Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2002
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Consultants - get ready, set, then export!

By Alan R. Perks, P.Eng. and
Peter J. Laughton, P. Eng
R.V. Anderson Associates Ltd.

Urban water and sanitation are clearly among the critical problems for the future. The world’s population is increasingly concentrated into large urban areas and the impact of these rapidly growing zones is immense. Certainly, the most efficient operation of existing water and wastewater infrastructure is the key to sustainable urban development.

R.V. Anderson Associates Limited has been operating in South Asia, and India in particular, for almost ten years now. This article discusses some of the lessons learned from that experience, as presented at a Canada-India Business Council Workshop held in Toronto, featuring the visit of Doug Paterson, Sr. Trade Commissioner from the Canadian Consulate in Mumbai.

Canada has developed well respected planning, design and operational skills to meet her own needs for reliable water and wastewater services. Canadian firms are, therefore, in a good position to export those skills to countries like India, which have complementary technical abilities and the economy to implement technological change. This not only improves the local environment, it opens the doors to other related goods and services from Canada. To achieve this, firms must make themselves “export ready.”

What does it mean to be export ready? There should be at least some corporate and professional staff experience in a developing country, either on a project or on a technical exchange basis. The firm may have made some initial contacts on its own in the target market, perhaps to the point of identifying and selecting a local partner to work with. More often than not, this is a matter of perseverance and carefully targeting opportunities, and then working remotely to support the partner with technical and administrative skills.

Local partners with common interests are the most important factor in success overseas. The days of exporting large design teams with a full complement of technical staff are gone. Now the emphasis is on value added services, with whatever can be done locally by a competent local partner.

A good local partner, at least from a consultant’s point of view, would be a firm of similar size and interests – one that can contribute to the success of any ultimate project through local technical and logistical resources. A good partnership is one in which both partners are similarly exposed to risk and reward potential through their common endeavours. The best indication of the partner’s credentials is a solid track record of local assignments for the same client base or market sector as the Canadian firm is interested in. Notably, a good local partner will be willing to shoulder its own share of the marketing and promotion costs. Ones that can’t are very often not doing real business in the local market.

Winning overseas projects through the process of international bidding is nevertheless very tough. Firstly, there is intense foreign competition for every assignment. European and American firms are often much larger than Canadian competitors, and able to sustain longer and more costly marketing efforts. The cost of a single marketing visit can run to $15,000, and a full-fledged international proposal in the range of $50,000-$100,000, not exactly small change to most Canadian firms.

There are certainly cultural differences to contend with, but seldom do these involve the kind of “body language” considerations found in most briefing notes on overseas travel. The cardinal rule is simply to treat everyone with respect, and usually slight “gaffes” will be overlooked.

But Canadians do have to realize that local ways of problem solving and managing can be markedly different from what is expected in Canada. For example, personal relationships are very important in day-to-day business transactions, while procedures and documentation generally less so. Also, time planning takes on an entirely different meaning than in Canada, more akin to “ crisis management”. This may simply be due to population pressures and the resulting intense business competition, and frequent unforeseen events occurring. However, this intense pressure and competition require the business skills of local firms, often to an extent not achieved in Canada.

Finding appropriate Canadian staff is another obstacle. Compared to Europe, Canada has a dearth of trained professionals with overseas experience in its service sector. There has simply been less need to work offshore than for the British, Dutch and German firms, for example. We may have well qualified people, but some of their curricula vitae are not “marketable” on large internationally financed projects. Most firms find it difficult to free up senior staff to take on offshore assignments when they do arise. Therefore Canadian professionals should make themselves available to even short-term assignments of a technical exchange nature, wherever possible.

There is a growing local/regional technical capacity, and these firms are increasingly showing up on short lists and proposal calls. Many developing countries have well-trained technical staff available, and it is not unusual to see consulting firms from India, Thailand, South Korea and China competing for internationally financed projects along with Canadian, European, American and Australian firms. This means that Canadian firms must really focus on value-added services, and delegate much of the project to the local partner if they wish to remain competitive.

Don’t venture more than one can lose! There is always pressure to extend the services and marketing efforts before revenue has been established. But if one incurs expenses in the hope of repayment at some future date, a very difficult compromise position has been entered into. Avoid that position. Recognize what a sales opportunity is to a consulting firm. Many promoters and export development agencies tend to equate a “need” with an “opportunity”. This is not the case. An opportunity has the added dimension of a client with the ability to pay for services rendered.

Trade Commissioner services are very helpful to smaller and medium sized firms. Learning what they can do and how they operate is important. Too many firms don’t explore these services enough. Firms also should take advantage of some of the marketing support programs of Industry Canada (i.e. PEMD, Program for Export Market Development) as well as CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) support for feasibility studies in a region through its CIDA INC (Industrial Cooperation Program). These programs can significantly help a Canadian firm to compete effectively in markets that are difficult and expensive to penetrate.

Working internationally can indeed be a wild rollercoaster ride. But in the current context of globalization and environmental problems, the advantage of increased exposure, experience and revenues from international operations is becoming more and more apparent.

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