Why a GTIM Network?

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently undergoing a new round of discussions (the Doha Round) which will govern world trade and investment well into the foreseeable future. Whatever might be the final set of rules to emerge from those discussions one trend is unmistakably clear:  trade and investment barriers will continue to be lessened if not altogether removed.  Many “Local” markets once regulated by national authorities will increasingly blend into one “global” market governed by the same set of international regulations.   

To compete successfully in a far larger “global” marketplace, “local” business entrepreneurs must enhance their management skills; they must transform themselves into “global” entrepreneurs. The Global Trade and Investment Management (GTIM) Network was created to develop these management skills through an offering of training units andfacilitating services.  

The Competition

To date, no market leaders have emerged to provide similar services via a Web Portal in Vietnam or any other emerging/transitional economies, thereby creating substantial market opportunities for the GTIM Network. There are a number of “matching services” which address the making of “market contacts” but none that assist aspiring entrepreneurs to manage  all of the  four “processes” and their “activity areas”.

GTIM Network, Basic Concepts

 
Trade and Investment Processes

To be successful as a “global” entrepreneur means managing profitably one or more of four trade and investmentprocesses. Viewed in the simplest of terms, each of these processes is nothing more than the exchange of products or investment capital ---- between entrepreneurs in different countries ---- for a financial consideration. There are two trade processes, (1) exporting and (2) investment, and two investment processes, (1) inward investment and (2) outward investment. 

 Processes to be Managed

Trade
Entrepreneur Country X			Entrepreneur Country Y
Investment

Process Activities

Generally speaking every trade and investment process has the same four activity areas requiring management:

Market Intelligence

Gathering and analyzing information to determine if a particular product or service has sales potential in a given market.           

Market Promotion

Activities to encourage the purchase of products or services or recruit an agent/distributor.

Market Contacts

Identifying persons or firms who might directly buy a product or service or would become local agent/ distributors supporting such sales.

Transaction Management

Delivering, and receiving payment, for a product or service as agreed at the time of purchase.       

The first three activity areas should lead entrepreneurs to the fourth where a commercial transaction takes place. Each of the activity areas has a subset of specific tasks that require specific management attention. With small variations these tasks will be generally be the same for activities found in all four of the processes. Below, the example is for tasks associated with activity areas within the Export Process.

Specific Tasks for “Export Process” Activity Areas 

Transaction Management Promotion

Training and Facilitating Services

Management of any of the trade and investment processes requires competence in four areas of activity, each with task subsets. Unaided, a local entrepreneur could easily be discouraged from “going global”. Fortunately, the GTIM Network has been created to enable aspiring global entrepreneurs to deal with all this managerial complexity. The Network provides:

1)            Training on the management of all process activities, specifically the “task” subsets. 

2)            Facilitating services to entrepreneurs who have come to understand what needs to be done but do not have the time to do it themselves. 

The GTIM Network,

As discussed above, the GTIM Network is fundamentally a knowledge management system which assists local entrepreneurs to become global entrepreneurs by providing training and trade facilitating services. By making judicious use of these two offerings an entrepreneur should be able to conduct profitable business transactions in global markets.

To deliver training and trade facilitating services, the GTIM Network has designed a three-part “knowledge management system” with: 1) a Database at its core; 2) a Web Portal as its principal delivery “vehicle”; and,  3) Business Service Centers, physical venues providing assisted access to the Web Portal .

Database

The GTIM Network Database archives all the Network material used for training purposes as well as the facilitating services which complement the training. The Database Section staff designs the training content as well as the various facilitating services. Content is procured from a number of sources: primary and secondary research as  well as contracted sourcing

Aspiring “global” entrepreneurs may have access to an extensive offering of training units but may not have the time to master them all or not have the time to apply effectively what has been leaned. For this reason, the GTIM Network designedfacilitating services bringing together aspiring global entrepreneurs with select professional service providers. Both sides benefit: entrepreneurs are better able to master trade and investment processes with support from seasoned professionals and professional service providers have facilitated access to an attentive, fee-paying client base.

Web Portal

The GTIM Network “delivers” archived training and facilitating services to the aspiring global entrepreneur.

The Web Portal is divided into two major “zones”, one designed to accommodate the user wanting to know “everything there is to know”, the Highway option, and the user who wants to move long as quickly as possible with the most basic exposure to the essentials, the Express Lane option.  In either case , the Network  Web Portal training in a number of  key areas and support services for those requiring assistance in implementing what they have learned.

The GTIM Network is built around the access that aspiring “global” entrepreneurs may have to training and facilitating services that will enable them to navigate to success in the global marketplace.  Although heavily weighted to electronic means of access, the GTIM Network recognizes that not everyone has equal access to computers much less the Internet. And even with such access, necessary training may be lacking to make good use of them.

For this reason Business Service Centers are a logical third piece to the structure of the GTIM Network.  It is here where individuals may be assisted in maximizing the utility of all GTIM-related information. A BSC would be equipped withInternet-connected computers loaded with software providing essential business applications, such as the Microsoft Office suite, and “off-line” hard-copy text, instructional videos, etc.   

Business Service Providers

Aspiring “global” entrepreneurs attending to the everyday demands of managing an enterprise may leave little time, or energy, to develop managerial skills to a higher…and more profitable…level of proficiency.

Fortunately, for business to be conducted ever more profitably, entrepreneurs  can turn for assistance to professional service providers such as export management companies, shipping agents, management consultants, etc., who can perform tasks an entrepreneur cannot attend to directly. Within the GTIM Network organization they are major contributors to the content on the Database, be it training material or facilitating services.