20 - 26 April 2000

Companies risk losing their business unless they think and trade globally

by David Kelleher

If businesses do not change their way of thinking and open up to market challenges, they risk losing all to competitors, Bob Dow, CEO of UK-based business consultancy Prosper Group believes.

"If you don't change and open up, your business will be taken away. Businesses have to realise that they must trade not locally but globally. That is the way forward," Mr Dow told The Malta Business Weekly.

Mr Dow is no newcomer to changes in business, having been at the helm of various defence companies that were forced by market pressures to change.

The Prosper Group operates in the Cornwall Devon area, a factor that has enabled his company to offer help to Maltese businesses.

"What is really needed is a change in the island's business culture - the mentality and the approach to doing business. The Maltese economy is similar to that in which we operate in Cornwall. There you find small and medium sized companies which we have helped to adapt to change," Mr Dow said.

He added that it was for this reason that his company felt they were able to help local businesses to expand. He stressed that money was not the only solution.

"Many companies ask for a grant to be able to meet market challenges, but this is not really necessary. There is something else that is holding the company back and most of the time this is the management's approach to doing business," Mr Dow said.

"Management, especially those with small companies, do not realise that the skills to manage 10 employees are different to those required when you have say 30 or 40 employees - when you really have to manage the company. That is when our services our required," he added.

Mr Dow said that businesses could no longer depend on government protection, such as levies.

"There is no way accession will be possible if protection is still in place," he told The Malta Business Weekly.

"Businesses must also be innovative and make full use of the Internet and e-commerce. On the Net, you judge a business by the quality of its website. Interested parties do not know whether you employ five people or 300. What they see is an excellent website that meets European or US standards. That is how small businesses will be judged. The quality of the website can either be beneficial or detrimental to a business," Mr Dow said.

Why is the Prosper Group focusing its attention on Malta?

"Prosper's business links with Malta have developed over a number of years and in 1999, a formal Twinning Agreement was signed between Prosper and IPSE to identify and encourage the development of opportunities that would benefit businesses both in Malta as well as Devon and Cornwall," Mr Dow said. "We believe that we have a great deal to offer Maltese organisations that are contemplating change and this is reflected in the fact that we are working in close association with Fenlex Corporate Services Ltd to deliver this support," he added.

Prosper Group's main aim in Malta is two-fold: