María del Coriseo González Izquierdo (ICEX) Current ICEX CEO. She holds Bachelor s Degrees in Law, and in Economics and Business Studies from Pontificia Comillas University (Madrid), and a Master s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University; she belongs to the Senior Corps of Commercial Technicians and State Economists. She has served as Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Executive Advisor to the Cabinet of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, manager of the World Bank Private Sector Infrastructure Development Project for North Africa and the Middle East, Director of ICEX s Industrial Products and Technology Division, Chief Advisor of the Economic and Commercial Offices of the Spanish Embassy in Ghana, the People s Republic of China, Jordan and Iraq. Prior to joining ICEX, she was deputy director to the Presidency of the Electricity Market Operator. ICEX Spain, Export and Investment was created in 1982 by Royal Decree 6/1982 as the National Institute for Export Promotion (INFE). In 1987, it changed its name to the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade. In 2011, it changed its legal status and became a public corporate entity. In late 2012, it also broadened its corporate goals when it merged with Invest in Spain, a public company which had hitherto been responsible for the promotion of foreign investment in Spain. Thus, since 2012 the organization has been known by a new name ICEX Spain, Export and Investment, reflecting its new mission. In accordance with the statutes of the new institution, ICEX Spain Export and Investment has a Board of Directors, with a public majority, on which business organizations (employers and Chambers of Commerce) and the autonomous communities each have one representative. There is an additional consultative body, the Strategic Guidance Council (COE), made up of sectoral and business associations, as well as companies with a proven track-record in internationalization. Within the framework of the government s economic policy, ICEX s objective is to promote the internationalization of the Spanish economy and Spanish companies, and to improve their competitiveness, as well as to attract and encourage foreign investment in Spain. To carry out its activities, ICEX is supported by a network of almost 100 overseas economic and commercial offices run by the Secretariat of State for Trade. ICEX s total staff runs to 579 employees, 477 of whom work in Spain (either in the central offices or the various Provincial and Territorial Departments), and 102 in the Overseas Network Nº 37 // Volume 17 // July-December 2013 @ journal 117
María Coriseo González Izquierdo of Economic and Commercial Offices. ICEX is estimated to deal with around 10,000 companies a year, the vast majority of which are SMEs. What specific programs does ICEX have to support of the internationalization of SMEs? Are the services provided within the framework of these programs combined with one another, or with other programs implemented by the organization? ICEX offers a full range of measures and programs, classified according to the company s degree of internationalization. For those companies starting out on the overseas road, ICEX puts at their disposal the ICEX Next program, in which they benefit from economic and technical assistance for the design and implementation of their internationalization plan. The companies also have available to them the Passport to Success Abroad (Pasaporte al Exterior) program, which, by means of an online tool, enables companies to analyze their export potential and put together an initial outline of the internationalization strategy they must follow. For companies that have already attained some degree of internationalization, ICEX provides trade promotion actions, the most common being activities at trade fairs and trade missions, and programs to help identify business partners in the country, for the development of joint projects such as investment forums, business meetings and multilateral partnerships. All these actions receive strong institutional support. To internationally experienced companies, ICEX offers a series of programs to facilitate both commercial and productive implementation abroad. Foremost among these programs are the tool for calculating establishment costs, the service for selecting local partners, the dissemination of business opportunities and the 16 business centers in the Economic and Commercial Offices run by the Secretary of State for Trade overseas, where companies can establish themselves for a time to launch their operations. These business centers are complemented by the Spain Tech Center in San Francisco, which seeks to introduce Spanish companies into Silicon Valley, one of the most dynamic company ecosystems in the world. In the area of consultancy, emphasis is also given to customized services: tailor-made and high-added value services provided by the Economic and Commercial Offices abroad. With regard to training services, ICEX offers a complete range of seminars and workshops on internationalization, conferences on foreign markets, and the internationalization fellowships designed to train young professionals through a Master s degree in international business management and one year spent working at one of the Spanish Embassy s commercial offices abroad, before completing the second stage of the fellowship at an international company or agency. In its efforts toward continuous improvement, ICEX both updates and renews its programs, as well as launching new initiatives adapted to emerging needs. Here, it is worth highlighting the recently launched programs that seek, on the one hand, to meet companies needs for personalized attention and, on the other, to adapt to the existing budgetary framework and offer maximum added value at the lowest possible cost. 118
Interviews Firstly, there is the ICEX-Large-Scale Distribution program, which aims to get large distribution companies to incorporate more Spanish suppliers. The second program is ICEX Sourcing, which is designed to communicate to companies in our country business opportunities detected and received by the network of economic and commercial offices abroad through their contacts and interactions with a wide range of local operators (importers, distributors, contractors, etc.). Finally, there is the SMEs-INVEST program, which provides companies with advice on foreign investment and guidance on financing for their productive or commercial establishment in other markets. This program is an example of institutional cooperation, an aspect that ICEX is seeking to promote, since it was launched jointly with the Spanish Development Finance Agency (COFIDES). Does ICEX have a sectoral or geographical focus with regard to the service offered to SMEs? ICEX operates on a basis of complementarity and subsidiarity, which means that it is the companies themselves, through their decisions, that show us the way forward. However, at the sectoral level, it is about supporting those elements with a bigger technological component, although it is true that, nowadays, high technology can be found in any sector. Or rather, it should be said that we try to support initiatives with the highest added value. In geographic terms, we are witnessing the progressive abandonment of the traditional mature markets of the European Union in favor of other markets with greater dynamism and potential. At ICEX we are taking up the baton and reallocating our resources along the same lines. What are the main challenges facing SMEs when it comes to internationalization? How do these challenges compare with those faced by larger companies? Each company is different and, therefore, so is its internationalization process. But we at ICEX believe there are a number of basic elements in any successful market opening project. First, it is vital that the company approach internationalization as an essential process: as part of its core activity, in other words. Second, it is very important that the company is clear about what its added value is, and supports and strengthens it. That is to say, it must determine a priori which of its products or services has the greatest selling potential in other markets. And, last, meticulous planning and design of its strategy is needed. Finally, finding suitable local partners is vital to ensure the success of any international initiative. In both the strategic planning process and the search for partners, the difficulties faced by companies can be reduced to a problem of access to information. Big companies with more resources can allocate these resources to obtaining good-quality information, be it in the country of origin, or by traveling to the destination. On the plus side, small firms have greater flexibility. In the specific case of Spain, the perception that international markets are only for large companies has changed radically in recent years, and our SMEs are following the road taken by large companies that have managed to attain leadership positions in international markets in recent decades. Nº 37 // Volume 17 // July-December 2013 @ journal 119
María Coriseo González Izquierdo What role do the new information and communications technologies play in the internationalization of SMEs? As in any other field, the great digital transformation of recent times has also brought about a revolution in internationalization. These changes are reflected in the dramatic shift in the strategies the companies themselves deploy to improve their use of these new technologies. ICEX has made a firm commitment to digitizing its processes and to facilitating access to all types of aid through telematics records. ICEX is also steadfastly committed to bringing information about its services and knowledge about markets to companies, through mobile applications and the use of social networks. How does ICEX evaluate the impact of the services provided to SMEs? To maximize the resources available, ICEX has in place an assessment unit to analyze the performance and impact of each of our programs in order to secure good quality information to enable resources to be prioritized for the most effective programs with the greatest impact. Could you tell us about three successful cases of internationalization of SMEs dealt with by ICEX? In its work assisting the internationalization process of Spanish companies, ICEX Spain, Export and Investment has had numerous success stories with SMEs that have achieved excellence in overseas expansion. In the textile sector, ICEX has supported the internationalization work of El Ganso, a fashion company created in 2004 and now a benchmark in countries such as Chile or France. El Ganso was part of ICEX Spain, Export and Investment s export assistance program, ICEX Next, in 2011, and a few months later, the owners opened an outlet in Santiago de Chile, four stores in Paris, two in London, and one in Portugal. Their next launch is in Mexico, where they will open an own-brand store. Another success story is Entrol, a company from Madrid that develops and manufactures professional airplane and helicopter simulators, FNPT and FTD, with the mission of contributing to the education and training of military and civilian pilots. Several years ago, Entrol took part in ICEX s Initiation Plan for Promotion Abroad (PIPE), and its main international sales are now concentrated in such countries as Argentina, where there is a simulator in the Naval Command; Chile, where it has sold a helicopter simulator to the Chilean Air Force; and Turkey, where it has sold a flight simulator to the Turkish University of Anadolu. Last, in the ICT sector, the outstanding example is the internationalization process experienced by Playence, a Spanish company that has developed specialized corporate search software for companies. Like El Ganso, Playence also took part in ICEX Spain, Export and Investment s ICEX Next program, where it received advice on opening up new avenues of business, as well as its own office in the United States. Playence has also taken part in the technology company accelerator program, Spain Tech Center, located in Silicon Valley, San Francisco. These three are examples of the good performance of Spanish exports: we currently sell nearly 20% more than the pre-crisis maximum, recording an increase in our overseas sales of 17% in 2010, 15% in 2011 and 4% in 2012. 120
Interviews In the first three quarters of 2013, not only have these figures been consolidated, but the export growth rate has risen to 6.8% year-on-year (YOY). March 2013 saw the first trade surplus since figures began (1971). The strong showing of sales in services also allowed us to achieve a current account surplus in July 2012 for the first time since 1998. The outlook is also favorable: in its recently published fall forecast, the European Commission predicts that Spain will be one of the countries with the highest export growth in 2013 overall, and will end the year with a balance surplus equivalent to 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2014, this surplus will reach 2.6%. Nº 37 // Volume 17 // July-December 2013 @ journal 121