In Focus: Export strength
The Institute of Directors (IoD) this week added its voice to the growing body of opinion that export is the key to recovery for businesses. Its director general Miles Templeman urged West Midlands businesses to improve the region’s record on exports and in particular look to markets such as China, India and the Middle East for future growth.
Exports are particularly crucial to this region of course because of our large manufacturing base. I’m writing this several hours before the government’s comprehensive spending review but some of the noises off have already suggested deep cuts in the defence budget, which will have a marked impact on manufacturers in the Midlands - aerospace specialists and others - who have depended on large public sector financed defence projects.
It is too glib to suggest that such manufacturers simply need to turn their attention to overseas markets to make up the shortfall - as if exporting their products and services had never occurred to them - but clearly, as Templeman suggests, a new push into the international arena is one of the best bets companies have in such a difficult trading environment.
He made his comments at Exporting for Success, a conference organised by IoD West Midlands in conjunction with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. It brought together senior figures from across the region and from all business sectors to hear speakers from the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the China-Britain Business Council as well as business leaders who are already operating successfully overseas.
Templeman remarked that the description of China and India as emerging markets is a misleading one. This sort of begs a question about why Britain still provides India with hundreds of millions of pounds of financial aid annually but I digress.
But what busineses need isn’t to be told that with economic growth still slow throughout Europe, West Midlands businesses have to leave the comfort zone of exporting to the EU and set their horizons further. What they need is help in doing it.
Templeman, to be fair to him, did go on to praise the government’s plans to use British embassy and consular officials to establish stronger trade links overseas, a point backed by Robin Barnett of UKTI who also addressed the conference.
Other sources of advice do exist of course but with public sector help likely to be reduced in the future companies will increasingly need expert assistance from the private sector. The likes of Tenon and Grant Thornton are geared up to provide consultancy services linked to target export markets and other professional services firms not doing so already are likely to step up to the plate with specialist advice in this area.
What firms from this region need to know is whether there is a market in these countries for what they offer, if so how to get their products and services into that market - joint venture or stand alone operation for example - what barriers to entry they may face, the legal and fiscal implications of it all and how much it will cost and an assessment of the risks involved.
Two final questions. Are we doing enough to tap into the resources of this area’s large Indian population when trying to make inroads into the Indian market? And, if not, why not?
