ASSOCIATIONS OVERVIEW

Examples of services coalitions

During the 1980s, a number of countries developed a Coalition of Service Industries to ensure that the concerns of service firms were well represented in the Uruguay Round discussions. The earliest such organisation was the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries, comprised of major international firms such as American Express and Citibank. Other active organisations include:

The Australian Services Roundtable Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry European Services Forum Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries International Financial Services (UK) Irish Coalition of Service Industries Uganda Services Exporters Association Barbados Coalition of services U.S. Coalition of Service Industries Coalicion de Exportadores de Servicios de Chile (C.E.S)

The Coalitions have sponsored regular international conferences to discuss trade policy issues with the international services trade officials/negotiators and also share best practices with each other.

The Coalitions network can serve two purposes for associations from developing countries. First, it can provide another mechanism for members to meet potential partners. Second, it can become a vehicle for technical assistance from one association to another.

Publicising the capabilities of your members

For service firms in many developing countries, the single greatest barrier to exporting is not being taken seriously in the global marketplace. It is vitally important you determine what your service industry's areas of strength are, focusing on aspects that matter to potential customers. Here are some possible types of strengths:

• Lower per diem rates for equally skilled work
• Strong project management skills for keeping projects on-time and within budget
• Innovative technical approaches, adapted to cultural factors
• Ability to address the needs of multiple cultural groups
• High professional and ethical standards

To help your association members gain credibility abroad, you will want to develop few core messages about key competitive strengths. Those messages can be featured in a glossy promotional piece for the industry as a whole that members can include in their promotional kits, which includes:

• Most competitive feature of the industry
• Illustrations of the key benefits the industry provides
• Examples of unique types of services offered and well-known customers
• Export success stories
• Internationally-known customers/clients
• Statistics on the industry

One way of bringing alive what your industry has to offer is through success stories. These stories can be disseminated as part of political speeches, promotional articles about your country, features in your national airlines' in-flight magazine, postings on your nation's or association's Website, leads in your association's newsletter, articles in trade publications, and so on. You can also offer to provide quotes for politicians' speeches that include successful examples from your industry.

Establishing an export committee

• Benefits to Service Industry Association Members:

• Benefits to Trade Association Members:

Forming friendship agreements with sister associations

Service firms often enter new markets most successfully through partnering with local firms there. One of the ways therefore to support market entry, and help locate partners, is to establish association-to-association linkages. The material below can help you determine whether or not a friendship agreement would be appropriate and how to go about establishing one.
The idea behind a friendship agreement is to create a framework allowing members of one association to be members of the other. There are at least three possible benefits to be gained from negotiating a friendship agreement:

• Enhanced access for your members in that foreign market.
• Additional membership dues revenues from members of that sister association.
• Greater networking opportunities.

You are likely to find that the association in a foreign market is an appropriate candidate for a friendship agreement if:

• The foreign market is a priority in your association's Export Development Plan.
• The foreign association is fiscally sound and respected in its domestic market.
• The foreign association has a paid, professional administrative staff.
• The foreign association is interested in being proactive in building trade links for its members with your market and recognises the value of partnering arrangements.
• The foreign association's administrative staff and members have a language capability that matches that of your members (e.g., English).
• The benefits will outweigh the expenses incurred in developing and administering the friendship agreement.

You may wish to contact service industry associations or other trade-related organisations in developing/transitional economies for several reasons, for example:

• As the head of an association, you may want help from a sister association
• As a service exporter, you may want to make connections with association members
• As a service exporter, you may want to join the association to help you with market entry
• You may want information on the trade environment from government officials
• You may want help with inward investment

Creating awards programs

Since one of the issues for service firms abroad is establishing credibility in the marketplace, being able to win awards that recognise their excellent work is a big help. Awards programs can be resource-intensive to administer, but they can also be of great marketing value to your members by: 

• Increasing public recognition of the capabilities of your industry members
• Creating a higher public profile for your industry and industry association
• Helping your members create market profile
• Helping your members convince potential customers that the purchase risk is minimal because they are buying from "a winner"

• Tips for a Successful Awards Program

Staging partnering events

There are several different types of benefits that your association can gain from developing and sponsoring partnering events between your members and firms from targeted foreign markets:

• Help your members meet foreign service firms with whom they might partner successfully.
• Reduce the market entry time and costs for your service firms by helping them find a local partner.
• Help your professional service firms circumvent professional licensing requirements in the foreign market
• through partnering with qualified local professionals.

• Tips for Staging Successful Partnering Events