obsolete inventory and a lack of processes to deal with that.
All firms have functional silos—some with moats and
machine guns. Sometimes, they have a dysfunctional way of
looking at metrics. It’s amazing how common these problems are.
It is curious, too, that there are not that many with documented supply chain strategies. Our experience is that less
than 20 percent of companies have an up-to-date, documented multiyear supply chain strategy.
QI would think that would no longer be the case.
AGoing through the recession, many companies were just trying to survive. They didn’t worry about strategy.
But it was true even before the Great Recession. We still don’t
see nearly as much strategy work as we think we should.
We believe that firms should have a current roadmap
going at least three years into the future that drives a set of
initiatives to achieve supply chain excellence.
Beth Peterson
BETH PETERSON, THE ENERGETIC PRESident of the global trade consulting firm
BPE Inc., is committed to professional
development for women in international
trade. She’s demonstrated that passion as
president of the Northern California chapter
of Women in International Trade, and she
gained national recognition when its parent
group, the Organization of Women in
International Trade, named her Member of
the Year in 2006. She “walks the walk” in her own business,
too: All of the global trade compliance consultants at BPE
are women.
Peterson’s background includes managing import operations at DHL Airways and Hewlett Packard, and serving in
executive roles at global trade management software firms
Qiva Inc. and Open Harbor. A licensed customs broker, she
is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trade
Ambassador and is active in the American Association of
Exporters and Importers.
QHow did you come to start your own trade compli- ance business?
AI’ve always had a mission to become a CEO. In 2004, I was talking with one of my mentors—we had just
sold the company we’d been working for, and we were talking about what we would do next. He said, “You know you
want to be a CEO. I think you’re ready.” We met the next day
and went over my background. It was clear that with my
experience and knowledge, what I had to offer was unique.
I did feel ready, and the company was founded the next day.
QIs demand for trade compliance services increasing, and if so, why?
AWhen companies are in cost-cutting mode, they’re very aware of what they have to control and how
much money they need to save. They might not be able to
afford a full-time equivalent employee devoted to global
trade compliance, so it may make sense to bring in a team
with the experience BPE has.
QWhat skills and mindset does a suc- cessful trade compliance professional
need?
AOf course you need all the technical knowledge and to understand how to
read the regulations, write policies, and conduct import/export operations. But the most
important quality, I think, is fearlessness.
You’re going to be exposed to the deepest
inner workings of your company. Each business is complex and diverse and can be made up of multiple businesses and operations. So you’ll have to roll up your
sleeves, get to know how the business really works, and
understand the business’s interests. With this knowledge,
you can go ahead and develop a program and then implement it to make sure your company is compliant.
Perfectionism [regarding regulatory compliance] is a key
component of success, but if you’re sitting there worrying
about the decimal points and the zeroes, you’re not going to
see how to help the company or see the potential benefits of
compliance. You have to think in terms of, “If we get this
process right, we’re going to be able to enter new markets,
and the price point for our products will be better because we
have a lower cost of goods. And we’ll be more competitive.”
QHow do you convince upper management that glob- al trade compliance is worth investing in?
AThere are dollars associated with global trade compli- ance. When you’re entering new markets, for example,
you have to have the proper licenses and authority to get
your products into the country. You have to understand the
total landed cost of a product before you commit to a particular market. And you need to understand the additional
days that will be added to your supply chain and cycle time
if you don’t have all your compliance ducks in a row.
Instead of talking about classification, licenses, and duties,
you can talk about bigger things, like money— for instance,
the cost of getting goods to market. It’s a matter of using the
right language and having access to executives or to corporate decision makers.
