- Hello Customer - Log in or Register!
If your company is doing business around the world, at some point you need to decide: How stable does a country need to be for us to do business there? Watching the U.S. Congress go through their puzzling brinkmanship last month over the federal government's budget and debt ceiling certainly left most Americans questioning our own country's economic and political stability. But the reality is that there is much more uncertainty in politics, market stability, regulations, exchange rates, armed conflict and/or inflation in places like Zimbabwe, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, Syria and Venezuela.
There are many companies doing business in remote corners of the world. Here are some criteria that you should consider when assessing your company's international business risk tolerance:
Company as Risk Taker, Risk Avoider, or In Between
There are companies afraid to venture into ANY foreign market for fear of the unknown. These firms overlook any potential to make profits outside of their country's borders. This risk tolerance level would be considered extremely low. There are companies that will literally go anywhere in the world if there's a market or a raw material. Oil companies come to mind for this category. But most company cultures fall somewhere in between. The best way to gauge risk tolerance is to opening discuss risk versus opportunity with company leaders. How do they feel about international markets? Have they had positive or negative experiences in the past that color their perceptions? Without management support, international expansion usually fails at the first sign of internal conflict.
Level of In-Country Engagement with the Sale
What level of in-country resources do you need to have to make a sale, deliver the product or service, and follow up with customer support? If your company sells something that requires intensive in-person interactions, then a country's overall business risk tolerance may need to be lower. For example, if my company is in the commercial building construction business, then I have to employ many in-country workers to build my projects. I also need to rent or own many pieces of construction equipment. If there's a national worker strike or if inflation skyrockets, I have more operational challenges to stay profitable. On the other end of the spectrum are services delivered via the Internet. As a consulting firm, The International Entrepreneur can do business in relatively unstable countries with little or no operational risks. In-country customer engagement accounts for wide variance.
Ability to Mitigate Likely Risks
It would not be fair to discuss international business risks without also discussing a company's options to lessen some of the worst scenarios. First, international business insurance can ensure your in-country assets from damage or nationalization. It can also reduce damages from work stoppages. Security requirements increase in countries where your employees could be harmed. Financial transactions can be made in a neutral currency to help reduce currency fluctuation risks. Contracting at a future currency rate also allows the company to know the final sale price. And finally, having a solid international law firm and accounting firm can help spot risks before they become issues that threaten the company's success.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| LBCR20A-2LS bearing | 20 | 32 | 45 |
| LBCR16A-2LS bearing | 16 | 26 | 36 |