fdi leaders

Congratulations to London, winner of the 2012 City of the Year at the annual Wallpaper Design Awards - judged to be the most happening city in the world.  2012 is a big year for London!

It is always a pleasure to engage with a location which has real depth and its own style and sense of place.  As opposed to some locations, which feel scratched together - a jumble of key industry clusters; an “available flexible highly-skilled workforce”; a few universities; and of course, an international airport within an hour’s drive. These locations which are fabricated for the purposes of FDI attraction tend to wear thin quickly and their lustre soon fades.  Whereas the genuine article shines through consistently.

One such impressive location is the region of Catalunya in Spain. This is a location which doesn’t disappoint in its story telling. While the region’s investment promotion agency ACC10 may have had a few name changes over the years, its story has remained the same, offering a fascinating history with a dynamic present and a confident future.

In FDI promotion, a good understanding of the alphabet is useful, particularly with the letters “X” and “Y”.

These days, the location decision-makers in companies are mostly from Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976), but a lot of their location research is focused on how to attract and retain the talent of Generation Y (born between 1977 and 1998).

The investment promotion agencies are mostly led by Generation X’ers, but their teams are increasingly made up of Generation Y.  To get the right messages across to the Generation X corporates, the IPAs need to ensure that X and Y work together on their messaging and delivery.  So the equation for success is X+Y = FDI.

Best name award for a government fund to attract foreign investors must surely go to Korea’s recently established “Global Win-Win Fund”.  Backed by the state-run Korea Finance Corporation, this fund aims to “help foreign investors hedge and diversify risks” when investing in Korean companies.  It aims to bring in further expertise and technologies to the already uber-tech Korean economy.

Other FDI sweeteners being offered by the Korean government include tax-breaks; easier visa requirements; and the establishment of six free economic zones across the country where foreign investors get financial and legal incentives.

When locations put on events to say how wonderful they are, the clever ones have locally-based foreign corporates telling the story.  After all, they bring credibility and peer appeal.

Today, Lisbon was in London to promote its attractions for FDI, and it was the corporates that Invest Lisboa brought along who convinced us of its strengths for businesses.  The two location factors that stood out were people (a great workforce) and property (very attractive costs).  Overall, we got the impression of an international city which leads a small determined country aiming to re-engineer itself through the current difficult economic times.

We think Lisbon is worth a look.

Well done Riga - chosen to be the next location for TechHub, the dynamic tech startup co-working space established in London right next to the “silicon roundabout”.  TechHub Riga will open in January 2012 and will be a very useful addition to the fast growing tech scene in Latvia and Estonia.

Continuing the conversation on the wonder of apps, we are very pleased to see the launch of the free Tech City app for iphone and android - is this the first place marketing app for inward investment???

Tech City is demonstrating its tech credentials with this savvy move - well done!

What other exciting apps can we develop for the world of inward investment?  If anyone is thinking about this and wants to work with us and our tech team on future apps development, do get in contact!

Everyone who works in an investment promotion agency needs to have good media and pr skills. After all, that is what the job is all about - effective story telling.

We are great believers in self-empowerment, and as we now operate in the age of the app, our good friends John and Roland have developed the killer app for business people who want to be super story tellers.

It is the world’s first comprehensive online media training course, and it is called Option 33.  If this is of interest to you, get in contact and we will get you a good deal!

Well done Vilnius putting out the story of the Mayor and his zero tolerance approach (with a tank) to illegal car parking.  Viewed by over three million on You Tube and picked up by the media across the world.  Great story - leadership in action!

We have been encouraged by various people in the know to get a facebook page.  After all, it is a network with more than 800 million active users…

So, we have finally overcome our reticence and gone for it.  We now proudly present our facebook page to the world.  We are keen to be liked, and hope that we can get our “like this” total in to double figures!  So do visit our page and press that button.  Many thanks!