Key Takeaways
The global pandemic has indeed affected every corner of the world and according to Conor Fahy, Regional Director, Enterprise Ireland, India, the Middle East, and Africa is no different.
“The area encompasses over 40% of the world population so lockdown and self-isolation presents many challenges,” says the regional director. “The situation in the Middle East is similar to Europe in timing and response and most companies are expecting a decrease in revenue and are looking to cut costs and consider cost containment and defer or pause investments.
“The double whammy of an oil price war and Covid-19 will affect budgets and Dubai has introduced highly restrictive measures, including closing its airport, so there is a risk of a sharp increase in business defaults and liquidations in the travel and tourism industry. Also borders have closed across the region and major international events have been cancelled or delayed.
“India and Africa are currently around three weeks behind in terms of cases and government response. But business is severely affected, while economic activity is suffering from the initial phases of lockdown. The medium-term impacts will be severe and combined with oil-price shock and reduced demand for commodities, the region is likely to tip into an economic contraction in 2020/21, in the absence of major fiscal stimulus.”
There are eight Enterprise Ireland offices across the region which are helping Irish companies stay informed, connected and exporting. And Fahy says it’s crucial for people to avail of this support and keep communications lines open in order to survive the challenges.
“When things get tough, the temptation is to become acutely focused on immediate problems but while these should be addressed, developing a strategy for recovery is just as vital. So extend your timeline assumptions and planning-against scenarios, even if it appears difficult. Now is the time to invest in strategic planning and to start thinking through decision criteria and conditions for return to business.”
Many organisations are still dealing with immediate concerns around the availability of cash.
While all sectors are being affected across the region, Tourism, Aviation, Construction, Industrial Manufacturing and Mining and Oil industries have been hardest hit but technology related businesses will be the first to make a recovery.
“CFOs in the Middle East are expecting to get back to normal sooner rather than later; pausing or delaying investments instead of cancelling them altogether,” he says. “In fact, the majority expect to return to business as usual within three months if COVID-19 were to end today.
While there are certainly challenges facing Irish exporters, Fahy says there are also some emerging opportunities, particularly for digital payments and cloud services.
“The near collapse of many online grocery retail platforms is driving demand for process automation and intelligent self-service and Irish companies quickly recognize the changing market dynamics,” he says. “But while positivity may be in short supply, there is optimism in around returning to business and continuing to invest where it matters.
“Business leaders need to invest time away from crisis management to show leadership and strategically look to future opportunities which will emerge when these economies rebound.”
Will your customers be a distributor which imports in larger quantities, or an overseas agenct or representative acting on your behalf or will it be a separate trading company of your own business?
Supports will need to be assigned to generate business leads. Will they be predominantly offline, online or a hybrid?
Offline: fairs, events, conferences, network meetings or
Online: website, social media, blogs etc.
You will need to qualify and validate the leads, managing them through a Customer Relationship Management (CMS) system such as Salesforce.
Implementing a successful marketing and communication plan is vital for sustained sales in export markets.
When developing a plan, it is important not to do a ‘copy and paste’ of the same marketing strategy from your domestic market as these are likely completely disparate territories. While it is logical that you should retain your company values and purpose, you will need to adapt your marketing and communications strategy to your new export market
By implementing a sales process, you are creating a set of logical, repeatable steps that your sales team goes through to bring a potential buyer from an early stage of awareness to closing the sale. There are various stages that need to be considered in developing an effective sales process, such as;
a) How will your company cultivate your sales leads?
b) What preparation will you commit to in order to be ready to capture an overseas sale?
c) What will be your sales teams approach to a prospective buyer?
d) How will you adequately present or pitch your sales in an overseas market?
e) Is your team setup to deal with buyer objections or queries?
f) Have you experience in closing a sale in an overseas market?
g) What follow-up work will be done post buyer presentation?
Relationship building is a key factor in developing sustained sales in export markets. Any company considering to expand globally is undoubtedly looking for a return on their initial investment, and companies looking for better business returns are strongly encouraged to place an emphasis on relationship building.
Companies can quite often focus on the transactional, revenue generation portion before they consider relationship building. However, as is the case in much of the world, relationships based on mutual respect and trust outplay singular transactions. Relationships need to be worked on and require different approaches for different markets.
“The ocean economy in Ireland is resilient and where there are challenges there are also a wealth of opportunities,” says Curran. “This has been recognised by the current government which has made a commitment to develop a new integrated marine sustainable development plan, focusing on all aspects of the marine, with a greater focus on sustainability and stakeholder engagement.
“This goes across all marine sectors, but Enterprise Ireland views the emerging Offshore Renewables sector as a key area of opportunity for Irish marine industry capability – and this sector, particularly Offshore Wind, will play a critical role in Ireland’s decarbonisation agenda.”
The MIIN co-ordinator says the industry as a whole has been growing steadily for a number of years and work has also focused on strengthening established marine industries such as fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism and the marinisation of existing industries such as ICT, food, clean/green and finance into a range of marine related markets.
“There are some great examples of Irish companies identifying and targeting these opportunities, including Bio-Marine Ingredients in Monaghan who extract high value lipid and protein products from Blue Whiting, a fish which was previously considered low value by the seafood processing industry,” he says. “The production of high-end bio products from marine biological materials is an emerging growth area in the Blue Economy.
Wicklow-based Voyager IP specialise in providing high end connectivity solutions to the superyacht industry, while Vilicom provide communications systems for the Offshore Wind industry. And because of Ireland’s location at the edge of the North Atlantic, we can benefit from one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in Europe.”
According to the marine expert, developing this in a sustainable manner is going to be key in supporting our clean energy transition.
“Examples of MIIN companies in this area are Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions, who work globally for the offshore wind industry, while Inland and Coastal Marina Systems fabricate and install pontoon systems for harbours and have been winning work in the UK installing mooring systems for Crew Transfer Vessels.
“Currently, the development of the offshore renewables sector in Ireland is high on the government’s agenda and much care is being put into developing the National Marine Planning Framework and new consenting regime to ensure this is done in a fair and sustainable way.”
Curran says that in order to take advantage of this, companies in the sector should consider how they might pivot capability to meet the needs of the offshore wind industry.
“This is a huge area of opportunity for Irish marine SMEs, both at home and in export markets,” he says. “Galway based Bluewise Marine have done exactly that, offering experience in areas such as marine and fisheries science, engineering, health & safety management, and community engagement, as well as a range of technical and operational project management supports to assist companies to select and develop offshore renewable energy sites, coordinate marine surveys, engage with the local supply chain, and manage stakeholder relationships.
“In Killybegs, the marine engineering capability has been built up around the pelagic fishing industry but is now also looking at how skillsets could be applied to the offshore wind sector – and marine fabrication companies like MMG Welding and Seaquest Systems, amongst others, have the capability to be part of this rapidly growing industry.”
The senior technologist recommends that companies which may be interested in entering this sector should join MIIN and attend events (currently online) to meet the best industry innovators – but says it is also important to research the sector beforehand.
“The marine sector is very unforgiving of products or services which haven’t been properly ‘marinised’ and built to withstand everything the North Atlantic winter will throw at them,” he says.
“These includethe Lir National Ocean Test Facility at UCC and the Galway Bay Marine & Renewable Energy Test Site. We also have an excellent maritime training facility at the National Maritime College of Ireland.
“In addition, the marine research ecosystem in this country is very active nationally and internationally, while SFI has supported research centres, like MaREI, to help Ireland stay at the forefront of marine research.
“So any SMEs who are interested should log onto the Marine Ireland website to get an insight into the vibrant marine ecosystem which exists in Ireland.”
