Is it possible to export for a small company belonging to a small market? I am pretty sure that not only it is possible for any firm to sell in overseas market, but that that, if they have not yet done so, the sooner the better.
The point is that those firms that started exporting before the crisis hit us are those that have best borne up under the storm and this is for a powerful reason: sales are diversified over several markets and countries. The swings in one are compensated by the roundabouts in others.
Any firm that decides to export must compete in a very professional market. This should encourage the companies to improve productivity, processes, quality, competencies, etc. because they become aware of what is really going on in the market: new developments as well as the latest technological innovations… And they acquire what one could call an export culture.
When asked why they are not exporting, companies very often answer something as: “we still haven’t consolidated our own domestic market, why should we export?”
Nowadays, clients are not a uniform group of users all living in the same place. They have turned into larger or smaller clusters of consumers unified around a certain number of common specifications which can be found all over the planet. If you do not understand this, you will be seriously limiting the development of you company. Markets cannot be geographically classified anymore.
Is exporting difficult? My answer would be….. Is not complicated to run a company with sales only based on the domestic market? Is it sensible to take this risk? Obviously, exporting means a challenge, but so is surviving in the restricted domestic market that pens you in and one which will never reach previous levels. Many seem to believe that the market will recover up to these heights and that is going to solve their problems, what they don’t realise is that the market as they knew it belongs to the past and isn’t making a comeback.
It’s hard to evolve and change, but even harder is taking the risk of having to close.
Cristina Danon
Sòcia Consultora International Team Consulting (www.int-team.com)
Partner IdeAnd Consulting (www.ideand.ad)
