In March I was delighted to announce the UKTI Trade Challenge Partner initiative. Our purpose, working with 99 Trade Associations and membership organisations, is to get more UK SMEs doing business overseas and to support those that do export to do more.
On 30 April we held a workshop for the Partners to kick-start the initiative. Lord Green gave the keynote speech (see left) endorsing the initiative and reinforcing the theme that working together we can offer UK SMEs much more cohesive and comprehensive support to enable them to reach their export potential.
The response from the Trade Challenge Partners has been very positive – there is a real enthusiasm to share new ideas, lessons learned and work together to support UK SMES.
As Soraya Jones of Cambridge Wireless told me “the Trade Challenge Partner Programme just makes sense." Her role is to is to link up the right companies with the right support. She emphasised it’s a great opportunity for the companies she works with, especially the SMEs.
One new project that I was delighted to announce at the Workshop is a pilot, working initially with the Construction Products Association, to identify and encourage their non-exporting members to start trading overseas. The Association has in-depth knowledge about their members and industry so they are uniquely placed to provide targeted support and build confidence to get SMEs enthused about their overseas prospects.
John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director , is leading on this for the CPA and has this take on the worth of the project:
“It is very encouraging to see over a hundred other trade associations and chamber of commerce representatives at the Workshop learning about getting their members to export more. As the Construction Products Association we have over £6 billion of exports but we know we still need to do more to support our members. We recently worked closely with UKTI to get a Standards envoy for the Gulf to help the development of UK friendly codes and standards. This new project to identify sector specific ways of getting non-exporting SMEs to the point where they are ready to start accessing UKTI support systems is very exciting and will enable our members to develop export capability. As we work on this we will be bringing in other Trade Challenge Partners to take on the early learning and help us develop faster.”
One of the opportunities of bringing all the Partners together is the chance to test new ideas. A few of the ideas are below – I would be really interested to hear what you think:
- Can Trade Associations play a role in developing a database of global industry distributors that SMEs can access ?
- Are there ways for Trade Associations to process payments for SMEs at overseas Trade Exhibitions, where payment systems can be a problem (eg US) ?
- Can Trade Associations measure and monitor UK market share in target export markets?
4 comments
Comment by Sarah Carroll posted on
We have recently run our UKTI Optimising your Website for International Trade Masterclass for the British Plastics Federation on their Export Day. Was a great success. Some delegates have gone on to have a UKTI Export Communications Review to give them tailored advice on how to internationalise their websites. Let us know if any other Trade Challenge Partners would like an international web optimisation masterclass for their members.
Comment by Orhan O. Bag posted on
Business & Trade need a "local" support; especially for SMEs targeting new and foreign markets.
This is not something that Trade Associations or lobying could offer.
On the other hand,
- "Yes" Trade Associations can play a role in developing a "database" of global industry distributors that SMEs can access. But "cannot" help to identify which suits best and how a SME may act.
Since these are all based on "local" experience, particularly in the business area of that SME, "local" support is a need at this stage.
- "Yes" there must be some ways for Trade Associations to process payments for SMEs at overseas Trade; if not, must be created.
- "Yes" Trade Associations can measure and monitor UK market share in target export markets. But more important thing is, what may these mean to SME and how could they evaluate these. Actually these are meaningless figures since the all may need to be evaluated in particular, due to the market specific terms and conditions of the SME AND in case if this market would be a new market for SME / UK.
Its always an issue to catch the dynamics of emerging foreign markets as updated and focused on the target as required, all the time.
These all points the importance of having a "local" support, being able to reach a "local" network of experienced professional at the target region and in the target sector.
Comment by murray prince posted on
Orhan O. Bag has raised interesting comment regarding emphasis on "local support and experience", "being able to reach a local network of experienced (and credible) professionals within a targeted market" . These are bottom line essential commercial principles not restricted to SME's but all the way to the corporates and beyond, applying in developed market conditions and more so in emerging markets. Beyond this, any functional information or practical service provided by well co ordinated Trade associations has to be of significant value to the potential/current overseas trader and should be implemented.
Managing and implementing such services in emerging markets, particularly in African countries, would likely present great challenge. Would the services of UKTI accredited, experienced commercial and operational support specialists operating in target regions, be of value to UKTI I wonder.
Comment by Electronics Components And News From Electropages posted on
This is really important as many SME's are just put of by all of the regulation & red tape. These initiatives could help our more than just the SME's in Britain reach a wider market, but for the country as a whole!
Tony