Corporate Matchmaker Takes a Global View : San Juan Capistrano-based Inamerica does more than deal in partnerships. It also advises companies on cultural/business etiquette.
When it comes to trade, Inamerica Trade Services has not yet reached the four corners of the globe. For now, it has to settle for three.
The fledgling company is working with a Central California businessman to help him sell fertilizer in Mexico; with a Chinese factory owner who wants to import American cosmetic formulas; and with Portuguese authorities who want to make their country the gateway to Europe.
“You need to cultivate the right relationships,” said Harvey Alexander Smith, president of the San Juan Capistrano firm that specializes in international business introductions.
Using personal and business connections culled from years of international business, Smith has become something of a corporate matchmaker. If an American business wants to market its products overseas, he tries to find the perfect foreign bureaucrat or business executive who can help.
Besides a bulging Rolodex, the task requires knowledge about foreign customs and policies. Smith, for instance, can explain nuances like always asking for the boss, never the functionary, when dealing with companies in Mexico.
“There’s a tremendous lack of middle management. You can’t just go to the sales agent and expect to get things done. You have to get to the top people,” he said.
Or when it comes to doing business with the Chinese, that familiarity is a key ingredient to business success. “They don’t like dealing with strangers any more than we do,” he said.
Smith’s education in such matters began in the early 1960s, when he started his career building retirement homes in Guadalajara and the Lake Champala areas of Mexico for American retirees. To promote the region, Smith published a monthly tourist magazine.
By 1970, when his company had built about 30 houses, Mexican government policy changed and made it difficult for foreign builders.
Smith returned to the United States, working in various executive marketing jobs that had him promoting everything from boat engines to a Las Vegas casino. Then, about a year ago, he rejoined his former partner, lawyer Robert L. Thatcher, to re-form Inamerica, the name they used in the Mexican house-building business.
The partnership works from tree-shaded offices next to a horse-riding ring. There are six employees, and Smith said he expects about $100,000 in revenue this year. “We’re doing a lot of seeding right now,” Smith explained.
To jump-start the process, Smith is attempting to attract 75 or more Mexican entrepreneurs to a November symposium he is conducting. He is seeking those who want to establish franchise, distribution and joint-venture contacts with U.S. counterparts. A similar symposium is being planned for U.S. firms interested in Portugal, which has become aggressive in promoting economic development.
Social connections are important. There is no substitute for having acquaintances with the top Mexican government and business officials, he said. Smith plans to take a client, the head of a Central California company that markets liquid fertilizer, to Mexico soon to introduce him to potential clients.
To make sure that the company, BioAG Industrial Corp. of Fresno, is not wasting its time, Inamerica prepared a detailed study to ensure there is a liquid fertilizer market in Mexico. The report concluded that the time is right for the product’s introduction.
“I’m very pleased with their work to date,” said BioAG President Blair Pollard, who said he met an Inamerica representative at a trade show. “One of the things I’ve been doing in terms of developing an export or overseas market is working with companies like Inamerica.”
On the deal in China, Smith also called on some of his well-honed connections.
Several months ago, Smith hosted a Beijing factory owner, Wang Quan, in his South County home when he came for a visit. He drew on a remote family connection that made the preliminary deal possible: His partner’s niece is married to a man whose sister is married to a Chinese developer. The developer introduced Smith to Quon.
Although making cosmetics would be relatively easy, “they want the marketing know-how and the image” that American products project. So Smith has been interviewing local cosmetics manufacturers to find one who would be ideal for a linkup with the Chinese. Quan not only has a 60,000-square-foot factory, but access to stores as well.
Such deals will be the wave the future, Smith believes. The United States has moved away from its industrial base to specialized, high-value industries making high-technology products. “For us to prosper, we have to address foreign markets,” he said.
