Exporting Your Goods

Addressing Organizational Issues

In order to be successful and not compromise your domestic operations, you need to be sure that you have the internal resources and support to work together effectively as a team. The following five questions and answers can help you identify issues you may need to address:

Why is senior management commitment so important?
How do we make sure that exporting doesn’t hurt our domestic operations?
What kinds of training will our staff need?
Where can we get export-related training for our staff?
What organizational changes might we need to make? 

Why is senior management commitment so important?

Since they are responsible for the safety and the risk management of the company, they are the ones who will decide what resources may be allocated to export market development without jeopardizing domestic production cycles and customer service.

How do we make sure that exporting doesn’t hurt our domestic operations?

There are several issues to consider:

  • Can you fill export market orders without undermining domestic sales fulfillment?
  • Do you have enough sales personnel capacity to market into a foreign market without detracting from domestic marketing?
  • Do you have enough administrative capacity to be able to process orders from abroad as well as domestic orders?
  • Do you have a staff member dedicated to coordinating all export activity and ensuring that there are no conflicts with domestic operations?

What kinds of training will our staff need?
  • Briefings on:
    • Differences in product design and labelling
    • Export documentation
    • Export financing
    • Legal issues in exporting
  • Coaching on liaising with export specialists, intermediaries, and foreign partners
  • Training on cultural issues and foreign business practices

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Where can we get export-related training for our staff?

There are seminars for the different topics – for example Small Business BC offers a wide range of business seminars as well as Canada Services Border Agency and the Forum for International Trade Training.

What organizational changes might we need to make?
  • Appoint a senior officer to be responsible for export market development
  • Designate a staff person to coordinate all export-related activity
  • Engage a logistics specialist and a foreign intermediary (e.g., an agent)
  • Determine which staff will deal with queries and correspondence in a foreign language
  • Determine how you will coordinate staff schedules with time zone differences