Posted by 20/20 Development Company LLC (20/20DC) is an international economic development consulting company established in 1997. When I started 20/20DC I was the founder and owning of Phoenix Marketing Inc (PMI) a seven-year-old food trading company that had generated more
20/20 Development Company LLC (20/20DC) is an international economic development consulting company established in 1997. When I started 20/20DC I was founder and owning of Phoenix Marketing Inc (PMI) a seven year old food trading company that had generated more than $100 million USD in sales with a large portion of those sales being export of food items from the USA and South America to Asia. PMI had an office in Japan, Joint-Ventures in Hong Kong and Peru and affiliates in Brazil and Argentina.
The export business had been a success, despite several challenges some of which all businesses face and others which appear to be unique to our situation. However, in 1997 I realized that the world was changing and our business which was built upon relationships and information through our network (the N for Networking in CHARM DANCE) was about to change.
The widespread adoption of the internet changed the way that personal networks and international trade worked. Prior to the internet, the value of personal relationships was paramount to business success, particularly in international trade. People dealt with people that they knew, and trusted, and in some cases, trust was less of a factor than it should have been if they had few relationships. The “any port in a storm” was used international trade as “any contact in a market” was better than nothing.
For example, if a buyer in Japan wanted an import product they reached out to their contacts and friends and business associates in the exporting country and asked them to source the product for them or to make an introduction.
At the time,my business (PMI) had exports often exceeding 100 x 20’ containers per month with much of those going to Japan.Japan is known to be one of the toughest markets to sell products, particularly food into, but we had achieved great success through working the principles of CHARM DANCE. If one of our Japanese buyers wanted a new product, they would ask us, and we would source and sell it them. They trusted us and they knew we would be honest (H in CHARM DANCE) and fair.
A good illustration of this is when Japanese import regulations changed that allowed ice cream to be imported by Japanese companies without a quota. When this change occurred a large Japanese retailer, through a Japanese trading company (Sogo Shosha), came to us. They came to us because we had millions of dollars of sales to them annually and they trusted that we knew the market (M in CHARM DANCE) and could find the appropriate quality (1stA in CHARM DANCE).
However, since ice cream imports had been controlled and limited to Japan, we had no experience in working with ice cream producers, in fact we had little experience of exporting frozen products. However, based upon the demand from our customer we reached out to various suppliers and established a new relationship with Darigold a leading west coast dairy cooperative. We were successful in exporting 40,000 lbs. of ice cream via air freight (another blog as to why we would ship ice cream by air freight when it could be shipped much cheaper by ocean.)
At that time, we were the preferred avenue formany Japanese buyer to find out about suppliers and product from the USA, and South America. Companies would come to us when they had need for products from North or South America. Our role with South America trade was often to bridge the cultural and trade gap between Asian buyers and South American exporters. The differences in cultures and market requirements and experience between these regions of the world were very different and we possessed a unique position of understanding each culture and trade practices. With our experience we were able to work our network to ensure that both buyer and seller achieved their objectives. We provided both with a means to minimize their risk (R in CHARM DANCE) by working with someone that they trusted and knew how to work with the other side of the trade.
As the internet became more popular, the buyer around the world no longer had to depend upon personal relationships to find sources in a foreign economy. For example, they could simply search the web and find all US based ice cream suppliers. (A Google search for USA ice cream exporters returns 11.5 million answers in less than 1 second!) With the innovation of the web, our buyers no longer needing to have a friend in the market as they could sourcing products quickly and research reviews and history to gain confidence in the supplier. We had built confidence over years with the internet they could gain in seconds through data on the web what we had invested years in developing. New relationships could be established in seconds. With these changes the only way to continue to achieve success was through brand loyalty and we had just “won” a trademark suit with a Japanese company, however, only after the value of the brand had been jeopardized in the consumers eye by the defendant in the case filing bankruptcy and the courts dumping our product on the market at a price of pennies on the dollar. Our avenues for success were blocked in many ways.
Additionally,the Japanese market was also shifting from imports back to Japanese products as Japanese manufacturersconvinced consumers that if a food product were not from Japan it is not fresh and could not be trusted. This took our away a major competitive advantage from imported goods as consumers moved to domestic products.
Seeing these changes coming to the industry in 1997 I began my career as a consultant working with companies to expand their businesses beyond their borders. In this role I apply my experiences, successes, and failures in international trade, to help others achieve success and avoid the problems I learned the hard way.
My first client was Ron Sim, the owner and founder of OSIM International and the V3 group of companies which include OSIM, TWG Tea, Oni Global, LAC & Futuristic. Mr. Sim is a Singapore based businessman who has built an empire from his business starting as a street vendor (hawker) in Singapore to the leading retail brand across Asia in multiple product categories. At the time of my involvement OSIM was looking to enter the USA market. Mr. Sim needed someone in the USA that he could trust. Ron and I had known each other for several years through mutual friends/suppliers in Japan, part of our network. Rather than searching for a consulting company, or taking his chances going through thousands of CV’s to find the right person to establish a relationship with in the USA Mr. Sim turned to his “friend” in the USA and 20/20DC was born.
20/20DC got its name for two reasons: first and primarily because in 2020 I turned 60 and the goal was to retire by that time, and secondly 20/20 vision is perfect vision, a great perspective for a consulting company. Furthermore, the year 2020 was more than two decades off so there was no fear of being dated or out of fashion too soon!
Now, 23 years since the start of 20/20DC, the year 2020 is here and what a year it has been! The year 2020 is not leaving the kind of positive impact I had hoped on my life or anyone else’s and I am not retiring!
We started the year with the saying “2020 it’s our year!” on our letterhead and all emails. In January we launched a new logo featuring this slogan. Afterall, we had been waiting for it since incorporating in 1997 and it looked like our best year ever! If things had continued as the year started, I would have been close to reaching all my goals set in 1997 including the countries worked in (60, exceeded that by 2017), projects engaged in, 20/20DC being globally recognized as a leader in market led economic development, completed at least one book (now at editing stage) and my benchmark goal of 3,000,000 miles on United Airlines. Most of my other goals had been achieved or were within reach to occur within 2020 or 2021. Right now, while other goals remain within reach in 2020 the miles will fall short as I am stuck at 2,750,000 miles with no travel in sight!
As the year progressed, we quickly dropped our slogan. The year 2020 turned from “fantastic” to the year everyone wants to start over with a different outcome, or better yet forget completely. We keep hoping to wake up from this nightmare but on and on it goes! If we were in Jumanji, we would be in level 8 or 9 or something like that by now. We have survived, or most of us have, everything the game can throw at us and we keep on going.
We dropped the slogan on our logo figuring that tying our business to the year was not a good marketing strategy. As a result of the crisis, everyone has had to try and adapted their lives to make the best out of a bad situation. In fact, we are starting to hear the term “2020” being used to represent something that is FUBAR, not a good image of any company especially one that advises businesses on how to succeed!
For me Covid-19 meant not flying around the world to do what I do in developing countries but rather sitting in my home working from my desk. The objectives and results we provide our customer are nearly the same but the means to accomplish the results has drastically changed.
While the year 2020 is bound to end, 20/20DC will continue as long as I can continue to help others develop their businesses. We hope our consulting efforts do in fact provide our customers with close to 20/20 vision which after-all is a perfect vision which only a great consulting company can provide!
[1]If you do not know what FUBAR stands for look it up.
Every when inside a though we opt for blogs that we study. Listed below would be the latest web pages that we select.