International Business Environment and Website Development - Essay Example

When most people think of economic development, they think of attracting industry to their community. They think that somehow, a company chooses a community and finds a place to build an establishment. But like most things in life, the site-selection process is not that simple. A great amount of time must be spent in preparing for development and meeting the requirements of prospective businesses.

The following story provides a useful illustration:
This reality is of particular importance to an industrial or retail firm selecting a site. Firms complete a great deal of market analysis before searching for a suitable location. In addition, firms compile detailed information regarding the cost of products. They know whether electricity cost is more important than freight cost or labor price. Prepared with a list of "must-haves" based on this information, the firm's site consultant or representative begins the quest for the firm's ideal location. You can be assured that, like the shopper looking for a pair of shoes, individuals seeking a site for their firms are not about to change the selection criteria because they had a great dinner at your local restaurant. That is why developing a site is so competitive and requires a great deal of preparation by community leaders. It didn’t work for our shoe clerk to offer to dye the shoes the right color, and it won’t work for a community when it offers to change the terrain of its local industrial site. Instead, a community needs to spend time long before that first visit by a firm’s site-selection team seeking answers to the details regarding the site the community wishes to promote. The more a community considers site-selection criteria before it selects or develops a particular site for promotion, the lower the likelihood becomes that local leaders will need to explain why they spent so many public dollars on a site that is drawing no interest.

WHAT IS A SITE?
Most communities in the UK can claim to have sites available for business development. Under closer inspection, these sites are usually either undeveloped open spaces (often agricultural lands) at the edge of the community or former industrial lands within the community. Both of these share a common problem: Businesses cannot occupy them without substantial infrastructure improvements. Sites that have been previously used for industry or other activities are called brownfield sites. Most are in central city areas and are often surrounded by mixed land uses such as residential, commercial, or public (schools and hospitals, for example). Usually, brownfield sites were occupied by industrial complexes. Since older industries used multistory facilities, these sites are often on small parcels of land. Modern factories are laid out horizontally (using one story) to facilitate assembly lines and the flow of products.