Over the past few years big businesses and multinational corporations have emerged and have business presence in vast geographical locations in on the globe. Numerous businesses involved in consumer products and services, in particular financial and management services, have taken advantage of globalization and innovation in information technology to build huge business empires. China and the other emerging Asian ‘tiger’ economies present excellent business location for manufacturing based MNCs. The Middle East is taking the bunch of financial services multinational companies so as to facilitate trade between the East and the . Oil firms are investing in remote locations both on land and in sea as oil exploration leads the oil industry to such extreme locations. This massive globalization of business is not without its share of hurdles. Several factors such as political influences, government regulation, stiff competition, incoherent consumer behavior, different marketing strategies, differentiated human resource management strategies and culture are examples of few factors that affect international businesses. Exporting and importing has become central to any business however small it may be. Defining legislation and guidelines that will assist businesses in contracting for export and importing services is essential. A business that seeks to contract an exporting firm has to do through a tendering process. Tendering processes are some of the most defining concepts of businesses and may be abused through corruption. Thus having a clear tendering process is essential for nay transparent business.
A Typical Tendering Process
When a business is seeking to have an exporting partner, the first step is to identify the services that the business seeks. The information that a business is seeking an exporting partner is passed to the general public through a commonly accepted mode of communication. Most businesses have used the media, and in particular print media, to pass an advert for tender. A more recent mode of passing this information is in the company website.
The announcement for a tender, commonly referred to as ‘bid for tender’ is the most important of the process. This is due to the fact that the tender announcement carries the most of the details of the exporting contract. In the announcement, stipulation as to the requirement of the export must be express and direct. The announcement for tender should also identify the period for the export contract and the level of expertise required in the exporting business. Most clients also require that firms that will apply attach prove of tax compliance and other legal requirement such a licenses and insurance. Additionally, the announcement for tender should direct prospecting exporters as to where tender document can be found. Such tender document provides a state of consistency and equity.
Prospecting firms apply for the tender and wait for the closing date. In most nations, for the process to appear transparent, all applications are opened in presence of representatives of those applied. Here, the client firm explains what preferences they would be seeking and the pricing strategy preferred. The client firm also explains the formula that will be applied in determining the winner for the tender. Other policies such as health and safety, quality of service and insurance are defined.
The winning exporting firm is announced and this information is passed to the rest of the firms that participated. The tender contract is drafted out and all issues are expressly stipulated.
Works Cited
Ex-Im Bank . (2012). Export Credit Insurance. Retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://www.exim.gov/products/insurance/index.cfm:
The World Bank. (2011). Doing Business 2011. Washington : The World Bank Press.
