Business Insider Magazine Features Benefits from Skye Camanachd’s Cuairt gu California. | |
04 March 2010 The latest Business Insider Magazine features Sitekit Chief Executive Campbell Grant. Sitekit are a major Skye Camanachd sponsor, providing the platform for the Skye Camanachd website. The feature from the magazine reads; When chief executive Campbell Grant heard his local shinty team was heading to play in a tournament in the United States, it struck him as a golden marketing opportunity for his software business It was the fact that the team, taking part in the San Francisco Highland Games, was planning to stay in accommodation at Stanford University which excited him most. "Our long-term strategy to build a market in the US is through research relationships with the major universities there and sponsoring the team seemed a great way to meet some of the key people at Stanford," explains Campbell, who heads software company Sitekit. According to Allan Hogarth of the Scottish North America Business Council, the historic and cultural links with the USA and Canada give Scottish firms a flying start in looking to break into what is a market offering huge potential. "There's no doubt there are plenty of opportunities for Scottish exporters across the globe but there is already such strong affinity with North America that it is a market that just cannot be ignored," asserts Hogarth. The strength of those links is confirmed in the latest export statistics for Scotland. The USA continues to be Scotland's top export destination with an estimated £3.1bn of exports in 2008, an increase of £325m since 2007 and almost twice the total for the next most important market, the Netherlands. The USA alone accounts for 15 per cent of Scotland's exports and Canada also features in the top 20 of Scotland's largest customers with £230m worth of goods heading there. North America is a vast market with more than 520 million consumers and Scottish companies already punch above their weight in sectors including the oil and gas industry, digital media and food and drink. According to Danny Cusick, Scottish Development International's head of the Americas, understanding both the scale of the market and the opportunities is an important first step for those with serious ambitions there. "I've been here a year and I'm still getting to grips with the size - the US itself is vast and you almost need to treat it as 50 different countries. It takes me as long to fly from our offices on the east coast to those on the west coast as it would to fly from Glasgow to get there," he points out. While he thinks Scottish business as a whole underestimates the breadth of opportunities in North America, he believes some companies who do try and break into the market struggle because they try and do "far too much with too little resources" and don't do enough homework on which areas to focus on. Incubator units in three of SDI's six offices there aim to help companies take the first steps in establishing a presence. Recent successes have included Glasgow software company Vamosa, which has recently moved to its own offices after two years in the incubator. According to Sitekit's Grant, any ambitious software company has to be looking to North America for its long term growth. "In this sector the UK is a small market and if you are going to be anywhere overseas it should be US." As a small Skye-based business Sitekit is taking an innovative approach by developing research partnerships with universities to build recognition in the States. "We would need a big war chest to do a major sales and marketing push in the US but even then it would be a drop in the ocean so we needed to find another way in," explains Grant. Sitekit is working with universities including Harvard on research into the long-term development of the healthcare sector in which it specialises. As Grant's shinty team trip demonstrated, leveraging the American affection for Scotland can help quickly build relationships. While existing links with North America are a major attraction for first time Scottish exporters, Hogarth stresses that companies need to give serious thought to their approach to the market. "The Scottish part of the equation may get you through the door but you have to have a quality product and offering to back that up. There's no point just saying 'let's try and export to America and Canada'. You need to think about your product, who your customers are and where the best place is to try and start." The exchange rate has also made imports of Scottish goods more attractive. For companies which have been prepared to invest long term the rewards can be significant. Glasgow-based Memex, whose software helps law enforcement agencies tackle terrorism and organised crime, saw sales increase by 70 per cent in the Americas in 2009 and expects further strong growth in 2010. But chief executive David Carrick stresses these results are the fruits of years of hard work to build operations there. "We started with two men and a dog in the 1990s but have since built a name for ourselves and grown to a staff of around 20," says Carrick. He believes success has only been possible by having a strong team on the ground. "We originally sold through third parties but I believe you need a physical presence there. The reality is Americans want to buy from those in America and for that you need people here. You also need to work out what that is going to cost and how you are going to pay for it given the long sales cycle." Carrick, a board member of the Scottish North America Business Council, believes Scottish companies should take advantage of the huge network of support available. "Being able to talk to people who know the market and those businesses who have been there, done it and can tell you about their experience is invaluable." While the North American market has seen tough times recently, Cusick believes a recovery in consumer spending is a factor that will help make 2010 a strong year for Scottish food and drink, a key sector he believes has great potential for further growth. "When I'm doing my own shopping here it always amazes me just how many Scottish products you see in the stores, from salmon to shortbread. This is a wealthy country - they are willing to pay for quality and Scots products have that image." Factfile The USA is both Scotland and Britain's largest single export market, with more than US$57bn of goods heading there in 2007. The UK is the sixth biggest exporter to the US. The USA is also the leading overseas destination for investment in Scotland and the UK. The UK is Canada's primary European trading partner and Canada is the UK's 16th largest market, with exports reaching £3.25bn in 2008. The growth of projects to develop oil sands fields in Canada is currently seen as one of the most exciting potential markets for Scottish firms with as much as £100bn expected to be invested over the next decade. Companies including R&A Investments of Aberdeen are already actively pursuing a share of the huge investment. |