What is The Site Selectors Guild And Why You Should Care?
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFounded in 2010, the Site Selectors Guild is an organization comprised of the top site selectors in the world. Membership carries the highest professional standards in the site selection industry. The members of Guild are peer-selected after a rigorous application and personal interview process, which involves feedback from current members of the SSG and economic development professionals from around the world. A key component of the member selection process involves a demonstration of true site selection work on behalf of several different clients in a large geographical area. Today, the Guild has 44 members based in Asia, Europe and North America that provide site selection strategy to corporations across the globe and for every industry, sector, and function.
The members of the SSG represent many of the largest corporations in the world, including the majority of Fortune 1000 companies. In addition, the globe’s largest privately held companies turn to Guild members to guide them through the process of selecting a location for new, expanded or relocated facilities. Members of the SSG advise their clients on a number of corporate challenges such as aligning global or regional footprints, assessing the impact of relocation or consolidation, helping to determine which real estate options work best, evaluating the quality and cost of talent, and many other factors.
C-suite leaders trust members of the Guild to help design and execute a detailed site selection process to position their companies to make the best informed decision possible in this process. Members of the SSG provide recommendations that are strictly based on the best interests of their client. Guild members use analytical tools, models, relationships and accumulated experience to help corporate clients optimize their location decisions.
Economic development professionals know that when a member of the SSG brings a project before them for consideration, it is a high quality company and project opportunity. By leveraging relationships, managing site visits, analyzing data and sharing knowledge, Guild members enhance the quality and expedite the timeline for a project. In particular, members of the SSG have very strong relationships with economic development professionals which makes everyone’s jobs easier during the process.
It is the vision of the SSG is to ensure every corporate location decision is guided by an experience site selection professional. These factors help drive the importance of developing the relationships between Guild members, economic development professionals and corporate leaders.
Members of SSG are committed to:
- Acting with integrity
- Upholding the highest professional standard of conduct
- Providing objective analysis and advice
- Collaborating with their peers to develop and promote the profession of location strategy and site selection consulting
- Continuously engaging in professional education and development
- Respecting their peers
So, why should you care about the SSG?
The most important reason is that the economic development professionals in your community, region and state, who work to attract capital investment, retain and create jobs and raise wage levels in the areas they serve, work closely with Guild members. The result of this hard work is the creation of economic growth and wealth for communities, regions, states and their citizens. Strong collaborative efforts between members of the SSG, corporate leaders and economic developers create positive outcomes for all involved.
Secondly, the clients that Guild members represent are more likely to meet or exceed the commitments that they make to the community, region and state where the project is ultimately located. This is not to say that companies that do not use a member of the SSG to provide professional services, but rather, economic development professionals, elected officials and residents can have a higher degree of confidence that the company’s promises will be met due to the guidance provided by a Guild member to their corporate client.
When you have an opportunity to speak with economic development professionals in your area, be sure to ask them about the SSG and the work they have done with these top site selectors. Hopefully, you will hear positive feedback about their experiences and have a better understanding of the hard work of your local, regional and state economic development professionals.
Larry Gigerich serves as Executive Managing Director of Ginovus and is a member of the Site Selectors Guild, an international organization comprised of 44 peer recognized site selectors.