The second transnational project meeting of GT4SME project took place online in middle of June. During the week-long event, AREGAI invited Giovanna Ceccherini, (director of Mediterranea Consulab) Italian consultant and advisor for domestic tourism as the italian guest speaker.
During her presentation, she shared her experience as hotel manager and brand manager for tour operators. Part of the job and services offered by her company are aimed at promoting tourism and travel businesses to explore new markets, which are related and influenced by business internationalization.
The suggested process
She described to the GT4SME partners and their trainers, the process that each organization has to go through if they are interested in “going international”, such as:
Market knowledge – The company must have a clear idea on what are the main elements of the market, included the knowledge of the other players, that can either help us or compete with us.
Strategy – before taking action, creating a plan to guide us along the way. This include also a marketing strategy and tools/elements that will help us monitor the process.
Organization, Methods and Tools – While creating a strong product to sell, asking suggestions or the contribution of experts could be a good way to be sure the strategy is aiming in the right direction.
Sustainability – setting realistic goals is the essential to make sure the strategy we implemented is strong, and that resources we have are adequate to our needs and activities. Clear and reachable goals, set to be reached over reasonable amount of time will also offer clear guidelines to the staff you are employing in your project.
How long does it take?
An internationalization project takes about three years to settle in a foreign country. It must be periodically monitored in terms of performance and costs and eventually modified in compliance with significant changes on both sides (business; tackled market..)
In a case study she presented, Internationalization has been possible through a participated project with pubic-private investments. Cost may be extremely high to be faced by a single company. Conversely, also consortium and private business associations often promote internationalization campaigns with several financial models.
The advantage of networking
Finally, she suggested finding partners to share goals, risks and financing with. It may take longer time in organization, but it means sharing expertise, containing financial risks and guarantee a stable penetration in foreign markets. In addition, partnerships (local and international) better tackles competition.
For more information or direct contact, please visit http://www.mediterraneaconsulab.com