Presenter: The much talked about 'global market' is seen by nearly everyone in the business community today as being the only market. We know that advances in technology mean you could be offering your products and services to people in Brighton, Beijing or Buenos Aires at the same time. But is it really that easy? And is it really the solution that everyone is looking for, or needs? We talk to three very different companies about their very different experiences of trying to go global. Nicola Melizzano of Caffè Perfetto:
主持:今天,商界人士广泛讨论并大多认为:“全球市场”是唯一的市场。科技日新月异,这意味着无论在布莱顿、在北京,或者在布宜诺斯艾利斯,客户都可以同时间享受到商家的产品和服务。但真的如此简单吗?这真的我们追求的最佳方案吗?已经达到客户需求的最大化了吗?我们将与三家不同企业进行对话,他们将谈谈各自在寻求全球化过程中的不同经历。有请Caffè Perfetto公司的Nicola Melizzano。

Nicola: I didn’t think it was for us at all... We’re a small family company, founded by my grandfather. We produce small amounts of high quality coffee, and supply mostly to bars – we don’t do much in the way of direct retail at all.
Nicola: 一开始我觉得寻求全球化发展一点都不适合我们,因为我们是一家小型的家族企业,是我祖父成立的。我们出产少量的优质咖啡,主要供应给酒吧,没有直接零售。

Presenter: Yet things changed very quickly for this small company after an unexpected offer.
主持:然而,在接受了一笔意想不到的交易后,这个小公司很快发生了大变化。

Nicola: The local chamber of commerce had invited a group of Japanese investors to the area. They saw our factory, tasted our product – and wanted to buy as much of it as we could produce!
Nicola: 当地的商会曾经邀请一批日本商人来投资。他们视察我们的工厂,品尝了我们的产品,并决定买我们的产品,我们生产多少他们就买多少!

Presenter: This was followed up by a trip to Japan.
主持:然后你们去了一趟日本。

Nicola: It was great, people loved our coffee – mostly (I think!) because of the retro 50s style packaging...! The Japanese contacts just grew and grew, and now we export all over south-east Asia, and we’re moving into China too. Two years ago, we didn’t even have a website!
Nicola: 非常棒的一趟旅程,我们的产品在当地很受欢迎,我想主要是因为我们使用了50年代风格的复古包装。与日本客人的交易越来越频繁,现在我们的产品出口已经覆盖了整个东南亚地区,同时我们还准备进军中国市场。而两年前,我们甚至连自己的网站都没有。

Presenter: Nicola admits he’s been in the right place at the right time.
主持:Nicola承认,当时可谓天时地利人和。

Nicola: There’s been a worldwide growth in coffee sales over the last ten years, it’s a really fashionable thing to drink, all these coffee chains. Plus, coffee is something that’s drunk all over the world, in pretty much every culture. I think luck helped us as much as the changing global situation.
Nicola: 过去十年,所有咖啡生产链上的咖啡销售都得到全球性增长,它是时下流行的饮料,而且,全世界各种文化的人都会喝咖啡。我觉得上天的眷顾和当时全球形势的转变都帮了我们大忙。

Presenter: 'Going global' happened in a completely different way for AKZ Engineering, a medium sized company based in the English Midlands. Derek Chalmers, their MD, explains.
主持:对于AKZ工程公司来说,“全球化”的影响则截然不同。这是一家总部位于英国中部的中小型企业。且看他们公司的总经理Derek Chalmers怎么介绍。

Derek: In the mid-1990s things were looking bad for us. The global recession hit badly, many other firms round here were closing down or shipping out to China. We were forced to downsize, but then saw the changing situation as an opportunity, rather than a threat. We concentrated on our strengths – manufacturing small-size metal objects, anything from paper clips to staples up to parts for computers and televisions. Using web technologies, we managed to expand our turnover by around 300%, and now we export to Europe principally, but also the Americas and south east Asia, even...
Derek: 在90年代中期,我们公司的状况非常不乐观。金融风暴带来重创,许多附近的公司不是停产就是转移到中国去。我们公司被迫裁员,不过我们从这次转变里看到更多的是机遇,而不是危机。我们将重心放在我们公司的强项——生产小型金属制品,从文件铁夹、订书钉到电脑电视零件等等。通过利用网络技术,我们的营业额扩大到300%。现在我们主要向欧洲出口,不过也有出口到美洲和东南亚等地区。

Presenter: A success story, then. Our third guest, however, has a different story to tell...
主持:祸兮福兮,这是一个成功的转变。我们的第三位来宾,将跟我们分享一个不同的故事……

Heike: I’m Heike Zweibel, and I design lighting systems – though I prefer to think of them as 'light sculptures.' They’re more like art objects. Each one is built to order, depending on exactly what the client wants. I only employ one or two assistants, depending on how busy I am, because I prefer to do all the work myself. I’m not really interested in 'going global' – I have enough work for myself, I make enough money... I could expand, but wouldn’t want to compromise the quality of the work.
Heike: 我是Heike Zweibel,我的工作是照明系统设计,尽管我更愿意管这个叫“灯光雕塑”,因为它们更像是艺术品。每一份设计都是根据客户的要求来订制的。我只雇用一两位助手,视乎我的业务量而定,因为我更喜欢自己包办所有工作。关于“国际化”我并不太感兴趣,我是指我有固定的工作稳定的收入,我很知足。我可以扩张生意,但我不想因此影响了产品的质量。

Presenter: So you’d never go global?
主持:所以你没有打算进入国际市场?

Heike: Well, no, I wouldn’t say that exactly... I have a great website, and that leads to orders from the United States, or – more recently – Russia, a lot. I design, perhaps, two or three systems every year for overseas clients... so I don’t really know if that counts as 'global' or not!
Heike: 并不完全是。其实我有个精美的网站,这个网站吸引了来自美国客户的订单,最近还有大量来自俄罗斯的订单。我每年大概会有两三个系统是为海外客户设计的。我不太确定这些算不算是“国际化”了。

Presenter: The advice, then, is to find the market that suits your company – whether it’s on your doorstep, or the other side of the planet!
主持:综上所述,我们总结出这样的经验:一定要找到适合你公司的市场。不管这个市场是在你家门口,还是在地球的另一端!