The Foreign Service Journal, April 2021

32 APRIL 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Aviation Organization estimates that international travel won’t rebound to 2019 levels until 2024, it behooves us to find ways to help U.S. companies succeed and thrive amid these unprec- edented difficulties for the foreseeable future. What are the lessons learned and proposed ways forward to help U.S. companies succeed in this era of disruption? Challenge Begets Opportunity U.S. and foreign companies are keen to connect virtually. We are witnessing unprecedented demand for our services, largely as a result of a fee-waiver granted by the Office of Management and Budget for part of Fiscal Year 2020. Initially, this was a surprise for us in India, which is still a face-to-face market where personal relationships matter. U.S. companies normally have to travel to India (or host their prospective partners in the United States) to cultivate the relationship. Indian companies can take longer to finalize a business deal because they work on the basis of trust, which takes time to develop. We were delighted to find that Indian partners have been very responsive to connecting with U.S. companies virtually. Though Facebook made an exception—and waves—when it invested $5.76 billion in Reliance Jio in April 2020 after several months of virtual negotiations, these are large, well-known companies that can afford top-notch Wall Street investment and advisory services. Regular U.S. small and medium-sized enter- prises will want to know that the foreign buyer will pay them, comply with all contractual terms and represent their product or brand well. In turn, the foreign buyer will want certainty that the U.S. company can commit to after-sales service and a long-term effort to make the partnership a success. These factors are much harder to assess and commit to in the virtual world. Virtual efforts can provide broader reach more quickly. In one notable example, we worked with a U.S. company to host almost 400 potential Indian partners from across the subcontinent for a virtual promotion event. That company would otherwise need at least a week in the country to do multiple promotional events in different cities to reach a fraction of that audience. Indeed, because American small and medium-sized companies now don’t need to factor in travel time or costs, they have more band- width to connect with many more potential customers. Savvy, export-focused companies can create multifold new business leads without leaving their laptops. However, these leads will still need vetting and the U.S. business will have to devote time to pursue the partnership. Does Virtual Work Work? Will this virtual world yield successes? We hope so. In many cases, virtual meetings are a way to keep the discussion alive until people can meet in person again. Frommy perspective, vir- tual meetings are much more beneficial for an existing relation- ship than for a U.S. company reaching out to foreign partners for the first time. Some consumer and software products can be sold internationally without human interactions on platforms such as Amazon or eBay or downloaded from the cloud. But for the vast majority of American companies, especially those dealing in specialized or customized equipment, prod- ucts or services, an in-person visit or meeting is often required to finalize the specifications or negotiations. In short, virtual meetings are a stopgap measure in this interim period to keep businesses talking or afloat until conditions allow them to travel to meet with potential partners. During a previous tour in India, in 2008, I worked with colleagues to coordinate virtual introductions and meetings after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I did the same in Central America from 2014 to 2017 when dangerous conditions hin- dered many U.S. companies from routine business development trips. In these instances, we brought U.S. and foreign companies together easily, but we did not see many results and experienced higher-than-usual no-show rates. Though companies are more and more familiar with and capable in virtual environments now, I predict that many will revert to most pre-pandemic norms once conditions warrant. If you’re in a competitive situ- ation, you can’t resort to negotiating with a partner on a screen when others are making the effort to woo the potential client in person. The quality of the virtual platform matters. We’ve deployed a lot of virtual platforms, ranging fromWebEx, Microsoft Teams and Zoom to BlueJeans, Remo and more, depending on the nature of the virtual interaction and our clients’ preferences. Some virtual platforms have worked through well-documented security issues and require authorization to use. In addition, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies, and spotty internet Virtual meetings are a stopgap measure in this interimperiod to keep businesses talking or afloat until conditions allow them to travel tomeet with potential partners.