Tax relief. Lots of skilled labor. Affordable real estate. And so on. This year’s rankings by Site Selection magazine are interesting for lots of reasons–one of the most fascinating of which is how executives’ ranking of cities often differs considerably from the overall rankings.

For example, Ohio has moved up from position 8 to position 4–that’s a significant jump. But look at the ranking by corporate real estate executives–it’s only number 18. As the story says, a state has to have the right infrastructure in place and be competitive in incentives, taxes, etc., but even more importantly, its leaders must exhibit a spirit of cooperation. The old, “focus on the positive,” as opposed to finding reasons why you can’t do something, or it’s against the law, or that’s never been done before.

So studying what top contenders North Carolina and Texas have in the way of legal items is worthwhile, but watching how their leaders act when the chips are being counted may be even more so.