Why Every Exporter Should Be Part of Global Chamber

We work hard worldwide every day to connect our members to new clients, partners, ideas and resources for them to grow across regions and globally.

Member success further inspires us to come in every day to make more warm introductions and continuously improve our services.

Thank you all members for the inspiration!

We've enjoyed continuing to grow and improve our services to meet your ongoing needs - which are more important than ever in our global and increasingly virtual world.

Lots can go wrong when you're doing global business including the issues below, a partial list! Though I've heard from more than one of you that this is WAY TOO LONG. OK, what are your top 3?

• A firm's initial 'accidental export' turns into a strategy to expand sales in that country, and that wasn't the best place to grow next.
• The process to expand lacks the right data to prioritize the best opportunities and the right people to operationalize, creating sub-optimal results.
• A new partner turns out not to be who they said they are, and that can risk not only one deal, but the global business, and even the entire business.
• The number of people within a company who really understand the company, the markets AND global business is nearly always too few.
• In addition, the pipeline for global leadership talent within the company is not as strong as it needs to be. Survey: only 18% of firms say it's strong.
• No single person can know all the details and people needed to grow, including all the best resources to succeed globally - it takes a village.
• It takes way too long for professionals and leaders to come up to speed on what is needed to be successful internationally.
• Women, young global leaders and others with special skills and needs are not generally fully supported or celebrated.
• The team makes excuses when problems arise instead of staying engaged, prioritizing the right things, and being ahead of issues before they occur.
• Country rules including compliance and legal nuances can be surprising, creating 'below the waterline' risk that can threaten everything.
• Any of us can have a harder time understanding client needs in new markets, especially if those needs are different from what we're used to.
• Momentum for any company is always the current products and locations, and so markets in far away lands create additional challenges.
• Distance to new markets can create delays, misinformation and other error-inducing issues that reduce the chance for success.
• The executive team for a global business can skew decisions toward 'what we know' instead of new markets and opportunities.
• Working across markets requires working with partners across cultures and languages, and underperformance can be a normal result.
• When something goes wrong - and it will - that geographic distance including time zone differences, and cross-cultural issues, will not be a friend.
• Leaders growing globally don't know what they don't know, and that means that they miss out on new opportunities and/or run into new challenges.
• There are thousands of leaders who can help your team grow and avoid problems, and until now there has NOT been one place to meet them all.

Thank you to all of you who get it. Sorry to the others of you for not being better at communicating the issues AND the relatively easy solutions. I'm going to keep working on that.

We've created the place to meet all the capable, professional leaders to help exporters grow globally AND to connect members and their team to clients anywhere in the world through warm intros. It's the Global Chamber®.

Global Chamber® exists to reduce the chance that any of these issues happen to disrupt success. And when they occur, members are prepared to react quickly and effectively. Warm introductions make the client acquisition process better because there has already been some significant vetting that has occurred and so you get a higher quality conversation.

We love exporters - and we want every exporter to be more successful. So we created an immense database feeding warm intros to clients, and assembled a global village of talented leaders.

There's a general summary of the benefits of Global Chamber® here.

Here are the primary solutions that we deliver, helping members...

1) Connect to clients. First and foremost we have always had a large and growing database of executives. We combine that with asking good questions of members, AND then connecting members to the right prospects through warm intros. That's our major magic!

OUR SERVICES HERE are making warm introductions to a large and growing global executive database. In addition to introducing prospective clients, we also make warm introductions to prospective partners, projects and resources.

In practice what we see every day is that we have the capability to make introductions that add value in many ways, including to create clients. We love to create ROI every year for every member, and usually gaining at least one new clients more than pays for membership, with a high ROI.

It's not a weakness to have another avenue to gain new clients, it's a strength. The warm introductions and over 500 events per year at Global Chamber® provide ample opportunity to meet and convert prospects to clients.

By the way DO NOT let the fact that we have over 500 events a year on our calendar intimidate you. If you worry that you're missing out, come to one per year - it's enough, because events for us are the cherry on top. The main course is warm introductions.

2) Integrate your team into the flow of global business. For those of us who have extensive global business experience, we know that nearly every company is mainly focused on local stuff. That's hard to see when you're at HQ because it can seem like the company is balanced, but that's almost never case. It's crystal clear when you're out in the field - and most clear when you're in another country - that the closer squeaky wheel gets the grease.

So what to do about it?

We encourage enlightened executives to be engaged with our activities from time to time AND involve your team. Definitely don't try to attend all 500+ events that we host - that doesn't make sense. But there are some that are more interesting - certain topics, metros and markets.

How many people in your firm have a broad understanding of global business? Maybe one, maybe no one? Get more people involved from time to time so that they can be connected, learn about global business and help out. The smarter your team is, the better.

Accelerate the development of anyone on your team who is doing global business by letting them engage in globinars at Global Chamber®. If global business is a priority, then engaging with the global tribe should be your priority, too.

OUR SERVICES HERE are initiatives like Young Global Leaders, Women in Global Leadership, Export League, HOT New Markets, and metro and market meetups to keep you and your team with eyes on the prize for global business.

Being part of the global tribe is a strength, not a weakness. There's always more for us to learn. And by having more people in your company know what they're doing is a very good thing.

3) Connect you to good people AND good people to work with. Growing across metros and borders requires different and MORE skills vs. 'normal' business... for legal contracts, banking, foreign exchange, logistics, intercultural issues and more. This is why only 1 of 100 companies in the U.S. exports... it's NOT easy. It's made EASIER when you have the right resources - and so we work hard to surround exporters with the best of the best, and it takes a village.

It's also not just capable people, but professional, easy-to-work-with people. And there is a difference, right? We've all worked with someone who seems to be really 'good', but they are nearly impossible to deal with. Or there are other issues that make someone 'difficult'. We recognize this reality and though we keep this on the down-low, there have been members that we don't ask back because of some issue that makes it difficult for them to recommend. We take this seriously.

We've had some honest, transparent conversations with members that nearly always ends well. That's what professionals do - get the job done and sometimes work through some challenging issues. These can be prompted by a member who says, "why did you introduce me to them?" - and explains what went wrong. Almost always that's an issue of miscommunication... us understanding who the member wants to meet, or misunderstandings between the two people being introduced. We can solve these - and do every day.

Whatever issue arises, we face it head on, and that's OK. An example is one intro we made across borders resulted in me getting a text message from one of the parties, basically asking me the why question above but a lot more cryptically and with a swear word in there ;-) I got involved and after a few weeks we all found the issue - a communication between parties - and it was resolved. Two people from the one member were fired... wow! But we got it done, and that's another success story.

We believe in our trusted global tribe... a one-of-a-kind community of capable leaders who are easy to work with. They're almost always collaborators and rarely 'lone wolves' because sometimes those lone wolves who struggle with collaboration also don't understand 'win-win', and that can be really problematic in times of stress. So we love to collaborate, and for people who don't understand yet how to do it, we'll pass on offering them membership until they're ready. We're thinking ahead.

Our activity and passion is driven by the desire to increase member success and reduce risk.

Thank you to the global tribe for 'getting it'. We are pleased to serve you and your success.

Thanks also for the testimonials here - more inspiration for us! Let's keep it going and growing.

Doug Bruhnke - Global Chamber®

ps... on the picture above. That's me pointing to the name of long-time member Squire Patton Boggs on a monument sign in Ebisu, Tokyo, Japan on the way to lunch. This is nearby my old neighborhoods where I've lived and worked in Tokyo - living in Hiroo and Azabu Juban neighborhoods of Tokyo, and working in Gotanda. By the way, Ebisu is also the site for a good part of one of my favorite movies, Lost in Translation - with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Anyway - too much lead up ;-) With this picture I had just been speaking with our Tokyo team about members and the message I got back is that they had never heard of Squire Patton Boggs... and yet there they are on this sign on the way to the Ebisu train station - they passed it EVERY DAY. We don't know what we don't know, and sometimes we don't even know things that are in plain sight. And so when it comes to global business, be part of the global tribe to know more, reduce risk and grow more effectively!!

pps... on being committed. As an exporter, you're serious or not about exporting and global expansion. If you're not it's better to tell everyone including your own people - they'll just be disappointed in you when things fail or are sub-optimized. Being serious is committing to being in the global tribe, even when things are really busy. It's also definitely NOT just being around when there's a problem with a shipment or something tactical. You're in or you're not for the long term, every day and week. That's because you can always learn something from the global tribe to assist with global growth by showing up periodically. Many organizations are members of local chambers, and that's cool. It's not very helpful globally, but it's a statement of giving back to your local town. Being part of Global Chamber® sends another message - that you're smart, open and committed to global growth. And in today's world, that's an important strategy because 85-99% of business is outside of your country. Oh, and "Don't try", read more.

ppps... on being successful. If you are committed to global business, then you will be committed to being part of the global tribe. 'Too busy' is a lament for failed business strategies. Global tribers are enlightened and focused on what it takes to grow. Part of that is making deals, meeting people half-way and appreciating win-win instead of marching through life with a win-lose mentality. Has win-lose worked on the global stage? Sure. But honestly we don't like to work with those folks, because in times of stress, it can be really messy. We feel bad about making an introduction of a win-loser to someone who thinks like us - and so we do our best to screen these folks out as much as possible. Conversely, win-winners are a joy! We love and appreciate all of you!! Below... first recipients of an annual 'global tribe' award, from left, Melissa Sanderson, Hank Marshall and Susan Shultz.

pppps... Global Chamber® is a growing and collaborating community of CEOs, executives and leaders in over 525 metro regions around the world, connecting member businesses to new opportunities for advancing growth and success. It's the only chamber of commerce in the world operating in hundreds of locations that helps exporting, importing and investing for members to connect through warm introductions to clients, partners, projects and resources. Invest in what you believe in. Invest in a more global and successful future.