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Archive for May, 2010

What could you do if your agency has to deliver more FDI inflow at less cost

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

If you are managing an Western FDI Agency that you are likely in this situtation; you face a rapidly increasing demand for FDI inflow combined with short term significant pressure on your FDI Agency budget.

And not to forget to further complicate the situation you’re in;  competition is increasing globally and heating up fast?

What could you do if you recognize this pattern as the situation you are in or heading towards? 

In my point of view this scenario most likely applies to most Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) promotion agencies globally. The current global ecomonic environment and situation is to complicated to assume that there is a one-size-fits-all problem and solution. But I believe that 80% will face this pattern of budget pressure already or very soon while having to deliver more FDI results at the same time in a more complex, more competitive and larger market due to the changing patterns in global FDI flows.

Now I worry about this as well as a business leader, even though our marketplace for global business locations provides a solution exactly to this problem. My interpretation is that innovation is hard and takes time to get adopted – even online innovation. I experience the FDI market appears largely as a conservative market – in particular in Europe. That is why it will be hard for most agencies to deliver what they need to in the near future. The good news is that there are proven solutions on the market that will support you with the transformation of your agency and FDI business model.

European government budgets (lets not forget the USA) are under more pressure every day, as governments realize that over spending and government lending have painful limits in uncertain markets. The need for Foreign Investments is mounting rapidly. FDI agency executives need a plan to cut budget and get more results delivered fast in a generally soft FDI market where companies are very cautious with strategic investments.

I recommend a strategy that is focused on;

  1. intelligent online promotion (cheeper than anything else)
  2. pro active investor acquisition (most effective but also most complex)
  3. transform the agency from volume processing to value creation (the only way to cut budget while increading output)

This requires that you can change your organization to become the leader in these areas. We know how to do that and have the services you need to implement this fast.

Do you have a different perspective on where the industry is heading? I welcome your point of view.

Would it not be easier to buy some Google Adwords such as FDI…

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

I just talked to a potential client and he raised the following challenge: “I believe it may be easier/more effective to buy some keywords in Google such as “FDI” and “Europe” to increase the visibility of our website.”

That’s a very valid and important question. Would it? I am sure it could but it would cost you a fortune and huge management effort to control the Adwords budget and keyword selection and placement positioning. Not because Adwords is difficult but because FDI is VERY GENERIC. Google would love you for placing that keyword – axe your Adwords credit line and you would end up competing heavily for FDI add placemen at high cost and marginal effect. Not a good idea at all.

What would work is that we agree with you – our Investment Promotion Agency or Location Promotion Agency client – to place Adwords against your profile page on Global-Arena.com. That would bring more effect and more impact for less cost. Way less. And, not at last, we could also tell you by our extensive ongoing FDI research what keywords fit your location advantages and investor acquisition strategy and in what countries it should run. It requires a lot of FDI global market insight to do this right. And that’s the only option you have considering the drain potential of this instrument on your marketing budget. Adwords the Tyrannosaurus Rex running around in your marking budget and department. Its impressive but hungry all the time.

I could go on for another 2 pages on this great topic in more relevant detail. We should. We will dive in to it in more detail in next articles.

Cheers – time to go to bed.

What’s going on at the FDI Marketplace – Google Pagerank up, more countries and locations and better search functionality

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

If we do the right things than what is going on at the FDI Marketplace matters to you our clients and users.

Some things you notice like more countries and more locations. Other things are equally important but take a bit of time and effort to experience; for instance that our Google Pagerank is rapidly improving. Global-Arena.com is on a steady and fast track to become a global top-100’000 website this summer. Nice – so what – you may think. Good to know that what this means is that our clients, your clients, can find us and your location easier in their Google Search queries. That matters a lot I trust. They find you when it matters most – when they need you.

I wanted to share a preview of our new FDI Site Search system but it appears we have to fix something on the Blog system first. Stay tuned for the preview.

Peter