The Role of Business Support Organisations in the process of SMEs internationalisation

1. Enterprise-friendly Business Support Environment in
Internationalisation Process
- extract (11 of 50 slides) -
Presented by:
Irena Rezec, Managing Director
WOTRA, Strategic Intelligence Ltd.
Target groups:
Local and Regional Authorities
Business Support Organizations
Venue:
SERDA – Sarajevo Regional Development Agency
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo: 04 Apr 2011

2. Programme
2Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
8.40 – 9.00 Registration
Morning session
9.00 Introduction
Good business-support practices
Recommended tools in the process of internationalisation
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
Afternoon session
13.00
How can good business-support practices be introduced and/or improved
in your organisation and in your country?
an interactive workshop
15.00 – 15.30 Closing thoughts and recommendations
04 Apr 2011

3. Good business-support practices
Who are the target groups? (1/2)
04 Apr 2011 3Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
There are two important target groups of BSOs, i.e.:
• domestic market with the private sector and the public in the case of
regional and local authorities;
• foreign investors and foreign talents who would contribute to the
economic growth of the country, region and/or city.
What is the potential of the above mentioned target groups and what is
the potential of your region or city? How to motivate all of the above to be
able to contribute to the regional or city wealth and prosperity?
In which way to activate entrepreneurial potential, real-estate potential,
environment/natural potential, funds potential, investors of domestic and
foreign origin, individuals – talents?

4. Good business-support practices
Who are the target groups? (2/2)
04 Apr 2011 4Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
Good business-support practices:
• region: North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in Germany -
http://www.nrw.de/
• Invest in France Agency – France - http://www.invest-in-france.org
• region: Styria in Austria - http://www.verwaltung.steiermark.at/

5. Good business-support practices
Collaboration and Networking/Partnering/Clustering practices
- Reasons for partnering -
04 Apr 2011 5Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
In the Public Sector
(non-economical and political)
In the Private Sector
(non-economical and economical)
Complex solutions are needed with
involvement of many players at various levels
(ecological/environmental problems,
terrorism, etc.)
Market share growth
Visibility growth and better information
access
Economy of scale, cost cutting, faster delivery, etc.
Preparation of national or regional
development plans
Specialised knowledge and skills, larger amount of investment is
needed, etc.
Regional and Inter-regional co-operation and
transfer of best practices between regions
Foreign market entry (collective, with the help of a foreign local
partner, etc.)
Increasement of political influence and power A complex service is requested by a client
Local or regional sustainability New / improved / quality product and/or service is requested
Influential power of individual sector on political decisions, legal
changes, and similar (associations, non-governmental bodies and
groups)
Ask yourself: Are you able fo fulfil all expectations of your
owners and clients with the “internal” resources of your company
in a reasonable time in comparison with your competitors? If not,
the networking/partnering/clustering approaches provide the
answer.
Non-economical, economical, political interests

6. Good business-support practices
Collaboration and Networking/Partnering/Clustering practices
04 Apr 2011 6Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
Good business-support practices – different public initiatives to promote
partnership practices:
• region: Liguria in Italy - http://www.regione.liguria.it/
• Flanders in Belgium - http://www.flanders.be
• PLATO network: http://www.eplato.eu/
• International Enterprise Singapore - http://www.iesingapore.gov.sg
• UK Trade and Investment: http://www.ukti.gov.uk/
• EU programme: URBACT - http://urbact.eu/

7. Good business-support practices
From Information to Knowledge and from Collective Knowledge to Collective Intelligence
04 Apr 2011 7Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
Good business-support practices:
• International Enterprise Singapore - http://www.iesingapore.gov.sg/
• Local Government Improvement and Development, UK -
https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/
• Slovenian Tourist Board and their Bank of Tourism Potentials:
http://www.btps.si/default.aspx?lng=en

8. Good business-support practices
Monitoring of Trends (1/2)
04 Apr 2011 8Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
Good business-support practices:
• BIS – UK Department for Business Innovation & Skills - UK’s Foresight
Programme: http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight
• ECO World Styria in Austria: http://www.eco.at/

9. Good business-support practices
Monitoring of Trends (2/2)
04 Apr 2011 9Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
Questions to be answered:
• How the government is informed about future trends and how the legal
system is adapted to those trends (flexible work, virtual business, mobile
or even virtual working places, increased number of freelancers, especially
among those with specific knowledge and skills, etc.)
• How all of today‘s trends influence services of BSOs, as well as services of
regional and local authorities?
• What should be the role of government, BSOs, regional and local
authorities in preparing businesess for the future?
• What can be done in a short time and what in the longer term?
• Do we really need to build a fixed physical infrastructure of business
centres and incubators of big sizes or could they be replaced by virtual
ones? If BSOs do not respond to the trends companies would start using
virtual ones already available in the global virtual world.

10. About WOTRA
• Year of establishment: 2002
• Specialisation domains:
– strategic management and organisation, and internationalisation of businesses;
– establishment and management of business networks and other forms of business cooperation
and networking/partnering/clustering;
– development of business support and regional or local economic development services;
– development of ICT, information, knowledge and intelligence based services and tools for
all the above mentioned domains;
– monitoring of future trends for all the above mentioned domains.
• Target groups:
– private sector;
– public sector with business support organisations;
– membership-based organisations and/or any network-based organisational structure.
• Geographical target: global
04 Apr 2011 10Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
ACTIVITIES:
information | consulting | training | mentoring | research | publishing
innovative contribution to the development of:
new/next business, organisational, management and research models, methods and tools

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http://twitter.com/WOTRAfocus
04 Apr 2011 11Copyright © 2011 – Irena Rezec - WOTRA d.o.o. - SLOVENIA
WOTRA d.o.o.
Cepelnikova 6a
SI-1000 Ljubljana
SLOVENIA
European Union
W: www.wotra.com
Thank you for your attention!