To my regular readers: Permit me to introduce João Plantier. Joao will be contributing to the blog on a regular basis. We’ve formed an alliance with Joao’s consultancy in Portugal and will be offering a series of workshops there in February. Welcome Joao!

Those of you who live in a small country like me (I live in Portugal together with 10 million fellow countrymen and women) know how important it can be for SME’s to sell their products abroad, particularly to other European countries. The question is: is selling abroad a Big Chance or a Bad Choice. As most consultants would say, it depends. It pays off if you know the competitive context, if you have some sort of competitive advantage and if you’re flexible enough to tackle your competitors by offering a better product, a better service or a better solution to your customers’ problems.

As Antonio Pires de Lima, CEO of the leading beer manufacturer in Portugal Unicer, recently said: "before you think about exporting to a foreign country you should try to be more competitive in your own country".
I think Portuguese SME’s should think about this before they put their time and money on trying to sell abroad. Because those two things only big companies can afford to waste!