While commending the ‘Sri Lanka Invest Forum 2021’ which was held last week, MTI Consulting has highlighted the need to diligently track and progress every single interest indicated and convert them to ‘bottom-line’ impact.
“Sri Lanka’s initiative to hold this forum is very timely – given that nations and corporations around the world are trying to figure out emerging opportunities and strategic responses in a post-Covid environment. There is significant ‘noise’ and ‘clutter’ out there in the global FDI space, with nations scrambling to attract attention, position themselves, and get FDIs into their countries. One of the major pitfalls of such forums is the lack of diligent follow-up post the forum, where each inquiry is tracked via a simple conversion model,” said CEO of MTI Consulting, Hilmy Cader.
According to MTI (having carried out assignments in 49 countries in the past 24 years), after the glamour and excitement of such exhilarating events, there is a tendency to lose focus on the more mundane Opportunity Conversion Process. This requires taking each simple inquiry, validating them, responding to each of them, and taking them through a step-wise progression. Converting FDIs can be a long process, it needs diligent tracking to ensure small steps of progress are made frequently, ultimately leading to the FDI conversion.
According to MTI CEO, “Countries that have robust e-Gov processes and are high on ease-of-doing-business tend to score on this front. Even in such cases, a more personalized approach can help. Hence the need for a ‘High Tech – High Touch’ approach.”