Trade knowledge / Helping SMEs Get "Globally Situated"
Date: 2017-12-02
Helping SMEs Get "Globally Situated"
The White House Situation Room is legendary for its teams of experts who monitor and tackle whatever crises might come up in international affairs. Less often discussed, but at least as crucial, are the situations these experts defuse before they can become international crises.
While the concerns of SMEs are different from those of government, companies large and small can still face daunting challenges when dealing across borders. Investing time and resources to do business in far-flung locales can reward an SME many times over—but missteps can be unnerving, or worse.
Recognizing the need for experienced hands to guide companies as they venture into new territories, a team of former White House staffers formed The Global Situation Room [GSR], a company that “helps companies get globally situated,” says Brett Bruen, GSR’s president. Both Bruen and CEO Johanna Maska served in the Obama White House in diplomatic and public affairs positions, working on everything from aiding entrepreneurs to countering Russian propaganda. In addition, GSR’s advisory board is comprised of Foreign Service veterans with more than 100 years diplomatic experience among them.
“When I was working on Obama’s global entrepreneurship portfolio, I kept on running into small or medium-sized companies that had difficulty in navigating international opportunities,” Bruen says. “The barriers to internationalize were not just that they had such a large domestic market they didn’t need to go overseas. They didn’t have the skill-set to reach abroad, even if technology afforded them a great deal of access.”
Bruen says that GSR can help break down those barriers for its client companies, and it can start with something as simple as a company’s online presence. “What does your website say to the world?” he asks, and he’s not just talking about the words on the page. “Are you using the kinds of images that are going to sell your product overseas?“
Having the ability to internationalize your content and to take a more global approach online is the first step.
Once you’ve taken that step, you have to decide where to target your efforts, and that choice might not be so obvious.
“One of the things we say to our clients looking into the U.S. is, unless you’re in your field globally, trying to break into Silicon Valley, or into New York, might not be your best option,” says Bruen. “These markets are the most competitive, the most expensive, and will give you the least in terms of support and resources.”
But he doesn’t suggest you think too small, either. “If you look to cities like Dallas or Houston, you will find a very large market that is much more inclined to support and to embrace foreign products. And the same goes overseas. Trying to break into London may not be the wisest approach. Mid-market British cities are going to be a lot more attractive.”
GSR helps the process through what Bruen calls diplomatic tradecraft, which he says starts with a real focus on relationships. “Often today, there is this emphasis on the social media networks or the ability to just reach out and to communicate with someone. And yet, the importance of developing that relevance, that recognition and respect in the market where you’re going is an important art that still exists.”
GSR paves the way for clients through its network of former ambassadors and senior officials. “We’re able to usually get higher level meetings and hopefully better insights from those meetings.”
Among the company’s strengths is risk management. “We’re all about helping companies be more proactive, building ahead of time these countermeasures that enable them, not only to respond to risk, but really to engage it, maneuver around it, or mitigate it if need be. We also focus on seizing opportunity amidst risk.”
Bruen says that he recognizes that SMEs might not always have the budget to take advantage of the full range of services his company has to offer, which is why GSR collaborates with chambers of commerce and business associations to provide “a whole host of trainings—everything from orientation to international markets, all the way through to the skill-sets that companies need for market research, negotiation, and marketing.” In addition, GSR provides training to senior U.S. government officials at the Federal Executive Institute. “It’s very similar to the graduate risk management course that I teach at Georgetown.”
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