Company executives need to be able to articulate and guide the direction of their organization. Identifying the current state of a company is increasingly difficult as it happens across the organization and at multiple levels. Based on current state, executives will allocate company resources to achieve a desired future state while continuing to position competitively within its industry and established markets. Strategic Planning entails understanding one’s strengths and areas for improvement and aligning organizations around a set of achievable and measurable goals; Internationalization is a serious step in making organizations more adaptive to changing circumstances, such as current market conditions, the cost of capital, and so on.

Strategic Planning & Internationalization

Planning involves answering 4 basic questions: Where is the organization today? Where should the organization be say in 3 to 5 years? How should the organization get there? Is the organization getting there?

Goals, outcomes and benefits of strategic planning include the following:

• Calibrating a vision for the organization, inline with its core values
• Defining organizational goals that align for all stakeholders
• Identifying areas of excellence in which to invest
• Acquiring necessary resources when defining new initiatives
• Increasing motivation and commitment to the work ahead
• Enhancing communication channels within and without
• Adapting more effectively to changing circumstances
• Identifying and Prioritizing critical issues
• Positioning the organization to maintain or increase competitiveness
• Developing shared criteria for evaluating progress toward desired outcomes

Part of strategic thinking is envisioning the company in foreign markets – interest from international buyers at a recent trade-show, inquiries through the website have sparked interest.

Being consistently present in multiple markets makes an organization more resilient to changing circumstances at home. It also improves competitiveness at home by increasing total production and lowering costs, over time.

Tactical Planning

As small businesses assess breaking out of their domestic markets and penetrate new foreign markets, they can access a number of websites providing information about potential business opportunities, regulatory incentives and obstacles, local taxation laws and the how-tos  for setting up a company in a foreign country.

Eastman Partners provides all of that to our clients, within a the context of their specific reality. Estimating the cost of Internationalization – startup and continuing costs requires a local partner that can help construct that vision and validate the attainability of goals versus budget. We share our experience, provide the lay of the land and the basics for setting up shop in the World’s largest market, starting from the best two States in the U.S. to do it.

U.S. Opportunities

Small manufacturers working well in their home countries are naturally excited when an opportunity comes their way in the form of serious interest from a large U.S. corporation then, during negotiations they somehow end up floundering and the opportunity dries up. The reason may be that the company did not plan with any strategy in mind, beyond the immediate opportunity. Even when a company clearly has all the core competencies needed, a lack of vision and long term U.S. strategy can bring doubts on a company’s ability to perform.

Eastman Partners can establish credibility, assisting in negotiations while outlining the company’s vision and how it aims to achieve that vision.

Through our own experience, and pulling from a network of experts in legal, fiscal and operational (warehousing, insurance, capital) we help our clients build a picture that can feed Strategical Planning.

We allow you to enter international waters without having to worry about making a mistake, adding us to your team gives your company the advantage of U.S. experience.