Description of the employee and the function in the Chambers of Commerce

Nowadays most small and medium-sized enterprises are no longer relying on the internal market and are focusing on expanding their businesses abroad. The emergence of open borders, the Schengen area, normalised laws and regulations of international trade and goods exchanged by the European Union have made the exporting of goods and services much easier for SME companies than a few years ago. The expansion of these companies also increased when countries opened their own international trade institutions as a dedicated supporter of small and medium-sized enterprises together with the organisations established by the EU for connecting European companies in every country. Nevertheless, the majority of these companies still depend on their local organisations and institutions when looking for help with their foreign expansion, especially when it comes to commencing export activities. The main place where entrepreneurs look for help and initial advice about exporting goods and services are the chambers of commerce and industrial chambers of commerce, depending on their specialisation. Here we must note that in every European country we can distinguish between two different approaches to chambers of commerce:

• Mandatory affiliation
• Optional affiliation

These two approaches also cause the variation in support for entrepreneurs. Compulsory chambers are usually in a better financial position than those which are not obligatory, which results in varying degrees of access to services for companies from the SME sector. That is why this project proposes the concept of the “Internationalisation Service Officer” function common to all chambers of commerce and industry.

The Internationalisation Service Officer is proposed to be created for two purposes. Firstly, in the unification of services for SME’s from the area of international expansion and the creation of a network of experts who will be able to establish cross border cooperation and specialised chambers of commerce and industry together with other business support institutions. Secondly, to build expert staff consisting of employees of the chambers of commerce who take care of SME’s on a daily basis. This suggested function will allow employees to create specialised units relating to foreign expansion and become the first line of support for enterprises wanting to take their first steps in international activity.

The creation of this first line support given by experts will make national institutions’ workload lighter and enable them to focus on the international expansion of the bigger companies. Furthermore, the experts will help intensify the activities of small and medium companies in this area by providing basic knowledge related to Internationalisation and support in the first steps towards internationalisation. The specialist will also play a significant role in creating and maintaining international relations with the foreign institutions and chambers of commerce and industry and will allow them to undertake wider international activities in the service of enterprises.

To ensure that the person performing the role of ‘Internationalisation Service Officer’ fulfils his or her duties as best as possible and that the quality of his or her work is of a high standard, we anticipate that this expert should meet the following qualifications: a university degree (master’s or bachelor’s) in such fields as: law, economics, management, international relations or political science. His/her professional experience should cover a minimum of two years of experience in cooperating with/serving companies from the SME sector, English at a minimum of a B2 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference. Also, the IS Officer must have knowledge of the domestic and foreign environment of institutions responsible for supporting SME’s in the expansion on the foreign markets. Additional requirements to be met by the candidates are:

• Work experience in the field of international cooperation of an enterprise
• Knowledge of a second language
• Ability to edit letters
• Ability to work in a team
• Ability to work under time pressure and stress
• High level communication skills
• Experience in customer service
• Willingness to travel abroad
• Ability to conduct correspondence in English and an additional language
• Good computer skills, including MS Office

These additional requirements will enrich the candidate’s profile and benefit the organisational unit wanting to employ the “ISO”, therefore we suggest that institutions pay attention to these during the process of choosing the candidate.

We also suggest that chambers of commerce and industry and business support institutions give priority to their employees to become the “Internationalisation Service Officer”. In our opinion, this will increase the competitiveness of the institutions and make it easier to align the new function to the organisational structure of the institutions. We also assume that this will motivate the employee, encouraging him/her to develop and deepen his/her knowledge in new areas for which he/she will be responsible. As an information extension to the academic knowledge, the “Internationalisation Service Officer” should use available materials about foreign markets widely published by the trade organisations, embassies, national chambers of commerce and domestic institutions involved in foreign trade. Relevant examples of the sources of information are outlined below:

• Research on selected foreign markets
• Guides relating to the expansion of SMEs into foreign markets
• Research on the marketing and sales specifics of a selected market
• Reports relating to customs rules in trade of goods in a selected country
• Research relating to the presentation of the market structure of the selected country
• Reports on the investment attractiveness of the selected region and country
• Statistical yearbooks of the selected country
• Economic forecasts for the selected region and country
• Studies published by bilateral chambers of commerce relating to the selected country
• Studies relating to the banking system and banking regulations of the selected country
• Guides and studies relating to cultural differences prevailing in the selected country

The establishment of a new structure of organisation in the chambers of commerce and industry or business support entities will be the first step towards a new specialisation in international cooperation and the authentication of its activities.

To make the best use of the new function and the employee delegated to fulfil the tasks, we suggest that the chambers of commerce and industry or business support organisations which do not have an international relations department, should create one and the institutions which already have that unit should include the employee in its structure. The tasks and responsibilities planned for the IS Officer which are mentioned in the rest of this chapter have been designed for the “international cooperation department” however, if the organisation is not able to implement the foreign unit in their structure, they must align it within their current departments. The organisation must give the employee the freedom to build/continue the international cooperation without any obstacles.