PBN MANUFACTURING AWARDS 2020 | Manufacturing Champion: John H. Chafee Center for International Business
ACROSS FIVE CENTURIES, Rhode Island has been a diligent maker of things, from cloth woven with the power of moving water to advanced parts for aerospace uses. For the past four decades, the John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University has helped manufacturers confidently venture into foreign markets.
Chafee Center experts, R.I. Commerce Corp. and the U.S. Commerce Department work together to provide knowledge and introductions to local companies in order to ease their transition into international markets.
Local companies’ movement into markets abroad “makes them healthier, makes them more competitive [and] creates expertise that will attract foreign direct investment,” said Mark S. Murphy, the Chafee Center director.
Rhode Island has an outsized impact in the global market. The Chafee Center states that according to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, more than 1,600 Rhode Island companies in 2018 exported $2.4 billion worth of goods, helping to support more than 125,000 good-paying jobs in the Ocean State.
In 2019, more than 250 businesses were involved in some capacity in Chafee Center programs, such as its foreign-trade missions, profession training sessions, or targeted consulting projects. Cheryl A. Merchant, CEO of the Taco Family of Cos., said doing business internationally has always been difficult. It mostly stems from challenges of rounding up information about various laws, legalities and other matters within several countries. Global pandemics and shifting tariffs also complicate matters.
The Chafee Center is always on hand to help companies with their management questions, Merchant said. She recalls a Chafee Center team telling Taco, “We need to know what subjects you need help with.”
In recent years, the Chafee Center has organized trade missions to Colombia and Canada, and established a Rhode Island booth at DSEI London, one of the world’s largest defense shows.
Chafee-supported trade missions include an assessment of companies’ products and services, one-on-one business appointments, market research by industry specialists, in-country marketing, networking events, in-country logistical supports, and briefings and educational events.
As a division of Bryant University, the center’s finances are private. But some elements of the center’s budget come from public sources. In fiscal year 2020, the center qualified for $374,000 in federal funding through the State Trade Expansion Program, a U.S. Small Business Administration initiative. Through Commerce RI, the state appropriated $124,667, along with an additional $350,000 supplement. In all, the state’s 2020 fiscal budget included $500,000 for the center, according to the budget’s executive summary.
The center’s annual World Trade Day, which attracts about 500 attendees, helps businesspeople gain crucial information. The day brings expert discussions; workshops on specific topics, such as the impact of new regulations and technologies; and exhibitor booths allowing companies to connect to customers.
This year’s World Trade Day was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The center also runs an International Business Practicum, in which seniors in the international business program and MBA students tackle real-world research projects. A semester’s work might involve helping companies define new markets for existing products or identifying new products that might prove successful in existing markets. Since the practicum’s launch in 2009, 121 companies have participated in 241 projects.
Regarding how COVID-19 will impact exporting, Murphy thinks there are at least four components on manufacturers’ abilities to export products. Questions being raised, Murphy said, are how well manufacturers have retained customers based on their abilities to withstand an almost complete shutdown; can manufacturers find new customers based on demand or “repurposing existing skill sets” for new products; are supply chains resilient and they can survive the shock in order to meet manufacturers’ needs moving forward; and can manufacturers accurately forecast future needs so that they aren’t required to swallow future costs down the line.
Right now, the situation is still murky, at best.
“We are studying that issue and it is not clear to anyone [right now] what the future will bring,” Murphy said.
COVID-19 UPDATE
In lieu of the annual World Trade Day, the John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University created a series of webinars to address issues companies are facing doing business both domestically and internationally.
Chafee Center Director Mark S. Murphy said many speakers who were set to speak at the World Trade Day for this year – themed “Adaptation: The Path to Success” – will be speaking in the webinars. Additionally, the Chafee Center also still offers its Practicum programs to assist manufacturers and other businesses with international opportunities.
The center is also still managing the U.S. Small Business Administration’s State Trade Expansion Program to support exporters, Murphy said.
“[We’re] just working hard to make sure that what Chafee supplies to the state’s business community remains in place and helping as many companies as we can,” Murphy said.
