It's time to get over it
Is anyone in charge here? Pose that question to Boston's corporate elite, such as it has become, and your query will be forwarded to a headquarters in some other area code. The franchising of Boston is nearly complete, as it is in most other American cities.
The sale of FleetBoston Financial Corp. is the city's final big local bank merger. One way or another, Terry Murray had rolled all of the city's big banks into Fleet and now it, too, will be digested by a bigger fish.
The same thing has happened to the other companies the city used to think of as its institutions, this newspaper included. Insurer New England Life was acquired and practically vaporized by MetLife Inc. long before Boston's other merger of the moment, the sale of John Hancock Financial Services Inc. to Manulife Financial Corp., of Canada, made headlines.
Locally owned utilities are almost a thing of the past. (How long will it be before NStar becomes part of National Grid Transco PLC, or something like it?) The phone company was one of the first to merge away, long gone in a haze of nostalgia.
Boston's transformation from a hub of corporate headquarters to a city full of field offices is mostly done. But does it really matter to all the people who live and work here?
The easy answer is yes. It matters if the question revolves around jobs, local charity, or fundamental civic involvement. The chief executive who lives in Charlotte or Toronto or at any other out-of-town address will think of those kinds of Boston issues as field problems. Those CEOs won't worry so much about cutting jobs or trimming charitable contributions here. Real civic engagement will be hard to sell at headquarters.
But there is another way of looking at the problem, beyond the easy answer. The message in a nutshell: Get over it.
Boston's franchise era was inevitable, and it can't be reversed. Consolidation in all kinds of industries is too powerful a phenomenon for cities of almost any size to fight. Columbus, Ohio, was stung when Bank One Corp. moved to Chicago, but Chicagoans worry about their own stature.
Cities that cope best will understand the problem and marshal other resources to do something about it. In this game, Boston is holding some good cards.
The city's healthcare infrastructure and its crowd of universities are both powerful economic engines that aren't subject to the swirling winds of mergers and acquisitions. Healthcare alone generates 440,000 jobs and a payroll of $18 billion in Massachusetts, according to the state's hospital association.
Our universities are more than stable employers. They attract the talent and generate the ideas that can create the next generation of local industry.
That's what happened 30 years ago, when New England factories began to close and a new roster of important computer companies grew. Some people think this is happening again in biotechnology, but I have my doubts.
Boston offers quality-of-life perks most other cities envy. One school of thought says that kind of asset attracts talented people and jobs seek out talent, not the other way around.
These are all assets Boston should protect and nurture as the keys to its future. The city should also make the most of its remaining big companies that have been leaders for many years, like Liberty Mutual and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Fidelity Investments stands as Boston's most important corporate citizen today.
Like it or not, we have become a franchise town. But we don't have to be the worse for it.
Steven Syre is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at syre@globe.com.
