A national Chamber of Commerce ranking of the best cities for business has Houston fourth. The rankings mainly follow population size, but experts say Houston has more than just size going for it.
Peter Rodriguez is dean of the Jones School of Business at Rice.
"We should be really happy about that; we'd love to be higher and I think there are things we all know we'd like to do better to get there, such as educational outcomes and maybe some effort at improving infrastructure."
Professor Rodriguez says Houston has a good, young, diverse workforce.
"It's a good mix of high-income jobs with a lot of skilled workers at the low end but also a great young population."
Professor Rodriguez says at some point oil will be less important, but he doubts Houston will suffer in an energy change the way Pittsburgh did with the loss of steel.
"There are some other cities that have gone through their trials, like Pittsburgh with steel and others; but we're less reliant on energy than they were with steel. But we've got to get moving and we've got to keep looking forward, but if that change comes quickly it'll be tough."
Professor Rodriguez says Houston's size, in addition to its young, diverse population, will keep it among the best cities to do business. Dallas also made the top ten.