'Face time' is the biggest benefit of trade missions

By Jenny Price

But business people who took part in the governor's recent trade mission to Mexico are convinced nothing is better than shaking hands and looking someone directly in the eye when it comes to making inroads in other countries.

"Nothing replaces that face time," said Kurt Koestler, vice president-international for Columbus-based Lyco Manufacturing Inc., who took part in the March trip organized by officials from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. "Relationship building means a lot in the Latin culture and in Mexico."

The six-day trip to Mexico City and Guadalajara led by Gov. Jim Doyle is a symbol of how important Mexico has become to Wisconsin in the decade since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect and the state opened a trade office in Mexico City.

Wisconsin exports to Mexico have more than doubled in that time, and at least 150 companies in Dane and its eight surrounding counties export goods and services to Mexico, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

The top sectors for exports to Mexico are industrial machinery, including computers, followed by electric machinery and paper products.

Koestler and Lyco's chief executive officer, Steve Hughes, went on the mission in hopes of finding a qualified representative to sell Lyco's food processing machinery in Mexico.

"A lot of the companies down there are private, family-owned, and you need someone locally that understands them and gets close to those decision makers," Hughes said after returning from the trip, where he and Koestler met with some potential distributors.

On its own, it would have taken months for Lyco to set up the meetings state officials arranged during the trade mission, Hughes and Koestler said.

For Federal Industries of Belleville, which manufactures specialty display cases for the bakery and deli industry, Mexico and Latin America represent "a market we haven't saturated," said international sales manager Richard Chilson.

Mexico is Federal's largest market outside the United States but accounts for just 2 percent of its overall sales. Chilson is hoping the trade mission can help change that.

"I saw people I had wanted to approach for two years," he said.

The March trade mission was the third that Doyle's administration helped organize since he took office in 2002. Doyle also led delegations to China and Japan last year, and the state opened a trade office in Shanghai in 2003.

Business leaders who made the trek to China echoed the sentiments of those who went to Mexico.

"There's no substitute for face-to-face meetings whether it's Milwaukee or Shanghai," said Dr. Irene Hrusovsky, president and chief executive of Madison-based EraGen Biosciences.

Hrusovsky said the trip allowed the biotech firm, which has developed a test for SARS, to identify potential business partners and meet with representatives who will market its products in China.

While on the trade mission to China, Madison-based TrafficCast, a technology and software company, signed two agreements with the city of Shanghai to set up a system to monitor traffic, forecast trouble spots and ease gridlock.

Connie Li, chief operating officer for TrafficCast, said the deal will allow the company to hire more people here in Madison in the coming months.

"This trip definitely helped us to expedite the negotiations," Li said.

She also said being part of the trade mission signified a "formal endorsement" that made her trustworthy in the eyes of potential clients.

For David Franchino, managing director for Design Concepts in Madison, the trip gave him a chance to size up his foreign competition. As manufacturing has shifted abroad, so have some product design services such as those his company offers.

"There are some tremendously skilled people over there that work doing what we do at a fraction of the price," he said. "That's a little daunting."

But Franchino said the mission helped him see his business in the context of the global marketplace and focus on how Design Concepts can find its niche.

The consulting firm helps companies conceive, design and develop new products. For example, it worked with Wilson Racquet Sports to develop the tennis racquet Serena Williams used to win the Australian Open.

"There is a certain type of work we used to do 10 or 15 years ago and that work is gone," he said. "Rather than lament over that, we need to seek opportunities."

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