The team at Tsaks Consulting Greece has been helping Greek companies expand internationally and secure international contracts for many years. We leverage on our global footprint and local teams to help identify tender opportunities, develop proposals to foreign governments and private corporations and help you secure contracts.
The key steps and tips for Greek companies to expand internationally are provided below:
Identify Tender Opportunities
It’s important to take a global perspective to identifying tender opportunities for Greek companies, particularly, for highly specialized companies. You can do this by monitoring global tender opportunities, signing up to global tender identification and notification services and signing up directly to national tender notification services in each country. For example, let’s assume you are a Greek construction company with a specialization in constructing dams. If you only focus on one country, let’s say the UAE, or one region, you may miss out on an opportunity it another. The idea is to take a global perspective and play to your strengths and specialization.
Set Up Partnerships with Local Companies
When expanding internationally, it’s important to have an appreciation of the local regulatory environment and laws. Many countries have laws and release contracts with a strong focus on local companies. They want to award contracts to local companies, and certify that a specific percentage of the content of the contract is awarded locally and carried out by local workers. In some countries, for example Singapore, it is critical that you partner with a local partner in order to secure government contracts.
Greek companies are great at developing relationships and in a tender environment this also needs to occur rapidly. There may be an EOI released for the construction of a major solar farm, and there may be a regulation in place whereby 90% of the installers are locals citizens. You will need to price the tender, develop the relevant documentation and put together a local team. It’s worth rapidly identifying and developing an agreement with a local partner in order to overcome the local requirement and submit a compelling proposal.
Project managing your response
Putting together a major bid is often a complex task. The process becomes even more complicated when you are submitting a tender in another country. We generally recommend setting up a small local capability from the start, for everything from translation through to printing and binding if it doesn’t require an online upload.
Furthermore, a local representative is useful for communicating with government, putting forward any clarifications, and communicating with local joint venture partners.
It’s equally important to allow time for translation of the respective documentation and submission. This is generally easy to do for the main submission document, however, it is important to translate the supporting documentation if possible, and that is what takes time. It is also an expensive process so it’s a great idea to set up a local team that can complete this task cost effectively.
Focus on Local Benefits in your bid
Greek companies are proud of their legacy and origin in Greece, however, for the purposes of submitting a tender response internationally, it’s important to focus on the benefits to the local economy, local environment and social benefits. You need to convince the local government that the downstream economic and social benefits will flow through to the local community.
Let’s use the example of a defence technologies company proposing to undertake a ship-building program for the Australian government. You may put forward the argument that the research and development component of the project will be completed by your team based in Athens, and that the actual shipbuilding and construction will be completed in Australia. Focusing on the fact that the majority of the works will be completed in Australia, and the specialist expertise and knowledge your personnel have in Athens will be leveraged upon, you will reassure the reader that your Athens, Greece based team will only be utilised for its specialist expertise.
In addition, in order to strengthen your argument, you can arrange for a training program to be completed by three local Australian citizens, to further develop the specialized skillset of Australians and enable knowledge transfer for future projects. This doesn’t mean transferring all of your IP, but rather, providing work experience to local Australians and enhancing relationships in the future.
How we can help
Our team can help Greek businesses:
- Identify international contract opportunities.
- Identify and communicate with local partners.
- Prepare and write your EOI, Tender or Bid response.
- Translate from Greek to English.
- Project manage your response.
- Conduct competitor and other analysis in foreign markets.
- Study and interpret legislative requirements.
We leverage on our global footprint with offices in Australia, Greece, UK, NZ and partner offices in Singapore to deliver Greek companies global tender and bid writing solutions.