Importing Food to U.S. Retail Outlets

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Q: We are interested in importing food to U.S. retail outlets. We have been trying to find specific sources to tell us what requirements are needed in order to do so. Can you point us in the right direction? ~ M.Y., Memphis, Tenn.

Read the answer offered by Kelly Spors of The Wall Street Journal here.

Make Your Global Supply Chain Lean and Mean

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Put it on autopilot.

What Do Twitter, Second Life and Webinars All Have In Common?

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Find out at this upcoming event! If you are in Chicago, feel free to sign up for this gig I am doing on October 2nd in Oakbrook, Illinois on how to leverage technology to innovate and go global!

I will be covering ways to use Web 2.0 (new media beyond YouTube, MySpace and Facebook) to grow your global presence.

More info and to register (if there is still room) here. Hope to see you there!

Photo credit: Veryweb.it via Mathew Ingram.

Global Economy Is No Longer U.S.-Centric

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Is the U.S. housing blowout going to hurt the rest of the world? Certainly, a major slowdown in the planet's biggest economy would cause some countries pain.

But much of the globe will likely shrug off the worst effects of any American slump. "The global economy is no longer U.S.-centric," says Ed Yardeni, an economist who heads Yardeni Research in New York. "We may find that the global economic boom continues, notwithstanding the slowdown in the U.S."

The old theory is that when America sneezes the rest of the world gets sick (hence, the photo of an American girl sneezing) but it may not apply these days.

More here.

Helping the Global Economy Stay in Shape

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It's about focusing on what's critical and allowing stakeholders to monitor progress. Complex stuff but worth a read.

The Queen of Good and Global Is Gone

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Long before going green was an international pastime, when the only corporate responsibility was to the bottom line, a small store opened in Brighton, England, selling homemade moisturizers and hair-care products packaged in plastic urine-sample jars. The cosmetics were all-natural, the containers were reusable and the ethos — creating products that were as good for the earth as they were for your skin — was still considered radical, the kind of thing only hippies cared about. But when Anita Roddick opened The Body Shop in 1976 ...

Anita Roddick died September 10th at age 64. She was an inspiration to us all and will be missed.

U.S. Exports Grew At Fastest Pace in Three Years

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The value of U.S. exports of goods and services to the rest of the world increased 2.7% in July, the fastest seasonally adjusted growth in more than three years, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

What are you waiting for? Have you gone global yet?

Read more here and refer to our former post here.

While You Globetrot, Stay Connected

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Travel Web site TravelPost.com offers Wi-Fi information for about 219 U.S. and 80 international airports, including what kind of service is offered and how much it costs. Look under the "Travel Resources" section of the home page or visit here.

Ways To Find Hidden Markets

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Here are thirteen (13) ways to find hidden markets.

Some U.S. Exports Are Facilitated by Fraudulent Credit Card Transactions

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I am working on a project and just stumbled upon this information. Good advice and it doesn't just apply to Singapore. It could be any place on the planet.

Bottom line: If you receive a credit card order from anywhere in the world, check its legitimacy before you ship.

Abridged Borderbuster: 9/5/07

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CONTENTS

If you are not a subscriber to Borderbuster, here's a glimpse of what you missed this month:

1. Welcome From The Publisher
2. Update to our Readers
3. U.S. Companies Seek Greener Pastures In … *
4. Business and Cultural Tips: Have Some Fun!*
5. The Wealth of Nations*
6. How I Went Global: Ongoing Series // Bo Burlingham*
7. A Reader Asks: Q&A
8. Everybody Loves a Freebie -- repeat: FREE OFFER*
9. Sun Hits the BRICs*
10. The Big Problem With Big Fish*
11. Fast Talk: UPS’s Setup Man*
12. Blog World: Background Checks Go Global*
13. Laurel’s e-Book: “GODZILLA Global Marketing!”
14. Take A Walk On The Wild Side (TAWOTWS)
15. Wind Behind Your Sail*
16. Miscellany*

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

*Indicates exclusive to Borderbuster subscribers only.

Sample section:

9. SUN HITS THE BRICS
*Subscriber Exclusive*

If you have any doubt about the growing importance of BRIC -- the common acronym for the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China -- consider this: Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz admitted today that it was Brazil that forced Sun to open source Java.

You never know where your next big idea comes from.

Read more here at InternetNews.com.

###

To subscribe to Borderbuster, visit:
Sign Up For Borderbuster!

Are You Growing a Green Global Business?

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Whatever you are building, I hope you are making a conscious choice to implement green initiatives. Even your international travel should include an environmentally friendly outreach effort.

Think it's hard? Don't fool yourself. It's not. Read more here.

Borderbuster

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If you are a subscriber to our monthly e-zine Borderbuster, you already know about the following tips based on an article that was written in the 8/6/07 edition, "No. 6: Outsourcing: Small Businesses, Big Gains," by guest author Manoj Vohra, who heads up the research services practice of Businessworld Intelligence -- the research and research-led corporate initiatives arm of Businessworld, India's most widely read and circulated business weekly.

If you are interested in reading the full article, we encourage you to subscribe to Borderbuster and we will be happy to send it to you. That's one of the many perks to being a subscriber: receiving cutting edge info on global small business before anyone else on the planet.

In the meantime, here are four (out of a bunch) best-kept outsourcing programming secrets for small businesses that are mentioned in Manoj's article:

1. Elance
2. RentACoder
3. ScriptLance
4. GetAFreelancer

Interestingly enough, when I gave a presentation on how to use Web 2.0 to go global a couple of weeks ago in North Carolina at the 2nd Annual Small Business Conference in North Carolina, one of the attendees, a native of India running a business in North America, later sent me the following email:

I really enjoyed your presentation today. Though, I am actively working on web 2.0 technology, I learned about a few additional good sites from your presentation. In fact, ScriptLance (Laurel here ... I had known about ScriptLance prior to Manoj's submission) is going to be a very good site for me to expand my business. I wanted to thank you for sharing the information. If you are in town, I would love to meet with you.

Looks like we are on to something. Better check it out. Don't forget about the rest of the article -- sign up is here.

A.T. Kearney's Index of the 50 Most Attractive Offshoring Locations, 2007

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Let's talk about the obvious results first. India emerges on top by a wide margin with China and Malaysia (yes, you read that right) holding second and third place positions but take a look at some of the other locations that made the grade or reinforced their positions. United States came in 21st and Ireland came in last. The index is measured against financial attractiveness, people and skills availability and business environment. Before you move on to the report, here's a little more:

Findings in the 2007 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location IndexTM reveal that the relative cost advantage of the leading offshore destinations has declined almost universally. Nearly every country in the Index, even those that fell in the rankings, improved their absolute scores, thus confirming that competition among low-cost countries is intensifying. Increasingly, simply maintaining current performance levels is no longer sufficient for countries that want to attract (and retain) the fast-growing remote services business. In addition, this year’s findings suggest that while the wage advantage of offshore locations will continue for 20 or more years, this advantage will diminish as demand for skilled workers increases in offshore locations around the globe.

Now in its fourth year, the Global Services Location Index, or GSLI, analyzes and ranks the top 50 locations worldwide that provide the most common remote functions, including IT services and support, contact centers and back-office support.

Download the 20-page complimentary report, "Offshoring For Long-Term Advantage," here.

China Business Success Stories

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A colleague of mine at Global Sources, a company that connects global buyers with global suppliers, alerted me to this China resource many months ago and I am just now getting a chance to review and share: China Business Success Stories. Not bad. And if you want to share your story, just email info@chinasuccessstories.com

Beauty, Prestige and Worry Lines

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The WSJ featured a story with the above title on Monday, August 20th, and it was on Estee Lauder CEO facing trying times at the family company. The article is only available to online subscribers so I'm going to type out the parts (excerpts) that I thought were extremely relevant to our interests here on going global. See if you capture, as I did, the little glimmers of great advice. Here goes.

WSJ: What retail alternatives are particularly attractive for your brands right now?

Mr. Lauder: We look for consumers who spend at the higher end of the product range.

There's a generic frustration that I have when I talk to the financial community. The vast majority of analysts we talk to are American, the vast majority of them don't travel much outside of the U.S., and if they do, I imagine that most of that travel isn't to figure out how our brands and other brands are sold and market in Europe or Asia. They seem singularly obsessed with North America and the success of the Clinique and Estee Lauder brands there. They miss the extraordinary growth and expansion that we're seeing from our brands outside of this market. More than half of our sales and a significant portion of our total growth will come from outside of North America.

WSJ: How do you translate your brands in foreign markets?

There are many things we have to do to make our message for each brand more relevant locally. For example, the Asian consumer is very heavily oriented to the skin-treatment business -- she trusts brands that are really solid in those areas. And she doesn't like fragrance. It's a very small portion of the total business. In Europe, in the parfumerie channel, it's predominantly a fragrance-driven business, more than 50% of the business, and the remainder is skin care and color. In the U.S., it's a little more balanced between fragrance, treatment and makeup. So our message in each of these markets has to be different and relevant.

WSJ: What about emerging markets?

Mr. Lauder: We see emerging markets as a tremendous opportunity. Beauty is one of the first entry points for that emerging middle-class consumer in these markets, and she's buying. The Estee Lauder brand in China is exploding right now because it represents aspirational luxury but at a price that's much more affordable than Louis Vuitton. We see the same thing going on in Russia. India is a little behind because there's a certain lack of established retail there. Also doing well for us is the Middle East, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

5 Tips from William Lauder on Seeking New Territory for your Business

1. While expanding globally, adapt to local tastes.
2. Make sure new markets still serve your core consumer and brand identity.
3. Stay open to new and emerging channels.
4. Sometimes the biggest retailers don't represent the biggest opportunities.
5. Don't think like a U.S. business with international operations, take the mindset of a truly global company.

Your Last Chance in 2007 to Be The World's Best Small Business!

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Just a few days left (10 to be exact) to enter the UPS Best "Out-of-the-Box" Small Business Contest. What's in it for you? How about U.S. $25,000!

The international contest will honor the most innovative small businesses and is designed for companies with annual 2006 revenues of at least $250,000 but not more than $10 million. Eligible businesses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, the Philippines and Singapore are asked to submit a 500-word essay explaining why they’re original and how they’ve been successful.

For more information and to enter the contest, visit here. Or, go back to our original post on May 8th.

Hope to see you there!

Doing Business With The World

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While you build your global business, you mine as well stay at the world's best hotels. Here are a few below. Take a virtual tour. It's like tip-toeing through the pages of National Geographic.

1. Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India
2. Singita Sabi Sand/Kruger National Park, South Africa
3. The Oriental, Bangkok
4. Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet
5. The Milestone, London
6. Relais II Falconiere, Cortona, Italy (English portal available)
7. Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sands, South Africa
8. Mandarin Oriental, Munich
9. Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, Hawaii
10. Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur, India (pictured)

Source: Travel + Leisure's 2007 readers' poll.

Redefining Global Strategy

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Award-winning author, Pankaj Ghemawat, writes a book about businesses competing globally and how companies must reckon with cross-border differences. It's due out September 27th. Read up about it here.

All Fun Things India

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Relax, take a tour. You might discover something you didn't already know about New Delhi, India.