Dive Brief:

• ADM, the food-processing and commodities trading giant, says it will move its headquarters out of Decatur, Ill.,
• About 100 senior-level executives and IT staffers will move to the new global headquarters. Decatur, home to the company for generations, will keep roughly 4,400 workers at ADM's massive processing facilities. Decatur will also become North American headquarters.
• ADM has not said where its new global headquarters will be, but the company made it clear it is seeking a a home in a modern, connected, urban environment with a major airport. Chicago, just 180 miles away, is seen as a front-runner.

Dive Insight:
We have nothing against Decatur, or small-city living in general, but we're with CEO Patricia Woertz on this one. Decatur, a city of just 75,000 people and no international airport, is a poor choice for the headquarters of an $89 billion a year company with operations on multiple continents.

We remember a similar argument years ago when RJ Reynolds first considered moving headquarters from Winston-Salem, N.C. The CEO called the city "bucolic." And he didn't mean it as a compliment. Locals were hurt and angry and they lashed out. No doubt Woertz will take considerable heat for her decision to move. No doubt many folks will focus on the joke she made when she first accepted the job in 2006, that she worried about the lack of Starbucks outlets in Decatur.

But in 2013 it should be clear that recruiting and retaining the people needed to run a global company requires a location in a diverse, cosmopolitan location. When an executive moves to Decatur it means, among other things, that their spouse is unlikely to find professional-level work. Throw in the lack of ethnic diversity, high culture, hipster hangouts, gay-friendly communities, a subway and, yes, high-end coffee shops, and you've made it impossible to lure the majority of the best-educated younger people on earth.