| October 10, 2005 -- A new service,
The Professional Site Selection Tour" (PSST), will
help the economic development organizations of communities which want to attract more jobs, taxes, and other
social
benefits which flow from corporate investment projects such as new factories
and offices.
Executives often need help as they choose where to do business - and
how to negotiate the best deal - in places where the local business
environment will favor their success. In some cases, their evaluation
of strategic location alternatives may include the analysis of competing
countries rather than just site selection in various cities, states, or near
existing operations or clients. Existing locations may reflect past
market conditions and strategies rather than the future competitive
environment and growth potential of the company.
"Site selection" consultants specialize in helping
executives to choose where to invest. They also show local officials
how to compete more effectively for relevant projects.
In this niche market, top site selection consultants and
economic development professionals are obviously motivated to know each other, and
often meet at special events.
Community representatives invite influential advisors
to local hospitality functions and "familiarization tours" or
networking events designed to
showcase their areas. These events can be quite creative as areas
compete to attract attention, arouse interest, and develop closer working relationships
to be memorable when a relevant project comes along.
A general familiarization tour isn't the same, however, as
what happens when a consultant is hard at work with a top client on a major
project, and needs to carefully research an area as a potential business
location. After initial research work to narrow many "long list"
alternatives down to a "short list" of a few location preferences, the
competition heats up and the consultants prove the value of their experience
to clients as the project plans get down to critical details and
negotiations.
The Professional Site Selection Tour has been designed to
organize a selective group of top consultants to visit sponsor communities
for rapid research work as they would do for a corporate client, with
advance preparation to make the visit more productive, but with greater
feedback to the community officials during and after the visit about
perceptions of their competitive strengths and weaknesses, the types of
projects which they might potentially attract, recent market trends, and
their general suggestions for improvement.
Reports which summarize the key conclusions from Tour
visits, other than private advice to the sponsor communities, will be
published through
www.ontheshortlist.com along with the schedule of past and future Tour
events for the convenient reference of executives who may be interested in
such locations for their own business expansion plans. There will also
be profiles of the professional experience of the participating consultants,
and the relevant service capabilities of their firms, including how to
contact the consultants or Tour sponsors. |
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Global Direct Investment Solutions, as the organizer of
the Tour events, is somewhat like a concierge service in this global market
for corporate investment projects.
We independently organize and share useful market
knowledge and contacts to provide rapid and free, well-qualified referrals
in response to project enquiries. Our referrals are not limited to
"site selection" strategy consultants or economic development contacts,
since other types of specialists are relevant to the planning and
implementation of such projects.
This includes US and foreign direct investment (FDI)
projects in many industries. We use the term "global direct
investment" because we support corporate investment plans from anywhere, to
anywhere. "Foreign" reflects a nationalistic point of view, rather
than the obvious globalization of many industries.
Our focus on "solutions" involves the market research,
knowledge management, personal networking, and referral work to find
relevant professionals for a specific project requirement. Relevant
services already exist, if one knows how to find them. We help to find
and introduce potentially valuable solutions to the needs of the executives
and professional business advisors we serve. For example, our website
provides links to over 20,000 relevant resources worldwide for this niche
market, and already attracts 300,000+ visitors per year.
We also do marketing work on behalf of specific client
areas and professional service providers to help reach the relevant
executives who would value their capabilities. This reflects more than
15 years of personal experience in marketing and sales work for regional
economic development and professional consulting services, including
personal meetings with executives at 1000+ companies about their investment
plans. This personal experience includes professional work in Europe,
Asia, South America and North America.
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