The current strength of the domestic economy in the United States is causing many small and medium sized companies to abandon export-marketing efforts. As one manufacturing executive recently said to me, "Why should I go through the rigmarole of international marketing when there is a ready made market waiting right here in the good old U.S. A.? There are no problems getting paid. There are no special forms or other procedures to be executed. Tell me why I should bother with the hassle?" She makes a very valid point. The answer is not so obvious and therein lies a difficult task that has produced somewhat of a dilemma for international business service providers.

Convincing small and medium sized manufacturers, and even some service providers, to always have a global perspective is a gigantic task under the most perfect of circumstances. Producers of goods and services, especially in the United States, have become spoiled by the past 40+ years of incredible economic growth in the domestic economy of the United States. For many small and medium sized companies, spending any additional money for outside assistance to help market their goods or services was just inconceivable until the early 1980's when Japanese and other foreign manufacturers began to dominate entire industries. If anything, the current woes in Japan should be a lesson that boom times do not last forever. Huge multinational corporations understand the cyclical nature of business. In fact, it is this cyclical nature of business within domestic economies in the latter part of the 19 th century that first gave rise to multinational corporations or trans-national conglomerates. Try telling this to stubborn business executives in small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) who seem to be in total denial.

Those of us who are international business practitioners have seen this phenomenon of denial occur more than once in the past twenty years. I can recall one incident in particular at a trade show when I approached a top executive of a company and asked him what steps he had taken to globalize his company. I will never forget his response. "I don't need to think about globalization. I've got all the business that I can handle right here in the domestic economy." Without even knowing the specifics of his situation, I tried in vain to convince him that he should give my advice serious consideration. My thinking was that his company's products were being sold to companies in an industry that had become increasingly more competitive with the advent of increased globalization. I can still see the smirk on his face as he rudely dismissed me with a wave of his hand. This incident occurred in June. I called him in September to follow up with him and he refused to speak with me. His assistant said that she was told to tell me that nothing had changed.

Upon returning from the end of the year holidays, my assistant had placed on my desk four urgent messages from the same executive. Wondering what could have been so urgent, I called him immediately. It seems that this tremendous domestic business about which he was so ecstatic in June of the previous year, had all but evaporated. It turns out that his company was selling almost 90% of their products to one company. The CEO of this company, a golfing buddy of his, was fired and the new management team chose to discontinue using his company as one of their vendors. He was now trying frantically to find foreign distributors to whom he could sell his company's products. His company went bankrupt just two weeks before receiving their first order from overseas.

As strange as it might sound, this true story is not at all unusual for international practitioners like myself who have had many years of experience in dealing with smaller companies. The issue is not nepotism. We all recognize that we will strive to help our friends and our relatives in business as well as in other endeavors in life. The problem for small and medium sized companies is that international business is a technical business specialty with its own skill set. Therefore, an international business consultant or other practitioner such as a document examiner or an import-export clerk is bound by the normally accepted procedures of international commercial practices. There is not as much gray area in international business consulting as there is in management consulting.

Executives at small and medium sized companies tend to be very much unwilling to work with international business consultants. There are several reasons for this, many of which are quite understandable. Most notably, smaller companies are mostly either family-owned or very closely held private companies. It is unusual to find qualified international practitioners within the ranks of small and medium sized companies. Therefore, the consultant who does come on board to try to fix some of the problems is most often an outsider. However, this outsider vs insider situation is very much complicated by the fact that so many SME's are insulated from the prying eyes of nosy Wall Street analysts. 

This lack of oversight or public scrutiny allows some companies to dig themselves into very deep holes with regards to their approach to globalization within their own industry and as a general fact of business life. Even worse yet, is one other fact that most business executives hate to acknowledge; specifically that more often than not consultants are brought in to confirm a decision already made by management or to provide corroboration of certain facts and/or actions which are open to interpretation.

International business consultants/practitioners are just like doctors. If the doctor comes into the exam room and you tell her/him about your ingrown toenail but deny seeing any blood in your stool or having any abdominal pain, then the doctor will probably be unable to make a proper diagnosis. To return to our lady executive's query:

"Why should I go through the rigmarole of international marketing when there is a ready made market waiting right here in the good old U.S. A.?"

The answer is that being able to export your company's products and/or services is a vital sign that your company is healthy and viable. Just because you know that you do not necessarily need to be able to walk three miles today in order to wake up tomorrow, does not mean that walking the three miles today will not accrue benefits tomorrow and beyond. Because your company does not have to export today in order to make a profit does not imply that it will not need to be able to export tomorrow in order to continue making a profit. Remember the universal capability theorem: "If you don't use it, you will lose it."