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The Bottom-Up Approach — Some Considerations

by Ailish M. Nic Phaidin
Brevard Technical Journal

When considering exporters and the business of exporting, our tendency, particularly in Brevard County, is to think of the "big guys," the Harris's, the Northrop Grumman's, the JDS's, the Boeing's, the Lockheed Martin's, etc. In many ways, that's only a tiny portion of the story. They are, on a global scale however, massive exporters, and thankfully, successful massive exporters.

The small-to-medium businesses can, and should, also consider the export market; not merely as the domain of the "big guys" who have at their disposal the marketing, sales, public relations, financial, linguistic, legal, and all the other human resources and contacts necessary for successful overseas trading. The world is your - and their - oyster. And oysters sometimes contain pearls of profit, wisdom and insight that will help you in your onward and upward rise to managing a more successful and potentially, much more profitable business.

If, for example, you are a communications company and your market in either the local regional or national arenas is saturated or about to be saturated, you might consider a country like Bangladesh as a potential market for your products - and possibly services, too. Where there is a need for products, there is also a need for services.

In the past five or more years, Bangladesh, although horrendously impoverished and without many of the necessary factors of production and infrastructural necessities, has been making huge strides in the several areas of communications. Many of the NGOs (non-governmental agencies) and government agencies and departments have wads of money for development. Most NGOs are very prudent, yet pragmatic, with their funds. So are the government agencies and departments in developing nations - by and large. However, they rarely have the necessary technology or back-up services that are usually required to run their programs. That's where you should focus.

Just recently, President Bush nominated Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for the position of President of the World Bank. If Mr. Wolfowitz is appointed, then you have a friend in court. Submitting a "friend-of-the-court" brief to the Executive Board of the World Bank might just be a good beginning. After all, that institution operates on the democratic (somewhat) process, and who knows, your contribution might be heartily welcomed. Such a submission most certainly won't have you at the bottom of the pile when it comes to recognition. You can research them at www.worldbank.org. There are many links there of high value.

The World Bank consists of 184 member nations - at present. Its main purpose is to lead global efforts to promote economic development and reduce poverty. This is where nations such as Bangladesh will be of interest to you.

Did you know that most NGOs working in under-developed nations at present have changed their strategy of administering development aid to a "bottom-up" approach, as opposed to their erstwhile approach of "top-down." A similar approach, with some policy differences, is more and more being adopted by major global institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The major global institutions are, however, in their "bottom-up" approach more and more focusing on regional development within nations and dealing primarily, but not exclusively, with internal regional development bodies. Thus, they tend to see their work with the larger, and in perceptual terms, the more sophisticated and larger contractors. Your job will be to convince them that you are just as capable of doing the job. Of course, you will actually need to have the right man (and woman) power available at headquarters and on the ground to succeed.

Back to the Bangladeshi scenario, after a short educational diversion into the world of major global institutions, there are many and varied opportunities for development and expansion of markets. One in four people alive at this moment in time live beside, or within shouting distance, of a mobile network, and are, therefore, utilizing the mobile telephone networks that are at their disposal. In the case of Bangladesh, several international, and national, NGOs are contracting out communications networking instillation and services to assist this underdeveloped nation in the areas of communication, and thus access to the "outside world."

In rural Bangladesh, for example, groups of women have formed local organizations to buy mobile telephones, with the aid of such organizations as, amongst others, Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctor's Without Borders). The women then hire out their mobile telephones to the locals who need to make inexpensive contact with the outside world. The Indian and European contractors have so far received much of the outsourcing of the work attached to this quite large project. My research and contacts have come to the conclusion that very few U.S. companies have even investigated or bid for such quite lucrative work.

Getting a foothold in developing markets is of paramount importance at this juncture, because, barring massive natural disasters (to which countries like Bangladesh are very prone -chalk it up to a business opportunity as opposed to a business threat), even in an underdeveloped state, there is much profit to be made. And when countries such as Bangladesh move forward towards self-sustaining economies, as they surely will, then you will be behind the curve when it comes to being recognized in their corridors of power. So, my advice is, view the NGOs as a source of profit and business expansion in the medium-to-long term.

It may also be advantageous to find a global partner from that region of the world, but only after thorough research, to help you in this politically sensitive time.