Redefining companies and colleges

by Robert C. Powell III
Virginia Business
April 2007

Career counselors often advise clients to redefine themselves when adapting to a changing job market. Well, Philip Morris USA has parted company with its peers in redefining itself as a tobacco company in a time of growing anti-smoking sentiment.

In our cover story starting, Jack Milligan, a Charlottesville writer, explains why the Henrico County-based company is embracing efforts to create Food and Drug Administration oversight of the tobacco industry. That is one part of Philip Morris’ strategy to better align the company with society’s expectations and to avoid a legislative backlash that could cripple the tobacco industry. Evidence of this strategy is taking shape in downtown Richmond where a new $350 million research center will seek ways to create a safer cigarette while developing other tobacco products.

Philip Morris, however, isn’t the only organization undergoing redefinition in Virginia. The commonwealth’s community college system is taking on a more prominent role as an “on-ramp” to four year colleges. Heather B. Hayes, a writer in Clifford, looks at how new transfer agreements between the community colleges and institutions such as Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary are attracting more college-credit students to the two-year schools.

The state government also is changing the concept of public-private partnerships in its information technology contract with Northrop Grumman. Richmond-based writer Garry Kranz finds that the unprecedented deal to revamp Virginia’s aging IT system is being closely watched by other states.

Finally, some Virginia homeowners are transforming their backyards as they move kitchen equipment and entertainment centers outdoors. Lisa Antonelli Bacon, a Richmond-based writer, looks into the phenomenon as part of our monthly Options section on executive lifestyles.

Now all that is left is for someone to redefine mosquitoes — as extinct.