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Export Witnesses
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St. Louis
executives find profits in global economy.
By Kevin Kipp
Amber waves of grain, blue-line drawings and clear glass coatings
actually appear green to an exporter’s trained eye. Even if foreign
governments don’t know what color real money oughta be, a passel
of St. Louis-based executives say, Tint, schmint, we’re selling
stuff overseas.
Tons of that stuff is from down on the farm.
Dr. Leonard Guarraia, president of the St. Louis-based World Agricultural
Forum, says, “If you look at the row crops, you’ll recognize that
within 500 miles of St. Louis you have 54 percent of the total U.S.
agricultural production. And St. Louis is the largest inland water
port for agricultural products in the world.”
When you consider that “every other row of soybeans planted in this
radius—Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska—is exported, not only are
we central to agriculture, you can understand why we are so well
positioned to take part in the life and plant science revolution,”
he says.
“In a global context,” he continues, “that’s why St. Louis is the
capital of world agriculture.”
This centrality also helps explain why Bunge Corp., even with $4.5
billion in North American sales, is only third among the nation’s
food processors, behind ADM and Cargill.
However, Philippe deLaperouse, director of business development
at Bunge’s North American headquarters in St. Louis, points out
that his company is the number one soybean crusher in Latin America,
and jockeys for number one or two in the world share of soy oil
and of soy meal, the product of crushed soybeans.
Bunge uses the oils to manufacture margarine and shortening. They
manufacture mixes for in-store bakeries and the likes of St. Louis
Bread Company. And they ship overseas. “Bunge,” deLaperouse says,
“exports raw commodities from a network of 60 elevators on the Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries.”
And another thing: In Louisiana, Bunge has “the only soybean crushing
plant located at an elevator that is specifically dedicated toward
export.”
Some St. Louis companies sell goods overseas that aren’t exports.
Laura Reeb, marketing communications director at Solutia, says that
besides its 16 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada, the
company has seven in Europe, two in Asia and one in Latin America.
The company employs 10,600.
“Globalization is a way of life around here,” she says of her applied
chemistry/creative solutions outfit. Solutia sold almost $3 billion
worth of products in 1999, ranging from stain-resistant carpet fibers
to high-performance films for windshields.
Reeb, a former product manager, observes that the easy part about
serving overseas markets is “customers are really the same everywhere.
The language or the culture may be different, but their needs are
the same: great products, high quality and competitive pricing.”
The challenge of serving global markets, she says, “is trying to
be local at the same time, finding the right people in each area
who can service customers in that area, building a global network
of people. Customers in Brussels don’t care if you’re global. They
want their help there, so they can help their customers.”
Larry Self, vice chairman and president of the international divisions
at HOK agrees with Reeb: being on the ground with people is crucial.
“We work very hard at building local alliances and relationships—joint
ventures, mergers, team agreements,” he says. “We want to be a global
company delivering services locally. You can’t be an outsider forever
and expect to succeed.”
HOK is a full-service firm engaged in what Self calls A-E-I-P-C:
architecture, engineering, interior design, planning and consulting.
About 30 percent of the firm’s 1,900 staffers are overseas: Hong
Kong, Tokyo, Australia, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Toronto and Mexico
City.
“Architecture is about two-thirds of our business globally; that’s
our core,” Self says. “In the U.S., we provide more engineering,
more planning and more consulting than overseas.”
HOK began exporting its services in the early ’70s, as its clients—the
likes of Nortel, Microsoft, Cisco, Exxon-Mobil—began to expand overseas.
“We’re very client-focussed,” Self says. “Where they expand, we
follow to provide the services that are required.”
Once there, he says, “We find a ready acceptance of American know-how,
and in the case of HOK, knowledge of the built environment.
“The challenging thing is how to deal with local culture, statutes,
professionals—we always have to work with a local architect—tax
structure, trade regulations and professional certification,” Self
says. “How challenging these are depends on how far you are from
first-world economy.”
Sometimes the aura of American credibility rubs off on the local
associates who then become rivals for future contracts, he adds.
Randy LeBounty, director of the U.S. Department of Commerce Export
Assistance Center in Clayton, says his office helps small to mid-size
companies—up to roughly 500 employees—do business overseas.
“Big companies like Bunge, Solutia or Emerson are already global
in a big way,” he says. “They don’t need us to advise them on how
to do business internationally.”
LeBounty says the good news for smaller companies he works with
is “So much assistance, support and information is readily available
at little or no cost right here in St. Louis. It’s available for
all needs and budgets.”
He cites federal, state and local government offices, and private
organizations like the RCGA, that can help with everything from
a reality check (Are you really ready to export?) to targeting markets
and identifying contacts in those markets.
“It doesn’t matter what the product is. If it’s high quality, and
if there’s demand in this country, then chances are we can find
an export market for it,” LeBounty says.
No matter what color their money is.
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and
community relations firm in St. Charles. |
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