Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World

Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World
Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway & Joseph J. Douress

Order Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World

Introduction

Great Britain reigned supreme in the 19th Century. Once Napoleon was defeated, the Pax Britannica made the world safe for British trade and commerce until the First World War began in 1914. A businessman (virtually all traders were male in those days) could make a good living without going outside the boundaries of the British Empire.

The 20th Century is often called the American Century. The United States of America turned the tide in two World Wars, and emerged from the Cold War as the last Superpower. By mid-century, any businessman who restricted his trade to the British Empire found himself without an Empire to trade with

Now the millennium approaches. What will the 21st Century bring? Will this be the Pacific Century? If power shifts to the world's most homogeneous and forward-looking nation, it will be the Japanese Century. Or it may go to the world's most populous nation, and give birth to the Chinese Century.

No one can say with certainty.

However, one can predict that globalization offers businesspeople their best chance to participate in the economy of the 21st Century. None of us wants to be like that British businessman who found himself without an Empire to trade with. Successful executives of the 21st Century will compete on a global scale.

This book, Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World, is designed to help you enter that global market. This expansive volume includes vital data and guidelines for conducting business with the top 40 trade partners of the U.S.A.

The information in Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World is organized for ease of use by both new and experienced exporters. Each chapter is crammed with data on every topic which impacts on exporting. This plethora of information is carefully broken down into category and type so as to remain accessible. If (for example) your only interest was whether or not each country is a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, this information is easily found (in this example, under 'Comparative Data,' Section G).

Of particular note is a section near the beginning of each chapter listed as '5 CULTURAL TIPS.' Not all businesspeople have the time to read Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World in its entirety. But even if you are too busy to read anything else, knowing these top five need-to-know precepts can double your chances of success in these 40 target countries.

In selecting these '5 CULTURAL TIPS,' the focus is on information which is vital to effective business relationships. Failure to heed these guidelines is guaranteed to damage your prospects. Many of these tips cover the protocols for initial business contacts--which, like any first impression, can be difficult to overcome. A single cultural gaffe in an initial contact can eliminate the possibility of a second contact. In effect, a bad first impression can ruin any chance of a business deal. Some topics covered in the CULTURAL TIPS include:

• Techniques for selling to Australians (and why high-pressure sales won't work).
• Eye contact among Mexicans, and what it reveals about relationships.
• Why a Dutch executive may be preparing a complete dossier on you.
• How foreigners can run afoul of the Indonesian precept of 'asal bapak senang' (which translates as 'keeping father happy').
• How many kisses on the cheek a woman should expect in Brazil.
• Why a disregard for history will cause you problems in Poland.
• What to expect when you are invited to a South African braaivleis.
• Who a mudang is, and why this person can spoil your deal with South Koreans.
• In what everyday environment do the normally-smiling Thais lose their smiles.
• Why handshakes among the French are brief, and how to keep the French from considering you to be dull.

Failure to respond correctly to any of these cultural idiosyncrasies can result in the ruination of a deal. But forewarned is forearmed. These tips alone can be worth the price of this volume.

Each of the USA's 40 top trading partners is given a separate chapter. Each chapter begins with vital demographic data. Population figures are important, but less-commonly-provided data such as age breakdowns are equally important. If you're marketing in-line roller blades, you need to know the number of young people in a country--not just the overall population. For example, both Costa Rica and Ireland have roughly equal populations. But some 70% of Costa Ricans are under 29 years old, compared to only 48.5% of the Irish. Other factors being equal, Costa Rica looks like a much better market.

Of course, there are many other factors to be considered. Once the size of a market has been determined, you will need to know the per capita income. Can the people in your target country afford to buy your product? Is their economy growing or shrinking? Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World will provide this data.

What about cultural factors? Will your product encounter opposition on political or religious grounds? Can such opposition be overcome? Opposition from religious leaders won't stop your product from selling in Sweden...but it may stop it in Saudi Arabia. Each chapter includes an evaluation of the religious and societal influences on business. And the religious breakdown of each nation is included, detailing what percentage of the population adheres to which religion.

Each country also has a general overview of its history and politics. Nothing is more insulting to natives of any country than being confused with natives of someplace else. These general overviews will enable you to pin down each nation's global identity. In addition, that country's relationship to the United States is noted. Is their government friendly and cooperative? By its nature, international trade is subject to the whims of governments. While the numbers may say that trade is worthwhile, a difficult government may make an otherwise-profitable deal more trouble than it is worth.

Dun & Bradstreet is well known for its ratings of stocks and companies. This book includes comparative data ratings for each country. On a scale of one-though-five, the country is judged as to the following:

• Gross Domestic Product growth
• Per Capita Income
• Trade Flows with the USA
• Risk Factors
• Monetary Policies
• Trade Policy
• Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
• Foreign Investment Climate

As with the Cultural Tips, this section alone is worth the price of the book.

Following these ratings, the exact dollar figures are detailed as to the country's imports and exports with the USA. The growth rate of these imports and exports are also listed, as are the country's GDP, rate of growth, and per capita income.

In addition, we list the top US exports to each country, as well as the top prospects for export in the future.

Ratings are useful only if what they are measuring is clear. The third section of each chapter (following the demographic and comparative data sections) explains in detail what is being measured in the following areas:

• Country Risk
• Monetary Policy
• Trade Policy, including Tariffs, Import Licensing and Import Taxes
• Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
• Foreign Investment Climate

The next section in each chapter lists the major political leaders (elected or otherwise) of each country. This highly dynamic, valuable data is provided through the International Academy at Santa Barbara, which produces the Current World Leaders Almanac. CWL is continually updated; you can contact them via their website (listed next to their data).

Since trade does not take place in a vacuum, there is a section covering the political influences on business. Once you have decided whom to contact (and whom to avoid), a list of contact addresses and phone numbers is included.

To facilitate your trips to these countries, we have also listed the passport and visa requrements.

Finally, in the hope that we can all profit by learning by our mistakes, many chapters contain a business error or gaffe. Listed under the title faux pas, these range from simple mistranslations to serious breaches of cultural etiquette. Each of these errors resulted in serious costs to the businesspeople involved. The first businesspeople to make these errors had an excuse: they didn't know any better. You won't have that excuse. But you won't have to suffer their consequences, either.

From the first conception of a deal to the final consummation, we have endeavored to include all the information you might need. Whether you are a one-man or one-woman trading concern or an integral part of a vast trading empire, Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World should have the answers you need.

As if the above was not enough, we have supplemented this book with a number of appendices. These include:

• An index of abbreviations and acronyms. Few things are more frustrating than encountering an indecipherable term in the legalese of an export document. This index should remedy that situation.
• Explanations of religious holidays around the world.
• International weights and measures.
• Samples of the trade forms required for export. We include the actual forms currently used for:
  • Bill of Lading
  • Air Waybill (a.k.a. Air Consignment Notice)
  • Certificate of Origin (including two different examples)
  • Commercial Invoice (a.k.a. Customs Invoice; including three different examples)
  • Dock Receipt
  • Shippers Export Declaration
  • Packing List
  • Pro-Forma Invoice
  • In addition to the actual samples of the trade documents, we include relevant information on these forms. Time is money, and you don't want your shipment held up because you didn't know if your Bill of Lading should have been straight, a Shipper's Order, or a To Order Bill.

While the data in Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World. contains valuable statistics, trends, facts, commerce and culture, it is clearly a snapshot in time. A template of important information to be used over and over, as well as dynamic data to be updated as time goes by. Of course, much of the information in this book (ranging from attitudes towards time to the cultural notes) will remain as useful decades from now as it is today.

We wanted to make Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World, a truly invaluable resource of current and future information for business travelers, researchers, educators, and tourists. That is why we also direct readers to online web sites where more cultural, political and trade data can be found online.

Armed with the information in Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World, you will be prepared to profit from the challenges of the new millenium.

And, unlike that proverbial British businessman who found himself without a British Empire to trade in, you will always find new markets for your trade.