Global Goliath Terrorizes A Small Business

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"It would appear that any tiny threat to LVMH's $13 billion in global sales in the first three quarters of 2006 and their 60,000 employees worldwide is more important to defeat than dealing with sweatshop labor it probably employs from factory workers around the globe."

WOW. Powerful statement. Read more about how a Global Goliath attempts to terrorize a small business ... here.

And here at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A Tiny Firm Wins 'Chewy Vuiton' Suit.

Note: Due to server upgrades, some of the links may no longer work.

Liquid Borders?

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Shipping goods from one country to another has always been a paper-intensive process. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, every container that crosses international borders generates 30 different documents. That adds up to roughly five billion documents a year.

But the EU, in partnership with IBM and the Free University of Amsterdam, plans to do away with all that paper, and instead have imported goods counted, monitored and evaluated for tax automatically, without producing a single sheet.

Sound unbelievable? Read more here (immediate download of PDF file): A pilot between the EU and IBM could introduce paperless shipping.

Flags of the World

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And comments about them.  Comments here.  Wake up world. Thanks Seth for the tip.

Going Global

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When Ogilvy Interactive set out to take IBM Corp.'s e-mail marketing strategy international, it knew it would need to make some adjustments to both messaging and design. It also would need to check in with local ISPs, which can impede delivery rates.

"Deliverability [as a concept] is fairly new to Europe and Asia-Pacific," said Eric Wheeler, CEO-North America of NEO@Ogilvy Interactive, the digital media unit of agency Ogilvy Interactive. "Marketers going into these places need to understand where they are, how to integrate into that region and what kind of technology they need."

Read the balance of the article here.

Is Your Firm Setup Like An Import-Export Business?

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It should be.

An excerpt from the article:

According to Polk, it is critical for companies today to develop a world-class "tri-lingual organization" fluent in the "languages" of the consumer, the customer and the company. "What you are doing is translating your agenda into the language of the person who has to execute it," namely the retailer who sells the product. He likes to think of Unilever as an "import-export business," with some good product ideas hatched in Europe or elsewhere and then exported to the United States, or vice-versa. Axe body wash, for one, was a hit in Europe well before Unilever brought it to the U.S. market.

Read the article here: It's All About Dislocating Ideas

On The Rise: Small Businesses with BIG Innovations

I had the great honor to serve as a panelist at the "On the Rise Small Business Conference" on Thursday, November 9 at the Timer Warner Center in New York. The event was hosted by CNN and sponsored by UPS with topics ranging from how to market your business on the Web to global expansion. The purpose of the event was to recognize innovation in small business.

Ali Velshi, one of CNN's top business anchors and a seasoned business and financial news reporter, moderated the evening's discussion and did a fabulous job keeping it lively and on track . Velshi currently provides his signature report "Vested Interest" on American Morning and Prime News with Erica Hill.

Here are a couple of pictures from the event (courtesy of UPS and with permission to use):

Mary Wayman, Founder, Application2Graduation
(A2G) and Kurt Kuehn, Senior Vice President,
Worldwide Sales and Marketing, UPS.

Panel experts (L-R): Eileen O'Brien, Vice President, Small & Medium Business, Hewlett-Packard Company, Laurel Delaney, Founder and President, Global TradeSource, Ltd. (Globetrade.com), David Young, Founder & CEO, BMI Gaming, Rieva Lesonsky, Editorial Director, Entrepreneur Media Inc.,Kurt Kuehn, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, UPS, Ali Velshi, CNN anchor and reporter and Helen Morley, Founder and CEO, Helen Morley Designs.

Kurt Kuehn (center), Senior Vice President, Worldwide

Sales and Marketing, UPS is surrounded by the proud winners.

The Alzheimer's Store winners Mark and Ellen Warner with

Kurt Kuehn (center), Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, UPS

Money Savvy Generation winners Michael and Susan Beacham

with Kurt Kuehn (right), Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, UPS

All the winners in a very happy pose!

Panelist's company websites:

Helen Morley's
Laurel Delaney's
David Young's
Eileen O'Brien's
Rieva Lesonsky's

Winner fact sheets, videos and websites:

1st place: Application 2 Graduation

2nd place: Money Savvy Generation

3rd place: The Alzheimer's Store

Read more about the 2006 contest here.

Read more about the 2006 winners here.

Read the press release here.

And one shameless plug for UPS that will enable you to take on the world.

Abridged Borderbuster: 11/6/06

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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. Feedback From Our Readers
3. Navigating China’s Labyrinth*
4. Business and Cultural Tips: Have Some Fun!*
5. China’s “Chuppies” Are Buying American*
6. How I Went Global: Ongoing Series // Orhan Pamuk
7. A Reader Asks: Q&A*
8. Everybody Loves a Freebie -- repeat: FREE OFFER*
9. 2006 Online Harmonized Tariff Schedule*
10. 2006 Report on Foreign Trade Barriers*
11. Plan Globally, Deploy Locally*
12. Blog World: Managing Globalization*
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:

5. CHINA’S “CHUPPIES” ARE BUYING AMERICAN
*Subscriber Exclusive*

We hear plenty about Chinese imports -- the flow of goods manufactured in China and sold into the United States -- but not so much about U.S. exports sold into China. And yet, "China is one of the fastest growing markets for U.S. exports."

Find out more at IndustryWeek, visit:
China's "Chuppies" Are Buying American

(Remember, inaction is the worst kind of failure.)

###

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

Should I Stay Local or Go Global?

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Among the biggest challenges firms face in going global is that of performing a rigorous analysis to determine which functions should stay at home or go global. Then, too, firms sometimes fail to clearly understand their customer bases and value propositions. If a company depends on close relationships with certain business partners or customers to deliver value, then outsourcing may create new barriers that add layers of complexity to processes—offsetting any financial gains.

Read the article here. 

(Note: over time, links change.  If the link doesn't work, try here).

Look At India For Your Next Market Entry

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India offers so many opportunities that Wharton has decided to launch India Knowledge@Wharton. Their network already surpasses 750,000 subscribers worldwide. Must be something going on there -- beyond our typical radar. Better take a look.

Visit knowledge area here.

VISA's Global Gateway Launches New Small Biz Website

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VISA launches a new small biz site and contest. You could win a solution package (hopefully it includes advice on how to go global!) worth U.S. $10,000. Looks like VISA is getting a little edgy. That's a good thing.

Go for the prize here. Deadline for applications is December 31, 2006. (Note: Links change over time. If the link doesn't work, try here.)