Q: Which are the basic information you should have if you are to be an effective International Trade Manager in an exporting firm ?
A: International Trade Management
Which is the basic information you should have?
If you are to be an effective International Trade Manager in an exporting firm?
What is International Trade?
International trade can be defined as either the buying (importing) or selling (exporting) of goods or services on a global basis.
Thanks in great measure to the Internet; many starting businesses can enrich their prospects of success by incorporating IT into their overall business plan. In some cases, a business can be enhanced by incorporating IT marketing to supplement a domestic operation. In other cases, a business can depend solely on international trade.
Let’s review some examples:
Exporting
Quality Naturally Foods, (say) ABC Inc ( say) ., in the City of Industry, manufactures prepared bakery mixes for its sister companies Yum Yum Donuts and Winchell Donuts. These and similar mixes are now sold to outlets in India. The added volume has reduced costs of production which has benefited all customers.
Assume that the xyz.com, the preeminent online marketer (and inspiration for thousands of online entrepreneurs) has a home page toolbar called “International”. The company xyz says: “Around the World, wherever you are, get what you want—fast—from our family of Web sites.”
Importing
Good Tables, Inco Indian company , formerly manufactured furniture in its plant but was losing sales due to cheaper foreign made products. The manufacturing was moved to another place in a “maquiladoras” factory.
Funrise, Inc. Woodland Hills, India, has become a world leading marketer of toys. Design, packaging and production are outsourced, primary to vendors in China.
Hollow Corporations
International trade is especially appropriate for the rapidly growing number of “hollow corporations.” Session one of this course refers to a hollow corporation as a business without a factory and with a minimum number of employees in which manufacturing is performed by outside suppliers. A hollow corporation might depend on outside suppliers for virtually all of its products, such as an American toy company importing product from China. Or, it might depend on outside suppliers for selected components in its overall product line, such as The Boeing Company. (Boeing is using Japanese firms for components of the new 787 airliner.)
Advantages and Disadvantages of International Trade
Advantages to consider:
• Enhance our domestic competitiveness
• Increase sales and profits
• Gain our global market share
• Reduce dependence on existing markets
• Exploit international trade technology
• Extend sales potential of existing products
• Stabilize seasonal market fluctuations
• Enhance potential for expansion of your business
• Sell excess production capacity
• Maintain cost competitiveness in your domestic market
•Disadvantages to keep in mind:
• We may need to wait for long-term gains
• Hire staff to launch international trading
• Modify your product or packaging
• Develop new promotional material
• Incur added administrative costs
• Dedicate personnel for traveling
• Wait long for payments
• Apply for additional financing
• Deal with special licenses and regulations
Top Ten Do’s and Don’ts
TOP TEN DO’S
1. We should take international trade classes at the college level.
2. Visit trade shows and trade missions. See http://www.tsnn.com.
3. Join an international trade association specializing in your business.
4. Personally visit our offshore suppliers (or customers).
5. Take advantage of online resources such as http://www.sba.gov/oit.
6. Inspect and approve merchandise before it is shipped.
7. Consider hiring an international trade consultant.
8. Become personally familiar with all monetary transactions.
9. Use a trade lawyer for agent and distributor agreements and licensing requirements.
10. To begin, start on a very small scale.
TOP TEN DON’TS
1. Investigate the potential opportunities and benefits of international trade.
2. Rely on a single source of supply (or customer).
3. Have an understanding of intellectual property rights.
4. Have an understanding of import/export financing.
5. Learn how our best competitors are handling international trade.
6. Provide dispute settlement provisions.
7. Make assumptions as to vendor’s compliance with your specifications.
8. Check out our suppliers/customers before establishing relationship.
9. Rely on handshake agreements.
10. Rely solely on others including employees for importing/exporting expertise.
Perspective management aspect required to be an effective strategic manager would be-
1) Real cool headed, co-operative decision maker. Should be able to make a judgment all the while accepting the teams’ advice. And since a Strategic Manager need to take up decisions during pressurized situation, it is important that he be as cool and calm to make a sound decision.
2) A strategic manager should have the knowledge about his organization. The importance is when he needs to utilize each and every of his Strategic Units together or simultaneously, for achieving the objective.
3) Decision Making should not anticipate options or other expectations. It should rather be pragmatic and result oriented.
4) Skill set is a huge requirement. Ability to size up the situation, quickly and accurately, identifying problem roots, evaluating policies that would be relevant to the prevailing environment.
5) Identifying the company’s SWOT at the prevailant environment and formulating plans and strategies accordingly.
6) Analytical skills are required in functioning areas eg. marketing , financing, etc dealing with the total company activities.
7) Tools i.e. quantitative, qualitative must be understood in proper manner.
8) Written and oral communication skills very important.
Decision making, with a perfect knowledge of the business environment (internal and external) with a winning attitude for the company as a whole is definite requirement of a strategic manager.
By being innovative and with the implementation of additional service products and by it’s readiness to invest in the latest technology to meet customer requirements ITM remains at the leading edge of Industry advances.
“We promise AND deliver” “WE BELIEVE THAT UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS IS PART OF OUR BUSINESS.”
CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION Using the latest technology, ITM provides a tracking system allowing elimination of enroute delays from source to end user. Customer satisfaction is assured with utilization of our International exposure in Air and Ocean Freight Forwarding and Customs Clearance activities.
Managing international trade policies, restructuring them according to the need of the hour, implementing the various trade polices, abiding by the norms governing international trade, all are taken into account when one speaks of international trade management.
There are many trade promotion organizations, also known as TPOs, who strive hard to manage and improve customer relationship. These trade promotion organizations assist, clients to take their trade to the international market arena. This requires the professionals of the trade promotion organizations to be well versed in their subject, to meet the demands of the changing conditions of the market economy.
Role played by the international trade management bodies:
There are many organizations or international trade promoting bodies, which assist countries in improving trade with other countries. However, most of the International trade management bodies perform the following functions.
• Gathering knowledge about the latest international trade happenings
• Imparting information to the clients in matters related to the betterment of trade with the client’s trading partners.
• Helping the client grow by providing better networking facilities.
• Help building partnership.
Given below is a list of trade promoting bodies.
Marketeers And Associates International:
Operates in:
Lower Connectors, Bangalore and New Delhi.
Services:
• Business development
• Management consultant
• Implementation of marketing strategies
Other establishments assisting in the promotion of international trade are:
• GMS, Inc-International trade consultants
• Heaps Technical Services-International consultants in trade.
International trade management is not only vital for the growth of the individual company but it also plays an important role in the growth of economy of a country.
International trade management can be referred to as the process by, which international trade is handled. Even if the international trade manifests favorable trends, there is competition to handle in the international trade market.
An economy may be very small as compared to other economies of the world, but the success of the economy lies in being able to act faster than other countries, the promptness with which the nation is able to implement trade policies efficiently.
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