Work in Tulsa

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Bold entrepreneurs and savvy, risk-taking businessmen built Tulsa. They came to the former Indian Territory to make their fortunes in oil, ranching and manufacturing. The names Getty, Phillips and Skelly are immortal in the annals of the petroleum industry. Following the oil boom westward until he arrived in Tulsa, William G. Skelly founded Skelly Oil Co. in 1919 at a time when the city supplied 40 percent of the world’s total oil production. He would also become a prominent rancher and politician, as well as founder of Spartan Aircraft Company. His mansion still stands proudly in midtown Tulsa. The same entrepreneurial spirit that animated Skelly and other oil barons continues to drive Tulsa’s diversified economy. In recent years, Tulsa has become fertile ground for companies that appreciate the area’s well-educated and productive workforce, low taxes, great business incentives, and an impressive quality of life.

Tulsa is widely known for the public/private partnerships that lie at the heart of the city’s economic development initiatives. As the primary spokesman for the business community, the Tulsa Metro Chamber has built a remarkable record of teamwork with elected officials at all levels of governance to create one of the most attractive business climates in the nation.

Business Sector Profiles

Energy-related companies, of course, still help power the regional economy, and you’d be hard pressed to find a Tulsan who is unaware of petroleum’s central role in the city’s development. Yet the business of yesteryear has given way to a diversified economy that includes aerospace, telecommunications, manufacturing, machinery, health care, and a strong service sector. Tulsa businesses account for more than 60 percent of Oklahoma’s exports. And at the heart of all this growth is a small business community that traditionally creates at least 50 percent of new jobs.

Energy

With large employers such as Williams, Phillips Petroleum, Oneok, Sunoco and Sinclair, energy remains big business in Tulsa. Sinclair Tulsa Refining Co. announced in late 2007 its intention to spend more than $1 billion to expand and upgrade its Tulsa refinery to increase output of gasoline and diesel fuels. Efforts by these larger companies and a host of smaller ones are supported by a wide array of manufacturers and service providers.

Technology and Telecommunications

Talk about innovation, Tulsa’s emergence as a telecommunications hub in the 1980s and 1990s combined the best features of its legacy oil industry with cutting-edge technology. Sensing an opportunity to seize the initiative in a business of the future, a visionary management team at the Williams Companies devised a strategy to run fiber optic cable through decommissioned pipeline networks. This vast network now delivers broadband media services to bandwidth-centric businesses – providing local-to-global connectivity – all on the largest, fully lit, next-generation fiber optic network in the United States. Tulsa’s high-tech infrastructure and talented labor force have attracted major players in the telecommunications industry, including Verizon, EDS, WinnerCom, DirecTV, and EchoStar.

In cooperation with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and representatives of higher education, the Tulsa Metro Chamber is dedicated to building and retaining technology enterprises. The Tulsa Metro Chamber serves as a central link between new technology-based companies and the wide range of resources and expertise available from existing businesses and organizations.

Aerospace

Aviation came early to Tulsa and has soared ever since, boosted by oilman W.G. Skelly’s Spartan Aircraft Company and later the giant bomber plant at Tulsa International Airport during World War II. Tulsa’s progressive outlook continues to foster growth in the aerospace sector. With 71 aerospace firms of all sizes, Tulsa has evolved into an aerospace titan, directly employing some 11,438 people, or about 79 percent of the state’s total aerospace employment. While the American Airlines Maintenance Base serves as Tulsa’s largest employer, companies such as Spirit Aerosystems, Flight Safety, Honeywell Aerospace Services, BizJet-Lufthansa, and the NORDAM Group all benefit from our region’s highly qualified workforce.

Manufacturing

Many of the nation’s largest manufacturers have discovered Tulsa as an ideal location for their enterprises. A comprehensive, ten-county Labor Market Survey reported that the area workforce possesses high productivity and a strong work ethic. Companies such as Kimberly Clark, Whirlpool Corporation and the IC of Oklahoma bus manufacturing facility have each chosen to take advantage of Tulsa’s ability to recruit and retain a vibrant workforce.

Finance

The Tulsa banking community is not immune from deregulation, interstate acquisitions, and other changes affecting financial institutions nationwide. Moreover, rapidly growing companies in need of capital have brought new and innovative banking options to commercial and personal banking. BOK Financial Corporation (BOKF) is a major regional financial services company based in Tulsa.

Banks continue to make loans, support capital expansion and focus on consumer needs. Twenty-four hour access to banking, convenient locations in supermarkets, Internet services, and banking on Saturday are now commonplace. Credit unions offer employees and their families convenience and security throughout the metropolitan area.

Services

Tulsa has one of the most highly prized service sectors in the nation and has become one of America’s most reliable test markets. Often, Tulsa is first in line for new products and services. In recent years, dozens of retail, hotel, movie theater and restaurant chains have chosen to enter the Tulsa market, many of them along the 71st Street retail corridor in south Tulsa, the renovated Southroads in the midtown area, and the RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks. A new major growth area is development along the Arkansas River and Riverside Drive from Bixby to Jenks to downtown Tulsa. There’s every indication of continued growth in the services sector throughout the metropolitan area.