| By the nature of this business, we are
sometimes asked about potential conflicts of interest in our professional
work between two or three groups of participants and contacts with competing
interests or different objectives. We obviously may often serve
organizations which are direct competitors in the market in general, or even
organizations which are competing for contracts or specific investment
projects.
Is service to both sides a conflict of interest? We beg to differ.
That's capitalism. That's sales work, bringing two sides of a
transaction together to create value through terms which are attractive to
both. It's an open market, in which both sides either find an
acceptable basis for doing business together, or else they don't do the
deal. There is plenty of competition out there among service providers
and locations.
Unfortunately, sales work in this particular market has been so
fragmented and inefficient for so long that it may require further
explanation to understand our vision.
We're building a better "distribution channel" to bring this specialty
together and create a more efficient marketplace with participation by
leading professionals who are pursuing their own self-interests. We
succeed if they succeed, and they succeed if investors succeed.
The "Solution" in GDI Solutions is therefore largely through them, not
through what this firm could deliver if it became yet another small player
acting alone in another niche within this fragmented market.
This is a shared service to help all active participants (corporate
executives, service providers, and area representatives) come together as a
more efficient marketplace to achieve faster and better solutions at a far
lower cost than the past alternatives for developing personal relationships
and projects between these three groups.
Supply is introduced to Demand, and vice versa
As a "best practice" policy, we have chosen to adopt a practice of very
open disclosure to corporate executives of any "supplier" relationships we
may develop among professional service providers or area representatives, as
illustrated by the tables in the Participants and
other contacts section of this website.
This was our practice from the start, rather than a response to recent
events. We turned down exclusive contract terms which would have impaired
our ability to offer a truly independent service to investors on the
"demand" side of this market, as explained below.
We are not looking to promote "shopping" like an auction model, nor
inappropriate collaboration between market participants ("price" fixing,
etc.). We are simply providing a very responsive service to executives
who may have a legitimate interest in more than one service or location, and
to participants who can benefit from this independent distribution channel
to reach executives who need them.
We want to help both sides find a good match with their respective
interests, quickly and efficiently, to mutual benefit through any resulting
investment transactions between them.
We're like a well-informed broker in the middle, developing a valuable
base of knowledge, contacts and research capabilities to find and introduce
good matches, so both sides of a transaction are happy with the result.
Consolidator : "rolling up" an inefficient market
As one consultant quickly and very astutely observed in early 2002 when
the business model was first described to him, "You're a consolidator!"
Absolutely.
It is intuitively obvious that literally thousands of investment
promotion representatives struggle to attract investment projects to their
areas by a highly fragmented process. It is hard for any of them to
find the investors they seek, while it is similarly hard for the investors
to find what they are seeking. Towns, cities, counties, states,
regions, provinces and countries all spend a lot of money trying to find
investors on their own initiative.
It's analogous to a CFO having to go find all potential shareholders
personally if there were no marketplace to bring investors, investment
services, and investments together efficiently. A similar analogy
would be for consumer product companies to try to get all their products to
the end-consumers efficiently without retail distribution channels (whether
in stores or websites), such as by expecting every consumer to buy directly
from every supplier for everything they need.
In other words, there's a market for a marketplace.
There is a giant market of global direct investment projects, involving
billions of dollars invested worldwide by companies, without a structured
marketplace to help bring the "supply" and "demand" sides together.
Some of the investors already know where to find what they need, and may
rarely need assistance. Many others, however, need an efficient
marketplace to find faster and better solutions to their investment needs,
while the professional service providers and economic developers are
desperately trying to find those who need their services at the right time
to profit by such work.
Like the analogy of the CFO trying to find all the shareholders, or a
consumer trying to buy everything without retailers, the "supply side" lacks
an efficient channel to meet the "demand side", and vice versa. To
connect them effectively, however, requires a lot of knowledge rather than
just a simple directory listing.
There are many businesses which bring an otherwise inefficient market of
buyers and sellers together with the processes and knowledge to meet all
their needs more efficiently. Obvious examples are Amazon.com, Wal-Mart,
Home Depot, the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and many others.
The financial market analogy
The financial markets are a useful analogy for this business, as they
also bring investors, investment services, and investments together as an
independent marketplace for portfolio investments and the raising of capital
for businesses worldwide. There are also some overlaps, obviously,
between those markets and the market for major direct investment projects
worldwide, including such things as project finance, M&A transactions,
capital flows, etc.
Improving the "supply" side product offerings
Through the GUIDE process, we are trying to develop basic voluntary
standards compliance and new services to improve the quality of information
which is made available to executives on the "demand" side of this new
marketplace.
For example, any area representative on the "supply" side can publish
whatever information they want on their own websites, which we may use when
relevant to our needs, and are generally happy make readily available to
executives, as this website amply demonstrates in the section on
Participants and other contacts.
That is like a manufacturer who can make whatever product it chooses, and
promote it by any means through any channel. The choice is entirely
theirs.
If that area wants us to present a GUIDE Area Profile, GUIDE Area Report,
or GUIDE Experience Report to our "demand side" contacts, then they need to
participate actively in these services and respect the very simple GUIDE
standards involved.
GUIDE makes it easier for executives to find their preferred "product"
through better "off the shelf" information designed around the typical
decision process. This makes it easier for them to find any suitable
"product" and buy it, or to compare their alternatives before making their
decision. An introduction to the area representative, or a visit to
the area, can also obviously support that decision, but GUIDE makes it
easier to quickly choose who to meet or visit.
If areas want to be even more actively engaged in this new distribution
channel, like a "supplier" whose products we can more easily introduce to
our own growing base of "customers", then they need to participate to help
grow the SICR relationships on the "demand" side of our business. That
is like the choice facing a manufacturer, who must choose whether to sell
only through direct channels, or through intermediaries which serve the
intended market.
As with GUIDE, however, there's no obligation for areas to join SICR, nor
will we even agree to accept all "products", because we have to use our own
judgment about which products we actually expect our own base of consumers
to demand.
In this manner, many areas might benefit from GUIDE even if they choose
to go to market through other channels, either in parallel with our SICR
work or without it. We're not trying to replace their own direct sales
or marketing efforts. We just think our more "consolidated"
distribution channel should complement any more direct promotional efforts
to reach investors, just as manufacturers may still advertise and promote
their products directly even while they sell through independent
representatives or retailers.
We may also discover in the future, as our channel grows or as the market
changes, that there is more demand for some services or areas than we had
anticipated. We may therefore add (or drop) "suppliers" or "products"
later according to our own judgment of our marketplace.
Think of it as the marketplace for capital investment projects, rather
than as yet another service provider on the "supply" side, or the investor
on the "demand" side. Indeed, that all depends on your point of view.
The investor is the "supplier" of the capital, technology, jobs and other
benefits which business locations are seeking, and also supply the
profitable opportunities which the service providers are seeking to sell
valuable services. |
This business is easily visualized as being
analogous to a large retail store for complicated products. The store can offer
many competing products on its' shelves. There may be many good
choices "on the shelf", ready to meet the needs of a wide variety of
expected customers, but good salespeople may still need to possess strong product knowledge to
help customers make good choices quickly and easily.
The "store" may also be very selective about what it offers to customers
within that store, given the high investments and low margins involved.
Management exercises judgment about the typical expectations of its' customers,
the customer perceptions of the various products, and the relationships with many active and potential suppliers. Limited space and
financial resources require choices about what to offer to customers, and
how to present "merchandise" at the point of sale.
The "not on the shelf today" problem
To continue the analogy, talented sales people in a good store may also
exercise very valuable judgment in their advice to specific customers.
Their product knowledge and customer feedback help to differentiate
which products may be the most appropriate match for buyer interests.
This isn't a simple matter of directing every buyer to the same product. In
the interest of maintaining a valued customer relationship, a good salesperson
may even refer a customer to a competing store for a product which they do
not offer or don't have "in stock" at the time.
Of course, neither the salesman, the store owner, the suppliers, or the customers are likely to be very happy if this "out of stock" outcome happens
repeatedly. The store needs to offer "on the shelf" or "just in time"
what the customers were seeking when they arrived at the store, ready to
buy. The store may never get a second chance if the first impression
is that the store doesn't have what the buyer needs, or can't at least help
the buyer to find a solution today.
Each consumer is free to decide what, where, and how they want to buy,
and at what price. Similarly, in this business, GDI Solutions is a new
distribution channel to bring investors, investment services, and
investments together in the global direct investment marketplace.
This isn't just a website of many links. The key to this service is
to quickly and easily find good solutions to complex investor needs by
applying extensive market knowledge developed through working relationships
on both the "Supply" and "Demand" sides of this market. We are helping
the Supply side to reach customers, but we need to satisfy the Demand side
by being very responsive to investor needs.
Market "pull", not supply-side "push"
We are not here to "push" any service or location at anyone. We are
here to add value, and thereby to profit, by making it much easier for these
three networks we serve to connect more efficiently and effectively through
better sharing of knowledge, contacts, and research and the development of
valued relationships among the many executives who may seek assistance in
this market.
In a retail store, it's easy for a consumer to notice "what's on the
shelf, or not", and to simply choose which store to favor according to such
choices by store management. In our niche, that is more difficult.
Although there are many available sources of information about
professional service providers and business locations, we are unaware of any
service which is directly comparable to Global Direct Investment Solutions.
Some of the available sources of information may not be as "independent" or
complete and reliable as they appear at first glance. They may be
fundamentally promotional in nature, with a very selective use of facts.
Caveat emptor!
To continue the analogy, retailers can encourage their suppliers to
continually improve the quality of their products in response to feedback
from customers and judgment about their expectations, and by being selective
about what goes in the store. The suppliers can still do what they
wish, including not doing business with that retailer, but the retailer is
also free to choose which products to carry or promote.
The retailer is also free to inform consumers about how products differ
for their own stated needs, including feedback about complaints from other
customers or independent market research services. The consumer still
makes the buying decision, but the retailer can improve the marketplace by
independently helping the consumers to find and buy quality products
efficiently, which builds a loyal and valuable base of customers.
Furthermore, the distribution channel with the best products and the best
services generally profits better than small retailers who offer few
products of interest, no matter how capably they may try to "push" them.
There can be very high value in going to market more efficiently.
Like a very large retail channel, our role is to offer many very good
choices which are responsive to the interests and feedback of our
"consumers" so that we build valuable, ongoing relationships to serve their
needs. We want to have a very interesting "mix" of "products" by
working very closely with the leaders in this profession.
The relationship leader as "buyer"
Our relationship development leaders will play a role comparable to the
professional "buyer" for a retailer, who needs to be very aware of general
market demands and trends, and stay alert to business opportunities among
the "consumers" who frequent their stores, so that the right "products" will
be on the shelf when the consumer wants to buy them. They also need to
be very savvy about what will differentiate one location or service from
another from the perspective of the executive. In other words, we need
to be sold on the "product" first, so that we will know when it may be
appropriate for executives.
That illustrates how the GUIDE services improve the knowledge we have "on
the shelf" through our "supply" side relationships, while the SICR service
grows our base of "demand" side relationships among executives.
Service to both sides isn't a conflict of interest
That's the vision of independence behind this business. We want to
create an independent marketplace as an intermediary which will benefit both
the "supply" and "demand" side. That isn't a conflict of interest.
It's capitalism at work. We profit by introducing supply to demand,
and vice versa, to the benefit of both sides of any resulting transactions.
We don't want to stay in the middle of any transactions - we just want to
help make valuable introductions for faster and better projects.
We may be obliged by executives to not reveal the identify of their
companies, or to maintain an intermediary role during the early stages of
project planning, but we generally encourage direct introductions.
Anonymous searches with sketchy details may limit the ability of
professionals to be creative and apply their greater local knowledge in
their responses to enquiries. On the supply side, however, we openly
disclose the existence and nature of any relationships or contracts we may
have with service providers or area representatives.
This is professional shared CRM work for profit
This is a corporation, rather than a non-profit association or a service
provider such as a publisher or location consultant. We do not intend
to become the exclusive sales representative to "push" any single service
provider or business location. We intend to develop independent
working relationships with many executives, and with many service providers
and area representatives, including direct competitors.
While we expect to develop highly-qualified introductions to executives,
that will be driven by what they want to do, rather than by trying to do a
lot of "lead generation" and "introductory meeting scheduling" to generate
activity for a specific area representative. We're not in the business
of generating unproductive activity, such as a target number of introductory
meetings for a participating service or area.
"Pull" in introductions, rather than "push" them
We will develop many relationships among executives, but we will
introduce them according to their interests rather than to hit "targets" of
area representatives for "leads" or introductory meetings to "pitch" their
areas. Our focus is on helping to develop major projects as quickly
and effectively as possible in good locations - not to generate a lot of
meetings which may add little value.
We welcome the opportunity to serve as a distribution channel for many
quality "products" to many "consumers" in the global direct investment
marketplace through contractual agreements to provide services of mutual
benefit to both sides of the resulting transactions in an independent and
highly professional manner.
This is professional sales work as an independent intermediary.
Consultants may write about "disintermediation" as a consequence of
"e-business", but this is definitely not an "e-business" by that model.
We're an independent intermediary, developing valuable personal working
relationships and innovative services to the three sides of this market in the
traditions of professional salesmanship and marketing, or what consultants
prefer to call "Customer Relationship Management" (CRM) these days.
Forget the jargon. This is sales work to build a major, independent
distribution channel for capital investment, professional services, and good
business locations to all profit by doing more successful business together,
and we profit as the salesperson who helps make it happen. It will
take a lot of hard sales work and resources to build a valuable distribution
channel for this market.
It's like becoming the retailer for a whole world full of direct
investment opportunities. GUIDE stocks the shelve on the supply side
while SICR brings in the customers on the demand side. GDI Solutions
maintains the market knowledge to bring them together effectively, and we're
now open for business and will be growing our capabilities and resources as
fast as possible.
That's "corporate development for a networked world", bringing our three
networks together to succeed by sharing valuable knowledge, contacts, and
research. |
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