ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611040011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: BOB MORGAN\Special to The Roanoke Times
A new company is helping Virginia businesses - and almost anyone else who's interested - get into foreign trade.
The company, Global Opportunities, was founded less than a year ago by Ned Lester, who retired after 30 years at Virginia Tech. Because his last job was director of business and community relations for Tech's Office of International Programs, his new company seemed a logical next step for promoting international trade from a base in Southwest Virginia.
The idea of the company is to sell ideas and also to bring people together - businessmen, university teachers, ambassadors, students, international banks, scientists, government leaders. Turning "contacts into contracts" is the company's mission.
A lot of the work by the six people who make up the new company is done on the Internet and the World Wide Web, but the most important work is done through personal contacts and at national and international meetings.
During its brief history, one of the company's many enterprises has been helping Virginia and U.S. companies learn about international marketing and bidding opportunities.
It also is helping Virginia firms get onto the Internet "Many of them are hesitant about taking the plunge," Lester said.
A recent example of the company's work began in early October when a Radford University student from Mongolia heard about Global Opportunities. This connection came about through Eugene Carson, another member of the Global Opportunities corporate team and a former administrator at both Tech and at Radford University's short-lived New College of Global Studies.
The student's mother runs a business in Mongolia, known as Javkhlan Ltd. in the capital, Ulan Bator. The company was trying to solve a problem affecting sheep, a major item in the Mongolian diet and economy. The sheep are being affected by a debilitating parasite not controlled by the medicines the sheep farmers were using.
The student contacted her mother about the company and three weeks ago the mother asked Global Opportunities for help.
Lester and his associates put out a call on the Internet. On Oct. 23, a reply came from a company in Hertfordshire, England, giving specifications and prices for a well-recognized sheep injection that could be delivered in Mongolia with instructions in the Mongolian language. Payment could be made through a bank in Holland. This information has been relayed to the mother, and the Mongolian and British firms are now negotiating.
This relatively rapid set of international contacts involving the Radford student, the company in Mongolia, the company in England, and the bank in Holland was brought about by the human and electronic expertise of Global Opportunities.
Another example of the company's national and international networking activities involves Blacksburg businessman Tom Bowden of LUBE-X Inc., who has developed a system for reclaiming used oil. His system produces two grades of diesel, lubricating oil and a road-surfacing adhesive. His business focuses on exporting the system to developing countries, where it is of particular use to energy-poor nations. He has asked Global Opportunities for help in contacting overseas markets.
The company is based in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in a suite of several rooms at 1900 Kraft Drive. The soft-spoken Lester's years at Tech were a good preparation for this international assignment. While with the Office of International Programs, he initiated an annual Global Market Opportunities Conference for business and educational leaders. The 1995 conference at the Hotel Roanoke, which focused on Latin America, drew business and government leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guyana, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. The conferences generated several million dollars through exports and joint ventures, he said.
In 1992, Lester was invited by the Chinese minister of education to conduct conferences in Beijing and Shanghai on technology transfer. This led to a visit by 30 Chinese business people to the United States where they visited Washington, Richmond and Roanoke. As a result, Lester led a U.S. trade mission to China in 1995.
Another of Global Opportunity's activities is setting up joint companies with overseas firms. Global Opportunities ends up owning half of each new company it forms with a foreign venture, so it benefits both companies. The foreign company has its U.S. office in the suite on Kraft Drive. By doing this, Lester says, the overseas businessmen get visas, market contacts, business clearances and other services much more quickly than if they operated solely from their bases overseas.
The newest "baby" is ProTrade, an Internet program aimed at helping Virginia firms market their products and technologies overseas. This software was developed and is still being fine-tuned by Ron Thigpen, another member of the company's team. The program zeroes in on companies doing business in particular areas. Using daily information from Washington, major banks and other sources, the program lists current bidding opportunities and shows companies how to bid. The company's international partners can link U.S. businesses directly to buyers and sellers overseas.
Much of the ProTrade data is free to anybody in the world. At a higher level, companies can be listed in the program and have their own web page, for a fee ($25 a month for Virginia firms and $30 a month for others).
At a still higher level, companies can get daily information on U.S. and overseas projects available for bid, and Global Opportunities will show them how to bid ($30 a month for Virginia firms and $40 a month for others). Special rates apply for companies taking both services and for companies paying by the year.
Lester says he believes this combination of services is "unique in the world." Ordinarily, companies would spend much time going to many different sources for all this information. For example, companies would have to go to different government agencies, banks, lending institutions and so on worldwide to get data on projects available for bid. With ProTrade, all of this information is combined in a single data source, updated every few days.
The program gets data support from the U.S. Department of Commerce and is sponsored in part by Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. The CIT, which funds and promotes high-tech research and business growth throughout the state, has a regional office in Tech's Corporate Research Center in the same building as Lester's new company.
How is the company doing financially? "With any new business, for the first 18 months you do well just to meet expenses," says Lester. "With our new programs, we should begin to show profits in early 1997, which is ahead of schedule."
What major problems does the company face? "Our biggest problem is putting a parameter around what we can do effectively. We need to identify what we can do, what makes money and not chase a lot of falling stars."
Considering the number of stars in the company's sky already, it is easy yo see how this could be a serious problem.
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. Global Opportunities includes Ned Lester,by CNBpresident (seated, left); Gene Carson, technical consultant (left
rear); and Ron Thigpen, software developer. color.