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.