Full Circle expands into India
Our business in India is in the relatively early stages but is already beginning to blossom. It is based on a strategic alliance with a management consultancy practice - Continex - which is based in Chennai, Southern India.
The strategic alliance with Continex came as a result of an Invest NI trade mission that I participated on back in April 2011. As well as winning our first contract in Sri Lanka during the mission, we signed a reciprocal agreement with Continex during the same visit to Asia.
The whole aim of the strategic alliance is to promote and facilitate reciprocal trading linkages between UK / European companies and Indian companies. Up until a few years ago, India was widely seen principally as an attractive source of low cost raw materials and components. Given the 10% per annum GDP growth that India continues to enjoy, however, this market is opening up as a major target market for NI exporters. Several of our leading engineering companies, including Terex Finlay, Anaconda Equipment International and CDE are already established there to tap into Asian business development opportunities. There are also a growing number of tradable services businesses in NI who are actively targeting business opportunities on the Indian subcontinent. Belfast-based architects Hall Black Douglas, for example, recently secured a contract to design the food hall at the Oberoi Shopping Mall in Mumbai.
What really struck me when I was there was the explosion in demand from Indian companies for Western expertise in specific areas. Under its current 5 year growth plan, the Indian government is investing massively into upgrading the infrastructure of a country whose population is 1.2 billion people or 15% of the world’s total population. There are therefore a multitude of expertise in key sectors such as construction, recycling and renewable technologies. Consequently, opportunities for NI companies who have real expertise in these sectors are immense.
The opposite side of the same coin is that Indian companies are now increasingly seeking to secure a foothold in the EU markets – not just in UK but in mainland European markets such as Germany, Netherlands and France.
For the most part, Indian business people speak excellent English and many will have lived, studied and worked in UK before returning to India. They also tend to be extremely knowledgeable about what is going on in this part of the world – at various meetings in India during the trip there is April, I found myself answering questions about everything from the future of the Euro Zone to the performance of the Irish cricket team at the Cricket World Cup!
All of this makes India a much easier market to do business in than many other parts of the world. Another big attraction is that we found it relatively easy to gain access to the key decision makers. I was able, for example to pitch for business with the most senior executives in one of India’s biggest corporations. And we are now in advanced negotiations with this corporation about a project in Europe. Not bad for a company which employs just 12 people and had no profile whatsoever in India before the Invest NI mission!
All of this work that we are doing in conjunction with Continex in India is an extension of the work we’ve been doing for many years in assisting clients to gear up to identify and exploit business opportunities outside Northern Ireland. Key areas of our focus typically include assessing a company’s readiness to export, selecting the most appropriate export market[s], identifying key prospects through export market research to actually preparing the client to go and meet with prospective customers in his / her priority export market.
Our venture into India therefore has a long way to go but I am returning there in November and really believe that there is massive potential – not just for Full Circle but for many Northern Ireland companies there …if they are prepared to commit resources to exploiting this potential.
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The Full Circle Group is one of Northern Ireland’s fastest-growing management consultancy practices. In essence, our role is to support our corporate clients to make tangible positive change that will yield better results and enhanced profitability.
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“What Full Circle brings to the table is not just knowledge and business solutions, but something which is most important and that is their understanding their client's businesses so well and their ability of being responsible. Sometimes one feels they are just an extension of your own team, the good experience is not just in getting the job done, but also in sharing the rapport with their team like your own.”
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“Chesapeake used Full Circle to train and obtain feedback on our Junior sales people who are a key daily linkage to our customers. The whole training experience was very positive for them and they learnt a lot about themselves and how to prepare and manage a positive productive relationship with customers.”
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“Full Circle has carried out work for a number of companies in our group . Normally we would not use consultants however I have found Full Circle to be very professional and to be switched on to what a client actually needs.”
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“Designco worked with Full Circle in 2011 and found this to be of great benefit to our company. Full Circles work with us was very action orientated and produced immediate benefits in terms of allowing us direct access to sales opportunities with potential clients. We would have no hesitation in recommending Full Circle.”
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“We at InterTradeIreland Acumen have used Full Circle to deliver a range of services for our client companies. Full Circle is a very talented and driven organization that delivers effectively on each assignment. We also admire the inventiveness and innovative solutions that Full Circle is capable of delivering.”
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“I worked with Full Circle on a number of programmes to help me devise my sales and marketing strategy. As a sole trader, sometimes it is hard to see your business from the outside in. With the help of the staff in Full Circle, I was able to identify the gaps in my strategy and this enabled me to be much more focused on where I wanted to take my business.”
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“We recently completed a Sales Growth Programme through Newtownabbey Borough Council & Full Circle Management Solutions. We found the course to be of great value to the company from both a corporate and personal growth perspective.”
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“We have commissioned Full Circle to deliver a number of projects, most notably to develop a strategic plan for ISD. This was a crucial management tool at a time of high growth for us and served as a practical road-map for us as we sought to really differentiate ourselves from other comparable companies.”
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“We recently worked with Full Circle. We found the experience very good and with the help of Full Circle we were able to improve our sales skills and produce a structured approach to sales and with a positive end result of more business! Full Circle were very flexible and offered mentoring times to suit our business needs and also presented valuable advice on ways to improve our business.”
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“Full Circle has provided Cabragh Engineering with valuable research information for tapping into new export markets and in particular establishing direct contact with potential new customers. We utilised the advice and research from Full Circle to create new market opportunities and sales in particular which over the last two year period has led to 70% of all sales taking place mainly in Europe and African Nations. The role of Full Circle provided Cabragh Engineering with expertise and knowledge which due to our limited resources as an SME company was invaluable to developing new export markets.”
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“Eurotrack Inc is a US company which is in the process of setting up a manufacturing operation in Northern Ireland. We engaged the services and expertise of Full Circle to develop a really practical business plan for this new venture. The guys in Full Circle challenged our thinking at every turn and really caused us to think through the practicalities of what we aim to achieve and how we will achieve it. A very positive and useful experience!”