Laurel Delaney

If you’ve been following our blog series on internationalizing your company, On Your Mark, Get Set, Go Global, you will have made considerable strides by now. You’ve considered the pros and cons of exporting, weighed your chances for success and learned the importance of choosing a promising product or service. You’ve taken advantage of the wealth of information and assistance that’s available to hopeful overseas traders, and you’re moving toward putting together a viable plan for your first export trial run.

Now you are ready to think about recruiting your in-house export team. As you prepare for this new development, you must remember this above all: The success of your export venture depends on a company-wide commitment. If you’re a solo operator, that means you. If you work for a large corporation, it means the executive committee, followed by the finance, operations, marketing/sales, transportation, legal, communications, data-entry, research and service departments. You’ll be setting up a network rather than an isolated department of your own, and utilizing your company’s existing human resources as much as possible.

Once you’ve evaluated the departmental resources already in place and mapped out exactly what will be required to export your product or service, you’ll prepare a list of what is required from each of these departments. Then you’ll approach each department and present the list to someone who might be willing to be a part of your export team. To whom do you go first? Someone with great sales(wo)manship qualities, an interest in the international scene, bi- or multilingual language abilities, cross-cultural awareness, good communication skills, attentiveness to detail and persistence. Use your own salesmanship here, and frame it as a challenge they won’t be able to resist. read more

So you want to take the plunge and go global with your product or service. How do you begin?

Let me give you a competitive start: Produce the highest quality product or service at the lowest cost and sell that product in every market on the face of the earth. If you do this, you will successfully globalize your company.

The real reason for exporting is to globalize your company and prosper in the 21st century and beyond. Any product or service can be exported. You just need a track (or a plan, as my colleague Tim Berry would say) to run on and a manageable process.

My track allows you to close your first export deal in your target country and worldwide markets by following five steps. It won’t happen overnight, but by the end of this blog series (if you stay with me), I guarantee you will know how to export. It will be up to you as to whether you actually do it. Each of the steps will be explained. This post covers the trial run phase. Subsequent posts will feature points 2-5:

1. Plan the trial run
2. Prepare the export team and organization
3. Enter the trial market
4. Close the first deal
5. Evaluate the trial run

Plan The Trial Run

In planning the trial run, these are the questions you must ask yourself: read more

I sure am tired of hearing and reading about the global financial crisis. Why just Thursday The Wall Street Journal headline was: “Market’s Fall Deepens as Concerns Mount on Banks.” Yes, it’s a reality — we are in an economic crisis and the flow of capital to grow our businesses stinks — but we don’t have to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.

What should you be doing to deal with this situation? My advice is to stay as far away as possible from negative, can’t-make-it-happen kind of folks. Hang out with like-minded global entrepreneurs and business owners who are on a mission to change the world — crisis or no crisis, money or no money. And believe me, it’s these kinds of individuals who are doing things differently and making things happen in a very restricted economy. Let me explain.

I just returned from Evian, France, where the World Entrepreneurship Forum, the first worldwide think-tank dedicated to entrepreneurship and its role in society, took place.

The Forum brought together more than 80 participants, representing 35 nationalities, of the highest level: entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, political decision-makers and international experts.

The central theme of the forum was “Entrepreneurship as a creator of economic wealth and social justice,” and attendees came away with recommendations for how we can create a more favorable environment for entrepreneurship, how we can assess the actions taken by entrepreneurs and how we can better train the entrepreneurs of the future.

Throughout the entire rigorous two-and-a-half day program, never did I hear a word about how bad the economy is. Our focus was on creating an environment in our world where every citizen has a chance to become an entrepreneur — in good times or bad — and ensuring improved economic conditions for all. Why? Because it’s the entrepreneurs and small businesses in the world that will lift us up to a new and improved global economy. read more

Have you ever wondered if you could order a McHuevo in Uruguay?

Yes, you can — but if you’re an American touring Bombay or Delhi, for instance, you might well ask, “Where’s the beef?” Due to the religious beliefs of many Indians, there won’t be any! Instead, you’ll see a McVeggie or McAloo — don’t ask me what the latter is — which you can check out for yourself.

McDonald’s is opening restaurants worldwide, faster than you can say “two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame-seed-bun,” and keeping pace with market-smart variations on their traditional menu.

If money were no object, think what fun it would be to travel around the world and check out the Golden Arches in every country to see what that local menu offers and how McDonald’s applies (enforces) the concept of local footprint, global reach! I will spare you the expense. Right here, right now you can get an insanely great idea of what the journey would be like — the differences in culture, food offerings and technology from country to country — by surfing online. Let’s take a look:

• Norway: The “Laksewrap Wasabi,” a salmon wrap with dill sauce.

• Netherlands: The “Groenteburger,” a vegetable burger.

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In my last post I talked about two success stories that illustrate how easy it is — provided you consider forming a strategic global alliance (SGA) — to take your business global. As a result of my post, which focused on product exports versus services, one reader raised a great question: Is there a true opportunity for consultants in the United States to do business globally or is the opportunity primarily for product companies?

I touched on the surface of the answer here but I’m going to dig a bit deeper now.

Whether you are exporting a product or service, it is a given that you will confront numerous market barriers — governmental, practical, cultural and economic. These barriers can be quite challenging, not to mention extremely frustrating, to a new-to-export service company. To overcome them and beat out the competition, you will need to plan on being aggressive and persistent, and on taking longer to establish a business presence than you may have expected. Let’s get acquainted with the barriers: read more

The Olympics in China, surging wealth in oil nations, a strong European Union — all of these have U.S. entrepreneurs thinking: Mmmmmmmm, so how can I get a piece of that? How can I start going global?

The current downturn in the U.S. has made global ventures increasingly attractive — and worth the learning curve.

The good news is that the learning curve can be accelerated. What I’ve discovered years ago when I first went global is this: We don’t have to proceed alone.

Actually, it’s smart, at least initially, not to even try.  Instead, read more