This is part 2 in a series of 12 step-by-step guide to help you succeed in today's global export market.
ASSESSING EXPORT READINESS
Are You Ready to Step Onto the World Stage?
Remember that two-thirds of the exporting effort is done from home. Your
company’s valuable investment of time, effort, money and expertise will be
maximized if you can ensure beforehand that you are ready to enter the global
marketplace.
Consider everything: language and cultural issues, the challenges of
different monetary systems, legal and tax implications, developing sources of
financing, the need for careful research into new market opportunities, and
measures to ensure the protection of your intellectual property.
What is "Export Readiness?"
"Export Readiness"
refers to your level of preparedness
to do business in an export market.
The first step in becoming "export ready" is to understand that 2/3
of the export effort takes place at home, before
venturing abroad:
1. Shed light on exporting services... by becoming more aware of the
international marketplace.
2. Assess your export readiness... by completing the Export Readiness
Assessment.
3. Acquire export skills... by ensuring that your entire export team
acquires the skills required to operate abroad.
4. Revisit your business plan... by including an international component.
5. Develop the export plan... by identifying the unique aspects of your
firm and how it can best position itself for world markets.
6. Research the Market...by identifying and selecting the best markets for
you to focus on, using specific market information and intelligence.
7. Create a Marketing Plan.
8. Identify sources of export financing and insurance... thereby ensuring
you are ready when an opportunity arises for the types of export financing or
insurance options discuss later.
For some firms, becoming export-ready can be as simple as reviewing these
steps 1 through 8. For others, it may take months to ensure that the export team is
prepared, and that the organization has made the necessary adaptations to
prepare for globalization.
The "Export Readiness Assessment" tools contained herein for both exporters
of services and exporters of goods will provide you with a snapshot of your
firm’s status of export readiness. The following sampling is based on three
different areas: Resources, Competitiveness and Expectations:
Resources:
- Does your firm have sufficient internal capacity to handle extra demand?
- Does your firm have internally efficient systems to respond to customers
quickly?
- Does your firm have senior and professional staff with excellent
marketing skills?
- Does your firm have senior management support for export objectives?
Competitiveness:
- Does your firm have a service (or a service delivery process) that is
unique and competitive in the chosen export market?
- Does your firm have sophisticated market entry methods currently in use?
- Has your firm conducted market research demonstrating service viability
in the targeted export region?
Expectations:
- Does your firm have clear and achievable export objectives?
- Does your firm have a realistic idea of what exporting entails?
- Does your firm have an open-mindedness for new ways of providing its
services?
- Is your firm realistic about what will be necessary to be profitable in
the target market?
How to Use the Export Readiness Assessment Tool
Working through the Export Readiness Diagnostic will give you an
opportunity to test your export readiness and to identify priorities as you
prepare to enter your first foreign market. If you are currently exporting,
some of the questions may assist you in fine tuning your export strategy. The
following tips may help you to obtain the maximum benefit from using this
tool.
- It will take from 15 -30 minutes to complete the assessment for each
target market. Conduct an assessment for each of your target markets or
market types since different markets will require you to modify your
approach.
- The questions may be answered in any order and do not have to be
answered all at the same time. You may want to save your analysis and return
at a later date.
- Answer candidly on your company’s present situation as opposed to your
desired position, in order to ensure the feedback you obtain will help you
to identify appropriate action items.
- Ask your export team to complete the diagnostic before attending
strategy meetings. Doing so will lead to more productive sessions and will
facilitate the implementation of action items.
- Share your saved assessment reports with new employees or new partners.
It will help them to understand your firm and to determine where they can
make the best contribution to your organization.
- Prior to entering a new market or to introducing a new service offering,
revisit your saved reports and conduct "what-if" analyses.
- Review and update your saved reports once or twice a year. It will help
you to continue to work towards enhancing your competitiveness in world
markets.
Export Readiness Diagnostic
- Answering the questions in this diagnostic will give you an opportunity to
test your export readiness and identify priorities as you prepare for a
foreign market. If you have already started exporting or export development
activities, you may learn some tips from the questions that will help improve
your profitability.
- The questions are organized into nine modules. They may be answered in any
order and do not have to be answered all at the same time. To receive feedback
on your answers, you will first need to select an export market (or market
type) since different factors are important depending on the particular type
of market chosen.
- At the end of each set of questions, you will receive feedback on your
firm's strengths and challenges in that area. Once all questions have been
answered, you can receive a summary report that evaluates your export
readiness on the three factors: Resources, Competitiveness, and Expectations.
- You have the option to change some of your responses or select a different
market type and then see how the overall assessment of your export readiness
changes. Just save each of your reports with a different file name.
- Please be candid in answering the questions. This tool is to help you in
your export effort, and the assessment will only be useful if it is based on
your best evaluation of how your firm is doing at the moment ... not how you
would like it to be performing.
Download Exporters of Goods diagnostic
Download Exporters of Services diagnostic
|