The US represents the most important overseas market for Wales in terms of inward investment and exports. And the way Wales engages with the market has just been given a fundamental shake up. Wyn Jenkins reports.
When former Shell executive Ian Williams was appointed as the new head of International Business Wales a year ago, he wasted little time in shaking things up. He made several shrewd appointments quickly and brought in a number of executives from the private sector to head various divisions.
To head the Americas he hired Geraint Jones, the former director for Barclays in Wales. Jones had spent 35 years at Barclays, the majority of this time in the corporate sector and in various roles ranging from service support to credit management to relationship management. During the last 14 years of his career there he ran regional business units. He says he took the job - based in New York - for two reasons.
"Firstly, I view this position as an extremely important role that can have a significant impact on the people of Wales," Jones says. "I am passionate about Wales and its people and I want to make a difference. Do it badly and Wales will suffer; do it well then Wales can prosper. I like a challenge like that and I am not planning on failing. Secondly, I have 35 years of experience. To my mind it is of the kind of experience needed in this role."
Jones has made some fundamental changes to the way Wales' operations in the US are structured since taking over. Its operations were previously structured around geographic areas in the US: three offices covered the east coast, west coast and central US respectively. "It was very much based around individuals networking their territory," he says.
In its place Jones has introduced an approach that instead focuses on business sectors. It has identified six target sectors and an individual is responsible for being the "front end" contact for each. The targets are: financial services; outsourcing, shared services and call centres; defence; life sciences; energy; and ICT and electronics. The body will still retain offices in New York, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Toronto.
He stresses that focusing on these six does not mean his department is no longer interested in other sectors such as aerospace and automotive, sectors that have served Wales well in the past. But the structure means that Wales can put together a strong proposition around these sectors and compete confidently with other parts of the world. The training and skills strategy of the Welsh Assembly can also be centered around this principle.
"We can now approach American companies in these sectors with confidence in our expertise, knowledge of their sector and understanding of where these sectors are going," Jones says. "We believe that we are the only inward investment organisation in Europe that has focused so heavily on this strategy."
Now he has a new structure in place, Jones can start planning his objectives. His department started its new financial year on 1 April 2007.
He has set his team some tough financial goals. His first, in recognition that his first responsibility is to the Welsh taxpayers, is to recover the full costs of his US operations through the introduction of new jobs to Wales. But he does not want just any jobs. "Real impact on improving GDP will only come on the back of jobs that pay higher salaries. We are targeting that more than 25 per cent of the jobs we introduce to Wales will pay in excess of £330,000 a year," he says.
His next objective is to help Welsh businesses find new outlets for their products. "I want to open up new markets in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina just as a starter," he says. "I want to see exports to the Americas grow from an already high level by a further 8 per cent a year."
Finally, he is also determined that, with the sectoral approach in place, his team are trained to be the best in their field. "My team is the face of Wales for most of the business community here in the Americas and I want that first impression to carry a bit of a WOW! factor," he says.
Ultimately, it will be the skills and resourcefulness of his team in the US by which his newly structured operation will succeed or fail. His team has a mandate to secure both export opportunities for Welsh businesses and inward investment. These functions were previously done by Assembly arm WalesTrade International and the inward investment arm of the Welsh Development Agency, respectively, before they were merged into the Assembly.
Merging them makes sense, says Jones. "Although the task of developing these two areas, at times, seem to demand very different approaches, we believe they are unquestionably interconnected. Some of our inward investment companies have turned out to be some of our biggest exporters and vice versa."
As such, part of Jones's team remains based in Cardiff. These individuals are tasked with keeping close to Welsh companies that either do, or could, become major exporters of goods. It is important that a good structure is in place that allows good communication.
Wales has benefited from some major investments from US companies in the last 12 months. These include: eMag Solutions, an electronic discovery company in Atlanta, which opened its European headquarters in Cardiff; General Dynamics, the large American defence industry contractor, which is creating 350 new jobs in Wales; and International Rectifier, which has brought an additional 200 jobs to Wales. There was also the announcement that Amazon will open a major distribution centre in Swansea.
These recent success stories are just the start, according to Jones. "Outside of the rest of the UK, the US is the biggest market for Wales," he says. "With some 200 North American companies already investing in Wales, there is an existing developed trade relationship with the US and Canada. Increasingly, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are becoming important trade and investment opportunities for Wales and we are endeavouring to build relationships with these countries."
Also in: April 2007
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