News

ITA trots globe for local trade-Many businesses don’t know about trade group

The world has surely expanded for a former accountant from Moses Lake. Now, Roberta Brooke works to convince Eastern Washington businesses there are customers for them out in that world.

Bert Caldwell
The Spokesman-Review

The executive director of the International Trade Alliance says she wants to raise the profile of the small office. An annual compilation of area companies that import or export goods and services, while indicating significant growth, also shows many are unaware ITA exists, or what resources are available to help get businesses started overseas.

"I feel like we could do a lot more," says Brooke, a determined advocate for trade.

She speaks frequently with community groups. Last month, she started doing a weekly show on KSBN radio featuring interviews with business leaders already doing significant global business. Guests have included Craig Johnson of Wagstaff Engineering and Matt Ewers of Inland Empire Distribution Systems.

ITA also conducts classes monthly on aspects of international business, but finds the same companies send representatives. Rockey Hill & Knowlton has been hired to help determine how the alliance can reach a broader constituency.

Brooke’s appreciation for international business came circuitously.

An Ellensburg native married to a Columbia Basin potato grower, she moved to Spokane from Moses Lake in 1982, when Bob Hamacher recruited her to be business manager for then-new KAYU-TV. The next stop was Boston, where for three years starting in 1988 she was the director of financial affairs for the World (Christian Science) Monitor Nightly News. Her responsibilities not only took her to Washington, D.C., but to London and Tokyo as well.

"It was just a spectacular job," Brooke says. "I’ll never make that kind of money again."

Or deal with the ceaseless aggravation of coping with Boston’s notorious traffic, and seeming indifference of everyone from the counter people at McDonald’s on up.

"There was no networking, no friends," she says. "The first thing I did when I got back here was talk to the grocery clerk."

And, for several years, focus on raising her daughter while working out of her home. Enrollment in the Master’s of International Management program at Whitworth College and an internship with the U.S. Department of Commerce brought her to the ITA in August 2000.

There are only three people in the ITA office on the second floor of the Spokane Regional Business Center downtown. They operate with a budget of less than $200,000 — which is threatened by state budget cutbacks — but they have a mighty reach thanks to links with Commerce Department representatives in U.S. embassies all over the world, and five foreign offices operated by the Washington Department of Trade and Economic Development.

"We’re the information clearinghouse," Brooke says. "We know exactly who to go to.

"We act as mentors."

Too often, she says, business owners look at the globe and despair because they do not know where to start. It’s best to open a pipeline to one country, then branch out, she says.

American-made goods have excellent reputations for quality, warranty and service, Brooke says, but selling overseas requires diligent relationship-building. Embassies help by setting up introductions, transportation and translators.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke has been very effective at opening doors on trade missions he has led to China, South Korea and Japan, she says.

"So many small businesses have great products, but they don’t think they have the resources," Brooke says. "I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in this region for exports."

Brooke says exporting will become imperative for all businesses, but the payoff goes beyond the financial.

Doing business in a foreign country opens individuals up to a culture far more than passage as a tourist, she says.

"The human impact is inevitable," Brooke says. "It’s just such a good thing."

•Business columnist Bert Caldwell can be reached at (509) 459-5450 or by e-mail at [email protected]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=052903&ID=s1357889&cat=section.business

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.