About the Author – Frank Lavin was known as America's "Salesman-in-Chief" when he served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that capacity, he supervised U.S. export promotion activity and worked with over two thousand small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop their export strategies. He continues to work with companies on market entrance and international challenges as chairman of Edelman's Public Affairs Practice in the Asia Pacific Region. Recently he established Export Now (www.ExportNow.com) to help companies use the Internet to export to China. He previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore and worked in banking and management positions in Asia after having served in the Reagan White House and NSC as well as the Commerce Department in both Bush administrations. Mr Lavin has written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. 

About the Book – Even the best businesses sometimes find themselves in a difficult situation when it comes to exporting. For most firms, it is a new area involving a set of complicated challenges, including language, tariffs, and the toughest challenge of all: how to track down new customers. Many companies see more work and less benefit in an export market rather than the home market. In other words, why bother?

Export Now explains in clear business language the steps you can take to compete and win in exports. Frank Lavin and Peter Cohan apply their decades of expertise in helping companies to break down the task into manageable components. Export Now is a step-by-step guide to tackling the international marketplace. The core messages of the book: (1) It is easier than you think; (2) you do need a plan. The authors offer you the tools to devise your own plan in Export Now.

This book boils down the challenge into the "Five Cs" of exporting:

• Country: How to pick the right one.
• Customers: How they differ in new markets.
• Competitors: What to look for when you are away from your home market.
• Capabilities: What you need to win.
• Capability Gap: How to close it.

In Export Now you will learn the secrets of exporting from case studies including:

• Brewdog, the Scottish micro-brewery that used blogs to break into a new market.
• Legacy, a German company with superior products but the wrong export strategy.
• Eno, a Chinese youth clothing retailer started by two Americans, that succeeded by letting its Chinese designers pick popular styles.

Export Now draws on over twenty case studies based on the authors' work helping thousands of SMEs that ventured into new markets. The cases outline their successes, failures, and avoidable mistakes. Read this book to stay in the first category and out of the last two.   

Buy this Book at Politics & Prose