Do you know what actually happens when a company considers locating in Wisconsin? Who do companies rely on to obtain data when deciding where to locate their new or expanding business? If you are not involved in the economic development field, you may be surprised to learn that the site selection process – the steps firms use to find new locations for business facilities or expansions of their operations – is often not carried out by executives within the company itself. Increasingly, large and medium-sized businesses are using specialized firms to do the legwork. These firms, known as “site selection consultants”, usually fly below the radar screen and out of the public eye, but they have come to play a significant part in the business location process. As a matter of fact, more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies utilize site selection consultants when seeking out new corporate locations.
For example, when Ford Motor Company chose Menomonie, Wisconsin for a new parts distribution center, it utilized the services of a site selection consultant for the location decision-making process. The same for Rockwell when it moved its corporate headquarters to Milwaukee from California, as well as when Nestle located a second production facility in our state. Site selection consultants are experts in pulling together detailed data on potential business locations as they guide company executives through extensive site, demographic and local information. This process is designed to identify communities that meet the respective criteria, standards or deadlines of the business and thus develop a “short list” that typically includes three to five communities. Some site selection consultants even have specialized internal departments that stay involved in the process through the final negotiations with local and state governments to advise their clients on financial incentives and other finer points of the deal.
While there are hundreds of individuals that work in the site selection field, there are about a dozen or so major site selection firms – many of which are associated with accounting or real estate firms. A few of the players in the field are The Wadley-Donovan Group, Deloitte Consulting, The Staubach Company, and Moran, Stahl & Boyer. Since site selection consultants work on several corporate location projects a year for different clients, it is very important to have a relationship with them in that any one firm can potentially give our state multiple opportunities to obtain corporate expansion projects. In addition, these projects tend to include a large capital investment with many family supporting jobs – the exact kind of business expansions and growth Governor Doyle has sparked with his Grow Wisconsin Plan.
As Wisconsin’s public-private business marketing group, Forward Wisconsin is working to make sure our state is on the minds of site selectors when their clients are looking to expand. Our job is to open their eyes to the many attractive things going on in our state, including our world class research and educational institutions, our highly productive and educated workforce, the top notch companies already located in our state and our tremendous quality of life, to name a few.
Forward Wisconsin’s traditional economic development marketing activities include: participating in industry tradeshows, advertising in trade publications, conducting marketing missions to neighboring states, distributing direct mail, dispatching electronic communications, as well as working with regional and national media. However, due to the important role site selection consultants now play, Forward Wisconsin has totally revamped what has become the most important tool in economic development – our website located at ForwardWI.com. We now maintain a comprehensive database of locations, available buildings and community information on the Internet. Our new website, which recently won an award from the Mid-America Economic Development Council, has moved Wisconsin to the forefront with regard to accessibility of the types of information that site selection consultants need immediate access to.
Now, the next time you read about a major corporation opening a new facility in Wisconsin, you’ll know that it is pretty likely that a site selection consultant was involved. You will now also know the vital role Forward Wisconsin plays in the process of creating relationships with these “mystery” consultants. The key to our ultimate success is to communicate and create awareness amongst this group of Wisconsin’s many assets. The best part is that we have a tremendous story to tell! Take a look at ForwardWI.com for more information.
–Pepi Randolph is the President of Forward Wisconsin
