Inward Investment Insight
Adam Breeze
2025-07-22

Like the fabled cobbler’s children with no shoes, too many inward investment teams preach about talented workforce; high-end skills and cutting-edge tech ecosystems – while simultaneously failing to invest in their own team and tools.

Inward investment training isn’t some ‘nice to have’ activity if there’s a bit of budget left in March. It’s mission critical and is far more important than every trade show; stakeholder meeting; partner briefing; marketing plan; sector research; LinkedIn post; CRM update; or any of the myriad activities that suck the hours out of every week in economic development land.

So to mark our 20th birthday, Breeze Strategy has developed a new suite of practical training solutions for inward investment teams that draws from two decades on the frontline of FDI and leverages the game-changing power of new tools, technology and techniques.

I started Breeze Strategy back in 2005, when Tony Blair had secured his third general election; Freddie Flintoff had just won the Ashes and Peter Kay was top of the charts with Tony Christie. LinkedIn had barely a million users and the only Apple device in your pocket was a nifty iPod that held your record collection.

Twenty years on, and I’ve trained more than 1,000 economic developers in the nuances of inward investment, delivering introductory courses for newbies; team away days and strategy sessions; and mentoring for senior management at some of the world’s best performing agencies (yes, that’s you MIDAS, Invest Bristol & Bath, Opportunity Bromley, Invest Telford and Invest Wolverhampton!… and that’s just from the last 12 months).

In 2025, inward investment teams face several tough challenges:

• Drastic decline in funding from central and local government

• Constant restructuring and organisational change

• Companies expanding earlier and faster than ever

• More locations than ever competing for investment

So we’ve devised new training modules that include:

• How to Do (far) More for (a hell of a lot) Less

• Global Scaleups and New Expansion Strategies

• Zero-Cost Lead Generation Techniques

• Leveraging AI, Data and Corporate Signals

• Latest International Exemplars of Excellence

My insights are not from outdated textbooks nor are they an AI-curation of aggregated consultancy BS. They are based on my unique, personal experiences of identifying, engaging and securing successful inward investment opportunities for my clients.

In the last few days, I’ve worked with a:

• Biotech scaleup on their expansion plans

• Nuclear manufacturing company’s international growth

• Robotics firm looking at site selection options

• Quantum investments in UK and US

• AI supercomputers and data center demand

• Drones and defence tech opportunities

I don’t have a team of researchers; or others I can delegate tasks to. So I know how to cut through the noise and engage with the right people at the right time. It’s all about agility and working smarter. So you need to embrace new tools and learn new skills.

I’m now looking to work with any teams that feel they need to sharpen their approach.

I have a limited number of training slots for the remainder of 2025 and early 2026.

Give me a shout if you’d like to chat about upskilling your team.

Invest in… Your Team.

Invest in… Your Tools.

Invest in… Training.

View original article at:
https://inwardinvestment.substack.com/p/cobblers-children-investment-teams