We Asked Our Mentors:
Due to supply chain disruptions and a focus on shop local, how does a business strike a balance between thinking local vs exporting?
“The specific industry will matter a lot. Eg. For agri business, a local focus will be much more important. With the tech sector, not so much an importance to be local.”
MJ Levesque
“Shop local focus has been mainly restaurants. No one is thinking about the locally owned Taco Bell franchise as “supporting local.” For example, Kentucky Fried Chicken has be owned locally, but outward image is that they’re a large corporation that people will not be inclined to support as opposed to a more obvious local, family-owned restaurant. So, it may be the wrong time to invest in USA companies as a franchisee.”
Michael Kimeda
“There is a push from the government for a made-in-Canada vaccine factory. People are are not waiting to import from US because they can’t rely on it.”
Mark Goldberg
“Businesses should consider if they are branding for local market vs. export market? Marketing strategies should be different depending on where you are marketing. There’s an opportunity to communicate to each market differently.”
Britt Bowra
“Government may invest more in shop local initiatives. This is likely to extend beyond agri-food sector.”
Mark Goldberg
“Agree with Mark – Investments in local is going to boom (And it kind of already has started).”
Tim Campbell-Smith
“Find the best paying customers and sell to them!”
Reda Fayek
“The specifics may be different, but the process of finding and delivering to market hasn’t really changed. You need to figure out legal issues, logistics, marketing/sales in foreign jurisdictions, licensing, etc. – all of that is still there; just the numbers have changed.”
Tom Nagy
“How we define “local” is broadening. Larger brands in HBA are looking at how to create local relationships Eg. cosmetics where testing has broadened to sampling due to COVID and supporting the local drug store, etc.”