
for modeling and simulation, which already employs 4,000 people in the region.
Bacon also examines the ongoing debate about the fate of Virginia Beach’s
Oceana Naval Air Station, which could close if the city doesn’t satisfy
requirements of the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
Another assumption is that Virginia’s fastest growing companies will always
come from construction or information technology industries. Contributing writer
Heather B. Hayes reports that this year, the overall winner of the Fantastic
50 — an annual list of the state’s fastest-growing companies — is
a service company, SpecTal, that provides expert consultants to defense and
intelligence agencies.
Lastly, assumptions are under attack in the area of mental
health insurance coverage.
Alexandria-based contributing writer Joan Hennessy says that a recent study reported
in the New England Journal of Medicine challenges perceptions about the cost
of covering physical health and mental health illnesses equally.
The lesson that readers can take from these stories is that no assumption is
worth betting on.
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