The ultimate in overseas team-building?

Many experienced exporters recognise the importance of integrating their overseas agents as fully as possible into their company culture. Out in the field, your agent is quite literally the public face of your business, and it is imperative that he/she shares – and demonstrates - your values, your ambitions and your expertise.

Aberdeen-based Hydro Group PLC, which manufactures electrical cables, connectors and penetrators for the international oil and gas and defence markets, recently identified shortcomings in its relationships with its agents, and came up with an innovative solution.

Hydro Group’s senior management participated in Scottish Enterprise’s Global Companies Development Programme (GCDP), a practical initiative which is designed to enable companies that are strategically controlled from Scotland to achieve a significant global presence through having in place a robust strategic focus. Click here for more information on GCDP.

As a small business, it wasn't practical to have company personnel in each overseas location and therefore Hydro’s agents were of key importance. Hydro Group has been participating in GCDP for three years, during which time overseas sales have risen from 18% of turnover to an impressive 38%, and it was during one of the GCDP sessions that a management plan was developed to reinvigorate five of the company’s key overseas agents.

“When we really thought about how we treated our agents, we realised that we weren’t according them the same level of respect and involvement that we give to our employees, even though they are clearly every bit as integral to our business,” explains sales and marketing manager Scott Garden.

So, with Scottish Enterprise support, Hydro Group organised its first-ever global agents’ conference to be held in Aberdeen. Management set up an intensive five-day programme and arranged for five of Hydro’s agents from the US, Norway, Korea and Australia to come across with their partners for a no-holds barred two-way exploration of the company and its markets.

“We agreed that good dynamics were necessary to get the most out of this exercise – there was to be no sugar-coating, we would give the agents full rein to tell us exactly what they thought of our business, and how we were responding to opportunities,” recalls Scott.

It was a bold move, but it worked spectacularly well.

A reinvigorating experience

The overseas team took part in an intensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis working alongside Hydro’s Aberdeen management team. Business meetings were arranged over two and a half days to share market knowledge, and intensive training sessions laid on to ensure that the agents were fully up to speed on Hydro’s extensive product portfolio.

Some challenging results emerged from this intensive process. The company recognised its relative failure to crack the Boston and North East US market, and has set about re-aligning its agent relationships in this area, with greater openness and transparency.

There were also some unexpected benefits. “Our Norwegian agent identified a suitable supplier of EXD connectors for us, which saved us having to tailor our existing designs for the Norwegian market,” explained Scott.

The conference had an important social dimension as well, with agents and their wives being shown some of Aberdeenshire’s finest scenery and spectacular castles.

The company believes the conference was a resounding success, and plans repeating the exercise on an annual basis with more of its agents. “This was a completely positive experience, and thoroughly reinvigorated all the participants, from both our domestic and overseas teams,” notes Scott. “It seemed a very ambitious exercise, but at the end of the day it was well worth all the preparation.”

A brief guide to Scottish Enterprise’s Global Companies Development Programme (GCDP)

GCDP was launched by Scottish Enterprise in 2000 as an imaginative but practical initiative to enable existing exporters which are strategically controlled in Scotland to grow significant international business and sales operations.

The programme is flexible and tailored to suit each participating company, using a network of experienced specialist facilitators provided by Scottish Enterprise.

The broad outline criteria for participation are that companies should already have substantial export sales but with the potential to grow sales internationally to between £15m and £100m pa within 3-5 years; should be capable of establishing operations on two continents; have company-wide commitment to the programme; and have an ambitious management team with the capability to draw up and implement a global expansion strategy.

Scottish Enterprise meets a major proportion of the costs, but participating commercial companies are required to contribute between 30% - 40% of the costs, depending on size, as well as paying for any research work undertaken.

The major benefits of participation are:

Acceleration of their internationalisation process
Access to expert guidance, support and best practice implementation
Introductions to international networks and mentors
Participation in benchmarking and knowledge-sharing peer events
Sustained growth in revenue, profit and market share
Assistance to develop and protect a leading-edge competitive position in your international market sector

There are five key elements to the programme:

Establishing the vision and tailoring the programme to suit
Development workshops to identify and augment the skills of the management team
Strategy formulation and scenario planning
Preparation of a time-bound and measurable action plan; and
Action plan implementation

For more details of the Global Companies Development Programme, please contact BGI International Trade Adviser Karen Irving on T: 01224 252208, E: Karen.irving@scotent.co.uk