Global Direct Investment Solutions

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GUIDE "Point of View" Presentations, Professional Data Analysis

Bruce Donnelly   bruce@gdi-solutions.com    (Biography)

Automotive manufacturing (on request)

Overview of the Fayetteville area and comparative advantages for this sector, with basic economic analysis prepared to support local investment promotion work.

Independent site selection consultant with significant automotive industry project experience for investments in the southeast US region and elsewhere in North America.

Distribution projects  (on request)

Given the location on the major I-95 corridor and other benefits of the area, as well as the existing base of companies and military logistics experience worldwide within the local workforce, this is another focus of investment attraction in Fayetteville because the area has already attracted successful distribution center projects in the past.

Cost comparisons for logistics projects would usually be very specific to the volume and distribution patterns of both inbound and outbound shipments for a particular company project, as well as other location selection factors for the operation.

Pharmaceutical / Biotech (on request)

North Carolina and this region of the state has successfully attracted pharmaceutical and related projects over the years, so it is one of the target sectors of Fayetteville.  Data from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in this report highlights the size and location of pharmaceutical manufacturers around the state, and what they produce.

There is no review of tax considerations, which are often a major factor in location selection for these projects because of the high value and margins of the products to support high R&D costs in this industry.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing projects are capital-intensive as a process industry, and involve much higher facility costs than many other industries.  These tend to be highly automated operations with well-paid and very skilled workers required to maintain strict process quality controls, so labor costs and training can be very important.

Plastics industry (on request)

One of the recent success stories of this area is the 2004 DuPont expansion which produces polymer sheets used by glass laminators, such as for safety glass in automotive and building windows.  Plastics projects are one of the target sectors for which this area may offer cost advantages.

Plastics component manufacturing is another capital-intensive process.  Building requirements vary widely, from basic shells to more sophisticated environments for food or pharmaceuticals packaging or medical devices and components, so it is hard to generalize about location cost benefits.  Labor skill requirements also vary.

Distribution projects

This basic research by a leading specialist in major distribution center projects was to review several potential sites and advise whether to target this sector for investment

Deane Foote led the work. Carter & Burgess was subsequently acquired by Jacobs.

As a new service, this section will take time to grow.  It is not free.  The sources of the "Point of View" presentations, which are generally promotional in nature, pay a nominal fee to support the cost of providing this service to potential investors and their advisors.

The concept is fairly simple.  Instead of consolidating and maintaining a massive database of many raw facts about thousands of places for analysis, such facts are readily available now from the original sources in many cases for use as necessary.  It can, however, be very tricky to reach valid conclusions about locations using data which was gathered for other purposes, or which may not be sufficiently timely or detailed.  Specialists are often retained by local areas to analyze such information in support of their promotional efforts, and this research can be helpful as a resource even though it is no substitute for analysis which is performed for a specific project rather than from a local promotional point of view.

This section will feature presentations by economic development professionals and independent professional advisors such as site selection consultants about the key points which differentiate their areas and should arouse the interest of potential investors or demonstrate the benefits which already attracted other companies in their areas.  These presentations will be organized by industry, topic or location.

As shown by the example below, this page serves as a guide to find and validate knowledge which others have chosen to share while promoting their areas.  It makes detailed local knowledge readily available at any stage of project planning.  Even though such information may already be published on other websites, it may be very hard to find.  This service highlights what is available.

•  Research - many sources of information for industries or key topics
•  Consultant Tips - published articles and sources
•  Contacts : Associations and Publishers
•  Contacts : Governmental Sources
•  Projects : Selective Announcements by Region or Industry
•  Bookshelf - suggestions in association with Amazon.com
•  For Executives : Regional Tables of Area Representatives
•  For Executives : Professional Service Providers
•  FAQ's : What about the "IEDC Data Standards"initiative

This section also complements other services related to promotional activities.

•  Advertising Recall service to help users find and respond to recent ads
•  InfoShop : highlighting available promotional materials, research

As this section grows, we will divide it into multiple, cross-linked pages to organize the presentations by geographic area, industry, or topic.

Similarly, pitches for logistics operations, shared services centers, call centers or other types of projects would be grouped together for the convenience of executives and their advisors so that it is easy to see who thinks they have a strong case to make, and how they back it up with facts and professional analysis which can be independently verified.

Those with a strong case to attract potential investors should put their "point of view" and supporting facts on the table for all to see.  This puts their "value proposition" where it is fast and easy for investors to find and explore, and to reach the relevant contacts for further assistance or detailed knowledge which is not openly published.

We are often asked by IEDC members whether the work of GDI Solutions or some of this website content conflicts with the IEDC "Data Standards" project, or competes with various publishers of data related to those standards, such as the IEDC/Conway Data portal, DevelopmentAlliance.com, where very few IEDC members have chosen to actually invest time and resources to publish such data about their areas despite almost constant promotion of that opportunity for several years.

It should be pointed out that the original focus of the data standards project was not to develop a better location selection tool for executives and their advisors, such as through database-screening and selection techniques against a standard database compiling thousands of data elements for thousands of places from many sources.

Instead, the original focus was to rationalize the conflicting information requests for similar needs among consultants, which frustrated many professionals and was more of a problem before many development agencies created effective websites and more independent sources of data became readily available over the Internet to anyone.

Indeed, many consultants who led this work (and contributed to that problem) have lost their positions subsequently as the market for location consulting services has changed dramatically.

Rather than try to identify suitable locations through database analysis and hypotheses about current business conditions for field validation research, the Internet has transformed this market by making it possible to share timely and reliable local knowledge and contacts in a globally consistent way from the earliest stages of project planning.

That is what we are doing - not building databases.  There are plenty of good database sources already, which we openly identify.  We are trying to better connect investors to services and places through openly shared knowledge and contacts within a consistent framework designed around investor needs, and delivered through personal working relationships - not database tools.

If we competed, why would we make it so easy to find these other resources, as we do through the contact lists of associations, publishers, and professional services related to economic development on this website?

For those who want to offer presentations related to the IEDC Data Standards, such as to highlight the availability of such facts through their websites or elsewhere, we're happy to include links to such content here in case it proves to be useful to some executives and their advisors.  After all, few areas actually offer such data in a way which makes it easy for investors and their advisors to find it when they need it, so we can highlight this as a point of differentiation if the area representatives wish to do so.

We happen to think that most areas can more effectively focus on the presentation of their more detailed local market knowledge and professional analysis, supported by facts which can be independently verified by those who are interested.

Realistically, we just don't see any evidence that the IEDC Data Standards will actually be used to create a tool which reflects how executives and their advisors actually seek information to support their location decisions in the new context of rapid availability of far more detailed local knowledge through the Internet.  Some of the old-fashioned database screening techniques are simply no longer relevant.

We'd be glad to see greater data consistency, relevance, and reliability through such a process, and to help executives and their advisors find such data, but the problem isn't us.  The areas and professionals aren't applying the standards, because they evidently don't see the value in them today which they foresaw before.

The other obvious problem is that the standards were developed with a focus on the US market, and did not easily adapt even to markets such as Canada, much less Europe or other parts of the world where comparable data sources may not exist or be very reliable.  That greatly limits the value of the concept to executives with global businesses.  It reflects the fact that most of the consultants making the unreasonable data requests were based in the US and dealing mostly with US projects, and most of the IEDC members who they were driving crazy in this manner were in the US.

Despite noteworthy efforts by Canadian EDAC leaders to collaborate and implement the standards for their own regions in a consistent manner, the objective reality is that there is no expectation of much progress in that regard in other parts of the world.  It is, therefore, simply not a viable global solution for direct investment projects today, and we are in the business of supporting investment project planners today.  If a better solution ever emerges, we will be glad to call investors' attention to it.

Frankly, the slow pace and great difficulties encountered in this process have even caused some cynical observers of the CRE profession to question whether it is in the interests of the CRE service providers to create a more efficient market in this manner, or whether they are quite happy to pay it lip service and let the idea fail.  They may still believe that proprietary solutions under their direct control, rather than open systems, serve their own interests better.  

The same can be said of competing economic development agencies.  We are demonstrably on the side of open solutions which deliver high value to investors, investment service providers, and representatives of investment alternatives (areas, property owners, etc.) in a more globally consistent and efficient marketplace.  That is simply not what the IEDC Data Standards project set out to achieve.  It addressed the problem of many different consultants making unreasonably detailed and inconsistent data requests of economic development organizations with limited resources.