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zt] Global Finance: 新兴市场，中国，印度，美国（一） -- hwarrensen - (8089 Byte) 2006-1-18 周三, 12:10 (2171 reads) |
hwarrensen
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作者：hwarrensen 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
US Firms Widen the Net
https://www.gfmag.com/2006/Jan/c_ci/cs_art08.php?PHPSESSID=78b394afd5596a7f7b0182749849f391
Global Finance Jan 2006
Companies look to the emerging markets not just to save production costs but also to expand their customer base.
Unfazed by the myriad challenges of selling in emerging markets from Colombia to Qatar, bicycle manufacturer Trek is now trying to sell its pricey bikes to Chinese buyers, who are more used to employing their trusty three-speeds to get to work and run errands. “There’s been lots of development in the country, and many people associate bikes with a time before they could afford cell phones, cars and televisions,” says Maureen Muldoon, international sales manager at the Waterloo, WI-based company. “We want to promote bikes as recreational purchases, for events, races and lifestyle pursuits. We’re trying to tap into a different market and a different mindset.”
The company first tiptoed into the gigantic Chinese market when it sold several hundred bikes to a Chinese procurement company, which secured the bikes for state-sponsored athletic events. Now Trek is expanding its presence with two retail stores in Beijing that opened last year and plans to open stores in other Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu.
With 4,000 dealers in 64 countries and nine subsidiaries throughout Europe, China and Japan, Trek is part of the wave of US companies that have headed to emerging markets over the past two decades. Whether to export their products, build factories, set up joint ventures or outsource back-office functions, US companies are increasingly going global to expand sales and trim costs.
For Oregon-based sportswear firm Nike, which first entered China in the early 1980s and runs profitable businesses in places such as Asia, Latin America and Russia, one of the key benefits of an emerging market is tapping into the population’s fast-growing consumer appetite. Another obvious attraction is high-quality production at competitive costs.
“We’re beginning to see manufacturing and design innovation come from some of these markets as well,” says Don Blair, Nike’s chief financial officer. “Challenges include trade barriers, complex business requirements and nascent legal environments.” Muldoon agrees, adding that one of the biggest challenges of venturing into emerging markets is dealing with the unknown. “Europe has its own idiosyncrasies, but we understand how the government and businesses stand on issues,” she says.
Many US businesses were hoping that negotiators for the 148 countries gathered at the World Trade Organization talks last month in Hong Kong would be able to clear up some of the complex operating rules as well as reduce the tariff structures that make selling goods in many developing countries prohibitive. Christopher Wenk, director of international trade policy at the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, DC, notes that 20 developing countries—including such significant markets as China, India and Brazil—are responsible for about two-thirds of all the dollar value of duties placed on US exports of manufactured goods. “We’re successful now even with the barriers,” he points out. Without the trade barriers, he says, “we would become even better.”
But companies heading abroad are looking for more than reduced tariffs to make their overseas ventures less problematic. Companies want strong legal structures and judicial systems that can protect their intellectual and physical property, as well as federal and state laws that are equally receptive to foreign investors. “It’s one thing to have intellectual property laws, but will the country enforce them? Is the judicial system reliable?” asks Alan G. Straus, a partner at New York City law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. “Do companies have the ability to take their investments out, in terms of profits, or to liquidate their property and leave?”
When Nike considers a new market, for example, it looks at a country’s duty and non-duty trade barriers as well as the currency convertibility regulations. “Intellectual property protection is also vital, since the strength of our brands and product innovation are central to our business success. In addition, we look for stable, rational legal systems impartially applied to domestic and foreign companies,” Blair says.
Looking For The Right Partner
Although it became a hot political issue in 2004’s presidential election, outsourcing is still growing strongly, too. The benefits of moving office functions abroad isn’t just the lower costs, according to David Jensen, a senior vice president at Genpact, which was formerly known as GE Capital International Services. “We specialize in processes,” says Jensen, adding that the company invests more than 1.5 million hours in personnel training every year, “so companies can do what they do best and leave the processes to us.”
Genpact recently signed a deal with Wachovia, the giant Charlotte, NC-based financial services company, to create an offshore operation in India to support some of Wachovia’s business processes. Genpact employs about 19,000 people with operations centers from Mexico to India to Romania. Jensen says there are two primary factors that are behind a decision to set up a facility: “What is the infrastructure like—the roads, the tax structures, the energy reliability? The other important factor is the talent of the potential workforce.”
At coffee retailer Starbucks, finding the right joint venture partner or licensee to help develop the brand is essential when it considers an overseas location. “It is crucial that we find a partner with the right cultural fit for Starbucks, as well as the right business and retail experiences,” says Martin Coles, president of Starbucks Coffee International. He adds that the company has learned a lot since it opened its first overseas location in Japan 10 years ago. Today, the Seattle-based coffee company is focusing its overseas energies on Brazil, China, India and Russia. “The emerging markets have a great deal to offer. They are rich in culture, heritage and untapped resources, possessing, in many cases, an eager workforce keen to better their lives, which in turn improves the social and economic situation in their respective country,” Coles says.
Jensen says US companies heading abroad are also discovering the benefits of second-tier cities in the well-known emerging markets, such as Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, or Dalian, a port city in northeastern China. He believes the new wave of outsourcing locations will include Morocco and Tunisia for French companies and Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania for firms from the Nordic-speaking countries.
But even with all the attention focused on emerging markets around the globe and the excitement generated by new trade pacts with Central America and Bahrain, more than a third of all US exports, which totaled $819 billion in 2004, headed for Canada and Mexico, according to John Murphy, vice president of international affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC.
By the end of 2002, 63% of the $1.7 trillion in US cumulative direct investment abroad had gone to Europe, Murphy adds, citing the most recent figures available from the US Department of Commerce. Over the same period—figures have been kept since 1929—US direct investment in India totaled $4 billion while investment in China, which includes money that has gone into Hong Kong and Macau, totaled $46 billion.
“The world is changing, but it’s not changing that much. While investing in China is exciting, we shouldn’t forget how important Europe is to us,” says Murphy. “US businesses are increasingly moving into emerging markets. But we’re not forgetting our old friends.”
Paula L. Green
作者：hwarrensen 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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