Cameron school expands global business initiative

Local businesses can now tap a community resource to boost their business abroad.

The Cameron School of Business at UNCW recently received a $168,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund their new Global Business Initiative, a program in the Swain Center for Business and Economic Services. In addition to funding UNCW business student internships abroad, the funds will support a limited number of free advisory services for southeast North Carolina businesses interested in expanding their global reach.

“We can do basic market assessment, identify and quantify potential markets for [a company’s] products overseas and help develop strategies to enter those markets. We can help initiate foreign partners, suppliers and distributors and do economic analyses of expanding overseas,” said Joe Dougherty, director of the UNCW Global Business initiative.

The Wilmington business community can also expect to see a speaker series, quarterly articles on international issues that are of interest to the region’s businesses, and a global business certification program in the spring. The goal is to expand the region’s knowledge and access to global business opportunities.

“Smaller companies, whether they are manufacturing or service companies, don’t need to focus on the big, rich and oft-complicated countries like China and Western Europe,” Dougherty said. “There are all sorts of export, trade, and investment opportunities in lesser known countries.” Like Botswana, he said.

Now more than ever, expanding your business perspective can be a wise business choice. “The recession has shown that companies need to have a diverse income base. They need to be a little bit independent of the local economy and the way they do that is by exporting or having foreign partners,” he said.

The Cameron School of Business will match the federal funds the initiative received in August. “The purpose of the grant is to strengthen ties between the business schools and communities,” Dougherty said. To meet that goal, the initiative has created partnerships with the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, the Cape Fear chapter of the World Trade Association, and the NC Ports Authority.