International Business and Technology Blog

Watch out “Les Gafa” are about! So says the EU Commission. The French provided this useful acronym, which encompasses a lot more than those four leviathan companies, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. It is all about entrenched EU industries protecting their turf, tax revenues (who is collecting and who is not) and all this wrapped into privacy concerns, when helpful! It was a big month for Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, as she unveiled long awaited accusations against Google.

“The web changes business models.” Every business person says so; it’s much discussed, but little understood, often not thought through and even less deliberately reacted to and implemented. Yet the web, the broadband driven internet, has radically disrupted business models and none more so than that of the traditional middle man, the so-called distributor (that includes agents, brokers, channel partners, intermediaries, merchants…) who stand between the source of a good/service and the end client. Let’s look at business models and then at how they get discombobulated by the web. Looking for an

Susanna Hardy, our web-savvy Managing Director – EU, had a great month “webinaring”. Susanna prepared, presented (audio and visual) and fielded the follow-ups from two webinars. She worked closely with our clients the Maine International Trade Center (MITC), Maine’s leading source for international business assistance as well as the Food Export Association of the Midwest USA and Food Export USA Northeast, who both did a great job hosting and moderating. Our sincere thanks go to Wade Merritt (Vice President) and Hannah Webb (Trade Assistance Manager) from the MITC team and John Belmont (Communications Manager), Joe Yotti (Branded Program Manager) and Kathryn Navarro (International Marketing Program Assistant) from the Food Export Association of the Midwest USA and Food Export USA Northeast team. The webinars were well attended and a great success. Attendees were selected and invited on the basis of their interest in growing their exports and the webinars proved educational and informative. Lots of time was dedicated to interactive questions as participants asked a range of export, ecommerce related questions and receiving informed answers. For MITC the subject was: “Grow your exports and business in Europe: Using online and ecommerce opportunities", presented on Wednesday the 18^th of March and the next week on Tuesday the 24^th March with the Food Export Association of the Midwest USA and Food Export USA Northeast, were pleased to present the webinar: "Building Your Online Presence to Boost Exports: Europe as a Case Study".  

How many languages can you speak sufficiently well to communicate with your fellow humans? Today's hyper-connected world enjoys approximately 6,500 languages, shared amongst >7 Bn people spread across >169 countries. So how do you feel now? Belittled? I do. Language, and communication between differing languages, is an issue that humankind has faced for a wee while now. Now, where did all these languages come from?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) “is an issue that is sexy right now”, according to European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, commenting on 23^rd February while attending the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) conference on the subject. TTIP might be sexy, but there is no love these days as EU opposition is growing and consolidating. This could be considered rather sad given the worthy transatlantic vision of deeper European and American economic co-operation and integration, driven essentially by lower tariffs and reduced regulatory barriers. But from Germany, via France all the way to Greece, protagonists at this time on euro issues, have a common beef against TTIP. 

Trade fairs are a wonderful export and international business development tool. When well-managed (from selection, to planning, through preparation, attendance and crucially follow-up) they can be hugely influential, highly cost-effective and a big generator of new, as well as extending existing, business. They can also bring unique opportunities to visit faraway places, meet friends, colleagues, competitors and start a whole new social life and fall in love. A few years ago, a French member of our business development team attended a hospitality trade fair in Paris. Being a vigilant young man, he spotted an intelligent, beautiful young Italian lady. Suffice it to say, I recall that the end of the 4 day event, during which time we saw very little of either of them, was a very sad occasion. As life’s rich pattern flows, so did they. Within 6 months, we had a team member based in Italy as he relocated to Milan. They are now happily married, with two children!