USA and UK based company iiGrowth and the Ventspils High Technology Park (VHTP) are partnering to bring international solutions to the Latvian market. Together, we are scanning the globe for world class business partners for Latvian enterprises. The purpose of this scan is to identify new business solutions in science and research, defense, and creating new innovation and competency centers in Latvia.

There are several near term opportunities for Latvian and international businesses to form cooperative agreements.

The ERDF is sponsoring science and research projects ranging from 70-492 thousands Lats (up to 1 million USD). These are co-financing funds and project proposals in cooperation with universities must be submitted by December 14, 2009.

The network of business incubators in Latvia supports high tech companies to start business operations in Latvia, by offering SMEs qualitative infrastructure on reduced tariffs and co-financing for research and new product development.

The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia is preparing to solicit ideas/projects regarding the development of competency centers in Latvia. For example, Space, is a competency that the VHTP has already been developing for several years.

These and other focal areas are just the beginning of the new business opportunities and investment climate in Latvia. The Baltic Tiger is coming back and VHTP and iiGrowth are working together to be part of this economic resurgence. If you have an idea or capability that you would like to further explore, please contact us for a confidential consultation.

For more information please contact Ivars Eglajs (email: ivars.eglajs@vhtp.lv phone:+371 29126249) or Gustavs Plato (email: gplato@iigrowth.com or phone: 240.499.4938)

iiGrowth’s Marketing and Communications Practice has been engaged by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). iiGrowth is providing communications consulting services for the LIAA in the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and Electronics industry sectors. We are very pleased to be able to support LIAA, which is considered one of the premier investment promotion intermediaries in the world.

In May 2009, the World Bank published its Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking report. The report compared over 200 of the world’s leading investment promotion organizations. In this competition, the LIAA has been identified as one of the top 10 performing national Investment Promotion Intermediaries (IPI’s) in the World. iiGrowth is excited to be working with LIAA.

iiGrowth has been engaged to provide readability testing and translation/language services in EU. We are providing translation support in Latvian and English and conducting market research of patient information leaflets. This engagement is a hybrid of our Marketing and Communications (MarCom) Practice and Pharma vertical Practice area. Our team’s strong communication skills and vertical industry knowledge were critical skills needed by our world class client.

On August 13, 2009, representatives from the American Latvian Association and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas met with Ambassador Designate Judith Garber. The group included ALA President Dr. Juris Mežinskis, ALA Information Branch Chief, Jānis Kukainis, ALA Treasurer (and Latvian Chamber Director of the Board) Gustavs Plato and ALA General Secretary Raits Eglītis. They discussed mutually important issues: U.S. and Latvian cooperation in Political, economic and military affairs, the U.S. relationship with Russia, and economic and business trade issues and how U.S. businesses and citizens can help enhance cooperation and trade between the U.S. and Latvia.

Ambassador Designate Garber also recently testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 28, 2009 and stated that “I will work to keep Latvia engaged on common challenges and use my considerable experience working on economic issues to help deepen our bilateral economic ties and Latvia’s own pursuit of sustainable economic growth. I will also work with Latvia as it seeks to strengthen its energy security and build new energy links to Europe”.

Ambassador Designate Garber was also a recent speaker at the May 2009 Supply Chain Venture Forum where she addressed a similar vision to continue to build strong relations between the United States and the Republic of Latvia.

In May, 2009, iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato addressed the participants of the US Baltic Foundation’s annual gala. During this presentation he focused on the role of the Chamber in growing the Baltic Brand with a vision to increase trade between the Americas and Latvia ten-fold.

Recently, the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI) developed a series of videos entitled “Power Profiles”. We highlighted GWI as one of the organization’s that has extensive knowledge and insights into the Washington DC metropolitan area. GWI is is a “regional economic development, marketing and research organization that promotes the Greater Washington region as the premier business destination”.

One of the videos is by Matt Erskine, who is the Executive Director of the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI). Matt joined GWI in May of 2008. Matt and Gustav Plato, CEO, of iiGrowth LLC, worked together at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting (now IBM Consulting). After many years, their paths have crossed again with respect to mutual interests to promote the Washington DC metropolitan area as a location that must be considered when thinking about entry into the US market. In the video, Matt discusses his views on why the Washington region is strong, stable, resilient, diverse, and growing. Other videos are available for viewing at GWI’s News and Events Page.

In addition to offering USA market entry and other expert consulting services, iiGrowth is increasingly expanding its focus to offer assistance to firms wishing to enter the UK market. We can help you with Market Readiness Analysis, Rapid Market Assessment, Entry Planning and Implementation Support.

The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) is the world’s sixth largest economy and the European Union’s third largest, following Germany and France. London is the world’s leading financial center with the greatest concentration of foreign bank branches on the planet. Most multinational corporations oversee their European operations from a headquarters in the UK. The domestic market in the UK is also of great interest to a foreign company considering expansion abroad. The economy is highly developed with vibrant and sophisticated commerce at all levels.

UK Trade and Investment lists many reasons why the United Kingdom is the leading investment destination for companies expanding their business. Setting up a business is a relatively rapid and straightforward process. Taxation is quite favorable – corporate tax is among the lowest in the industrialized world. The labor market is flexible, barriers to entrepreneurship are few and the UK is second only to the USA in terms of innovative research.

For more details, please see UK Trade & Investment.

For more information on how iiGrowth can help you with market entry into the UK please contact Eriks Rusis on +44 7983 484 836 or erusis@iigrowth.com.

DC Metro Market Entry

ii Growth LLC is located in Bethesda, Maryland, is in the heart of the U.S.’s most vibrant economic sector, the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, which includes Washington D.C. Northern Virginia, and Suburban Maryland. For international companies looking to enter the US market, the Washington Metropolitan Area offers many advantages.

According to June 2009 study by the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI) the region led the nation in job growth over the last 10 years and is the 4th largest in terms of Gross Regional Product (GRP) and population. The region is also home to the largest IT cluster in the United States as well as large and growing biotech and aerospace industries.

The region has a number of attributes that make it attractive to international firms:

• Access to markets
• A productive labor force
• University and R&D support
• Ease of transportation
• Assistance in meeting the right people
• A desirable place to live

The area has tremendous reach. It is an international communications hub, with excellent air access internationally. Over 60% of the U.S. population lives within a one-day drive/2-hour flight of Washington D.C.

Because of its geographic location and size, economic strength, large number of knowledge workers (over 1 million), universities and educations systems, and proximity to the US Federal Government there is a well developed ecosystem for doing business. This breadth also supports and enables leveraging significant cross-market opportunities that allow for accelerated market growth. The government and technology markets are particularly attractive for US market entry and can leverage one another.

Federal, State, and Local Markets

The Federal Government is the largest buyer in the world. The U.S. federal government market has grown 250 percent from 2000 to 2008. It is projected that the government will buy more than $500 billion USD in 2009. The federal government will continue to be the largest single buyer of goods and services in the world. The Washington Metropolitan area is the largest buyer within the Federal market with California being a distant second.

In addition, the Metropolitan areas boasts strong regional and local governments including Anne Arundel, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland, as well as Fairfax, Alexandria (city) Arlington, Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William in Virginia. Many of the counties also are home for technology innovation centers and incubators.

Each of the regions is also home for international businesses. For example:

• WGI reports over 700 foreign firms doing business in Washington Metro Area
• Fairfax County reports it has over 360 foreign businesses.
• Montgomery County reports it has over 100 foreign owned businesses (550 in the state of Maryland).

Technology Industry

According to the GWI June, 2009 report, “Greater Washington’s technology cluster has the country’s highest concentration of network and computer systems administrators, database administrators, and computer programmers. The region also has six times the national average of computer scientists and four times the national average of computer software engineers.”

The region has expertise in the following sectors:

• Aerospace & Defense
• Biotech / Life Sciences
• Information Technology
• Green / Clean Tech and Health IT

Build Networks and Strategy

There are several paths into the US market, either through value added reselling, business partnerships, or direct market entry. All paths require a strong partnering focus and skills for managing the partnership. The Washington Metropolitan Area offers many excellent choices for strategic partnering. Many foreign companies are already in the region.

To build partnerships requires a structured process. A first step is to reach out to potential partners through associations and chambers of commerce. There are dozens of outstanding organizations in the region. The list below is a small representative sample of associations and partnerships in the Washington Metropolitan Area:

Greater Washington Initiative (GWI)

Northern Virginia Technology Council

TechAmerica

Center of Innovative Technology

Virginia Economic Develop Partnership

Tech Council of Maryland

DC Chamber

Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas

The Washington DC Metro area has over 1,000 institutions involved in international business activity. This includes over 180 Embassies, The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, The Export-Import Bank, and The Inter-American Development Bank. There are also 400 international associations that promote networking and building relationships that last.

The international focus of the U.S. economy resulted in 2008 being a record year for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the U.S. economy. The Washington region was one of the reasons and iiGrowth recommends that you look at this region as well for your US market entry.

iiGrowth LLC, an international strategy and management consulting firm, today announced that it has partnered with Leap Technologies, the leading provider of Rapid Lean Six Sigma (RLSS) consulting and training services. The partnership will bring a combined offering of world-class RLSS services and strategy driven program management consulting to corporations and enterprises in the Baltic Region. Through the strategic alliance, iiGrowth LLC will introduce its clients to Leap Technologies’ unique and innovative RLSS transformation model for enterprises.

iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato stated, “I have worked with Leap and their CEO Rick Tucci in the past.  They are results driven and collaborative and bring a fresh perspective to business transformation.  They engage leaders at all levels of the organization from the outset of a collaboration, which means that results are achieved faster and are sustainable. We are looking forward to working together again in the Baltic Region.”

iiGrowth LLC is exploring the meaning and value of something called the “Baltic Brand”.   Defining the Baltic Brand, begins with a probe into the meaning of what/who is a “Baltic” firm?  When you use the word “Baltic” does it bring with it any connotation or special meaning?  Is it something related to the region, or a style?  Why would one want to be known as a “Baltic” business? How do “Baltic” firms make good partners?   What is it that Baltic firms have a reputation for doing?  What makes a Baltic firm different?  Who are “Baltic” firms know for helping?
In order to begin the exploration of the Baltic Brand, it is helpful to begin with a few simple probing questions.  You can respond to us on our blog or on LinkedIn.
So let’s get started with some basic questions:

1. Do you believe there is something that can be called a Baltic Brand?
   • Yes/No?
   • Why?
2. Are you a user/provider of the Baltic Brand?
   • Yes/No?
   • What Region are you from (Baltic, Europe/EU, Americas, Africa, and West Asia/Middle East, East Asia/Pacific)?
3. How would you define the meaning of the term Baltic Brand?
   • Write your definition of the Baltic Brand.
   • What are the characteristics/attributes of a Baltic Brand?
4. Which Baltic brands are you currently buying/using (or providing)?
   • List top 3 Baltic Brands
   • How would you rate the quality of the products/services of this brand you reference in the previous bullet (Scale: 1 (low) 5 (high))?
   • What about the overall Baltic Brand rating (across any all brands you are thinking about with respect to word Baltic)?
5. What, if any steps, does the Baltic Brand need to do to improve its favorable ratings?

iiGrowth would like to understand responses from two perspectives.  The first perspective is the Baltic business perspective and the second perspective is the perspective of those outside of the Baltic region. Please identify your perspective.

This is not a formal survey, but rather a general inquiry regarding market perceptions of the Baltic region and Baltic firms.  We encourage your suggestions for adding new questions to the discussion and look forward to hearing from you. We will keep responses confidential and not attribute to you, if you submit your responses in confidence.