Business Opportunities Abroad

Hello all!

This evening we had Jesse Brown from Koch Industries come and talk to us about international opportunities with various companies at Koch. He was a finance major here at K-State and went on 2 trips with Swinder. He has already had the opportunity to go abroad while working at Koch Industries. They do business in hundreds of countries across the world and seem to have great opportunities abroad! Here's some more information about Koch: http://www.kochind.com/

We also talked about some of the articles we read for this week and discussed developing countries. It's important for businesses to not view the poor as charity but instead look at them as a business partner. There are many business opportunities and businesses can really take off if they adapt themselves to the needs of the poor. The poorest of the poor can be innovators and leaders in the business world. By giving them access to credit and other markets, they could turn their country around.

We also discussed small businesses trying to go abroad. One of the biggest things to do is find a niche that large businesses won't enter into. Otherwise large businesses will move in and steal away your business. Companies really need to look at the needs in other countries and what they're asking for. One example we talked about was cell phones in India. Nokia decided to move into India and provide them with low cost cell phones. Everywhere you go you could see that type of phone so it was a really smart move by Nokia.

The trip is only 3 weeks away and I am so excited! I am going to go home to get my financed figured out for the trip and get luggage for our trip. The adventure is about to begin!

Til next time,

Jackie