Indonesia: A Serious Place to Invest
Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world after the USA and India and is also the largest Muslim country by population. People tend to know it more for the congestion of Jakarta and the beauty of Bali, than one of South East Asia’s (SEA) more attractive investment locations.
What does the US-China trade war mean for Australia?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware of the US-China trade war. Over the past year, the world’s two largest economies have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of one another’s goods. US President Donald Trump has long accused China of unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft. In China, there […]
Growing the Australian Economy
I attended the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Business Leaders Summit at Parliament House in Canberra this week and the hot topic was how to maintain the continuing record of growth into twenty nine plus years for Australia.
Is the UK Still an Attractive Location for Business?
I am often asked by people who pick up on my English accent about the UK’s decision to leave the the European Union and what it means for the country as a continuing base for operations in that part of the world. This blog attends to political issues and then moves onto business – please bear with me!
Doing Business in Hong Kong: Why Geopolitics Matters
One of the main elements to consider when moving into overseas markets is the geopolitics that surround a territory. For the most part, this is often background noise as the time scales that make any problems manifest are often counted in multiple years rather than months. Sometimes, though, there is the apocryphal frog in the […]
Commercial Intelligence: Making Sure Your International Business Fairytale Has a Happy Ending
If you’re in the field of international business, you’ve heard it a thousand times: “Commercial intelligence is vital to the success of an international business venture”. If you’ve been around the traps for long enough, you’ll know how true that is. For those of you wondering what’s so special about commercial intelligence, let me start […]
Why Your Market Entry Strategy Can Make Or Break Your International Business
When you’re expanding a business to a new country, how you take the business into that new international market can make or break the venture. This might sound like a bold claim, but I really believe that the mode of market entry that you choose can have a dramatic impact on how well you do […]
Why Aussie Engineering Firms Should Look Abroad
With Australia’s mining boom well and truly over and infrastructure spending at a low ebb in most Australian states, Australian engineering firms looking to the future are right to wonder where new work will come from. The good news is that because the vast majority of the world’s building and infrastructure market lies beyond our […]
What I learnt from my biggest international mistake …
More than a decade ago, I made an international business mistake, which cost me dearly. I want to tell you about it. I was initially so embarrassed that I couldn’t talk about how I’d stuffed up. But with hindsight, I realise how much that mistake taught me, and I’d like to share the story with […]
Can little Aussie food companies really take the world by storm?
There has been a lot of talk about Australia becoming the “food bowl” of Asia over the last few years and the trade statistics indicate that Australia’s trade with the rest of the world in food products continues to increase. Take for example, wine sales, which increased in value by 11% in 2016, reflecting increasing […]