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For all the talk about Canada being a trading nation, we aren’t when it comes to small and medium sized enterprises. While SME’s account for roughly 95 percent of all companies in Canada, and create 65 percent of all jobs, Canadian SME export rates are at less than 2 percent.
Canadian exporters begin international negotiations with a negotiating deck already stacked in their favour, but this is an asset that many are not aware of.
I first became interested in trade during my time at business school in the Netherlands. The experience opened my eyes to many of the non-tariff barriers that enterprises face in reaching export markets and how businesses from a “small country” can actively participate in international trade. Now I am leveraging my experience and education for trade impact.
Despite their loss in Congress this week, the vigorous opposition to TPP will continue when the actual treaty is finalized and presented to Congress for ratification. Is the TPP deal another giant sucking sound as former presidential candidate Ross Perot called the NAFTA agreement?
The ‘old-fashioned’ notion of ethical conduct in international business, and doing what’s right (for its own sake, can you believe it??!) has somehow gotten terribly lost, and risks being lost even more strikingly when businesses of all sizes and businesspeople of all levels venture into international markets.
There are many rewards to expanding business globally. Increasing global exposure, market share and profitability are just a few of the many good things that can happen. One major roadblock preventing organizations from growing their businesses in a new export market is the inherent risks involved.
Sonia Mancuso Root, CITP®|FIBP®, is Vice President of Business Development at Agrisource Food Products Inc., a world-class broker and distributor, where she helps companies manage their offshore arrangements and keep their supply chains running smoothly.
She has over twenty-five years of experience in international business and has been a CITP®|FIBP® since 2009. She credits the practical skills gained through her education and her linguistic abilities with her success in the industry.
In March, FITT hosted an intensive training course for locally engaged Trade Commissioners (DFATD) from all around the world.
In the two separate training groups there were over 30 nationalities present, creating a unique challenge to instructors Ennio Vita-Finzi, CITP®|FIBP® and Ray Joyce, CITP®|FIBP®. How does one maintain consistency in training while getting the message across to such a diverse group of people?
The journey, for me, is a major part of the experience of international business, and of any form of business travel: it is about much more than efficient and predictable displacement from “Point A” to “Point B”, and it provides countless opportunities for the exercise of civility, personal discipline and enrichment.
There are plenty of reasons why businesses branch out from local to international sales. Expanding your business by taking it to a new market offers a wealth of advantages and opportunities. You can grow sales, balance out seasonal instability, extend the life cycle of your products, and tap into a completely new market. However, making those first inroads in a new market is a significant challenge. So, how do you build trust in your company and your product in a new region?
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