Consultants Are Spreading Word on World Trade

For 15 years, Ryusuke Hoshino worked his way up the bureaucratic ranks of the Japan External Trade Organization in Tokyo to become the director of its prestigious U.S. market research division.

As a top official in the Japanese government trade organization, Hoshino traveled extensively to help expand his nation’s trade ties with countries in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

But one day, he did the unthinkable in Japanese society. He quit his job at age 40, moved his family to Santa Ana, where he has many friends and business associates, and started his own international trade-consulting firm.

In so doing, Hoshino joined a growing legion of business people who are forming their own international consulting firms to take advantage of a boom in international trade.

Hoshino and others like him see opportunity in the political and economic changes that are sweeping the world, changes that are already altering the complexion of global commerce. The thawing of Cold War tensions has meant an easing of trade restrictions between the West and East. And the removal of trade barriers among the 13-member nations of the European Economic Community will create new opportunities in that market beginning in 1992.

Meanwhile, Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Taiwan are slowly opening their markets to foreign products to help shrink huge trade surpluses with the United States.

And, of equal importance, a sluggish U.S. economy has prompted many American firms to get serious about selling abroad to help fuel their growth.

In Orange County, 1990 was a big year for international deals. There were transactions to sell fuel-cleaning systems in Spain, hamburger franchises in Indonesia, computer hardware to China, Playboy and other magazines in the Soviet Union and to mine gold in the Philippines.

And these deals sparked demand by companies in Orange County and elsewhere for consultants who specialize in a particular country’s business practices, government regulations, customs and language.

Nationwide, there was a 25% jump in requests for consultants, according to Carl Kline, president of National Consultant Referrals, a San Diego firm that matches companies with professional consultants. In 1990, his firm has logged more than 12,500 calls from companies seeking consultants. About one-fourth of the approximately 4,000 consultants listed in the firm’s referral service were added this year.

“Many companies, especially during an economic slowdown, do not want to keep a very expensive permanent staff, so they keep a small core staff to keep their overhead low and use consultants for special projects,” Kline said.

One consultant new to the trade is Bernard Jubb, formerly a communications director for MAI Systems Corp., a Tustin computer company.

Jubb was laid off during a corporate restructuring at MAI in October.

Jubb, a native of Great Britain, hopes to use his knowledge of Western European markets to help U.S. companies seeking business in those markets after European economic unification in 1992.

Likewise, his familiarity with the U.S. market, he reasons, may be useful to European companies that want to sell their products in the United States.

“I can do the marketing studies and test market their products for them,” he said.

“What I don’t have is a lot of corporate resources, but I have the ability to make fast decisions and move very quickly to put my decisions into action.”

The lure of increased trade opportunities have also prompted executives in troubled businesses to get into the consulting field. Markram Nawar, a Newport Beach developer, turned to consulting when the housing market went into a slump.

Nawar, an Egyptian immigrant, has helped U.S. and Canadian companies put together barter trade deals with the Soviets, working through an Egyptian firm.

“Opportunity came, and I had the contacts, so I put the deal together,” said Nawar, who is paid consulting fees by Egyptian and Canadian companies.

“I realized it’s so easy to make money in trading and consulting,” he said.

Encouraged by his success, Nawar has decided to set up an export-import and trade consulting business, which he hopes will carry him through until the real estate market recovers.

U.S. companies are learning that each foreign market is unique, and they are increasingly hiring consultants who are knowledgeable about those markets, said Pete Maddox, a managing partner of the Lido Group in Orange.

Maddox was one of several consultants who worked with Speedy International, an Orange-based company that set up several quick-printing franchises in India, Japan and Western Europe in 1990.

“Each foreign market that American companies do business with has its own highly unique characteristics and those who understand and adapt to those characteristics succeed,” he said.

But not everyone has the expertise to become a consultant, said Kline, of National Consultant Referrals.

A consultant is an expert in a specific field and other areas such as marketing, contracts and pricing, he said.

“Our database contains experts in their chosen fields and does not include temporarily unemployed executives,” Kline said.

“We require the person to have successfully done one or two consulting assignments.”

Hiring an inexperienced consultant can result in deals collapsing after a considerable investment of time and money, soured relations with an international partner and other problems.

The best way for a company to determine if a consultant is qualified for a job, Kline advises, is to examine his or her track record in arranging similar deals.

The National Bureau of Professional Management Consultants in San Diego has pushed for a consultant certification program, similar to the test that accountants must pass to become a certified public accountant.