Beyond developing and manufacturing prescriptive medicines, biopharmaceutical company Amgen Inc. also facilitates the research and discovery of new life-saving medicines used to fight serious illnesses such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, cancer and a variety of other life-threatening medical conditions. Because of rapid growth in the pharmaceutical industry, this Swedish company is seeking to establish a larger headquarters in North America. To find the perfect location, Amgen invited cities and regional economic development organizations in North America to submit a proposal. The company is looking for a total site space of up to 475,000 square feet. Among the most important considerations is logistics, so the company wanted the site to be within 15 miles of a population center and within 25 minutes of an international airport. The company is also prioritizing other considerations, such as business-friendly tax-incentives, availability of a highly-skilled technology labor force, a strong cultural fit, and a high quality of life and reasonable living costs for their over 19,000 employees. Amgen is planning to construct an ultramodern facility that will include a 45,000 square foot main office building, a 200,000 square foot warehouse, a 59,000 square foot state-of-the-art research and development facility, and 41,000 square feet of parking. Because of their strong commitment to employee wellbeing, the campus will also include a state-of-the-art fitness center (17,000 square feet) and a gourmet cafeteria (9,000 square feet). As part of their due diligence, Amgen conducted a feasibility study of the five cities that were shortlisted for the new headquarters. Following is a graphical snapshot of some of the main findings of that study: National Tech Talent Rank Average Rent for 2-Bed Apartment 20 SUAMI 16 Phoenix Data 51.14 17 1. Da Owote Nase SP Nath 4 0 30 SL $1.500 51.000 100 Quality of Life Index Time from downtown to airport (in minutes) Phon 17163 Phone Dallas 1537 Datas Philadelphia 10135 Philadelphia 12 Nashville 191.27 Nashville 25 Charlotte 16622 Charlotte 0 300 150 200 250 20 30 After a competitive selection process, the company finally narrowed their selection to two cities: Charlotte, NC and Nashville, TN. One of these cities will become the location for Amgen's new headquarters. Commercial construction costs (including all fixtures and fittings) in the Charlotte area currently run at $620 per square foot. In Nashville, however, commercial construction cost (including all fixtures and fittings) is $9 per square foot higher. Because of vast job creation and a significant boost to their respective local economies, both cities are willing to provide tax incentives to Amgen, calculated at 12% of the total construction costs in each location. To ensure a smooth start-up at the new location, Amgen will relocate 400 employees from their current location in Boston, MA. Costs for relocation are estimated at $50,000 per employee. Who are you? You are the Chief Business Development Officer at Amgen Inc. What are you supposed to do? You are required to evaluate the feasibility of both options (i.e. Charlotte or Nashville) and provide a recommendation, via email, to Ella Musk, Chief of Operations at Amgen, on which city to adopt as the new location for their headquarters. You may assume that both projects will take the same amount of time to complete. Apply the appropriate business writing standards for content, style, and organization in your email. [Note. You are NOT required to take into consideration time value of money and discounted cash flows in your appraisal] Please note the following as you complete your response: 1. Determine the bottomline message 2. Provide a suitable subject line 3. Ensure that your content is concise 4. Employ a suitable visual representation to display quantitative information 5. Employ parallel form Grading Rubric A suitable subject line 2 An appropriate bottomline 2 A list of supporting qualitative data in parallel 4 form An appropriate visual representation of 5 comparative quantitative data A call to action Introduction to data 2 Suitable wrap-up statement 1 Overall organization, form, and grammar 3 TOTAL POINTS 5 1 20