“Information as a business strategy is key in this crisis, and we are working on it”

Interview with Arturo Bernal, CEO of Extenda

Exporting is a decision that encompasses all elements of the company: it restructures the company, consolidates it, makes it larger, more powerful in its operations and that makes the internationalization process a guarantee for the company in the future.

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2019 In September, Arturo bernal acquires the position of CEO of Extenda after spending nine years as Director of Tourism and Planning Costa del Sol. It came at a very good time for him. foreign trade sector en Andalucía, but in less than a year they have encountered a rather unusual situation, the Covid-19 health crisis which, although very positive, has forced them to transform.

 

He joined Extenda in September 2019 as CEO, after holding the position of general director of Tourism and Planning Costa del Sol. How have you experienced this change and what is your assessment of this period at the head of the Andalusian Foreign Promotion Agency?

 

It has been an important change. Although the matter is also business promotion in a strategic area for Andalucía what tourism is like and that, for some years, specifically more than fifteen that I have been in the sector, has made me understand the importance of a sector like tourism. in the business ecosystem that it represents for Andalusia.

 

I think that the beginning has been complicated because at the end of last year, at the end of year 19, and we have practically found ourselves this year with the crisis due to coronavirus and it has meant a total transformation of everything we were doing in Extend, but I am very satisfied that the team has known not only how to adapt but in many cases anticipate, and that shows the capacity of this team and the commitment to a project that is not a project of the Junta of Andalusia, but of all of Andalusia and all the companies that make up that business strategy for export.

 

The expansion of Covid-19 globally is deeply impacting the world economy. How is this crisis affecting the foreign sector of Andalusia?

 

Obviously the figures are not good in any aspect. Until the month of February, let's say that we had a good evolution with growth even compared to the previous year, especially in some sectors of our economy such as Food and Beverages, and the turning point began to be noticed in the month of March since we were having a growth of 3,8% and we have had a drop of 8%. In any case, always much better than the estimate that the World Trade Organization regarding international freight traffic that placed the best scenario in the loss of 13% and the worst in the loss of 32% of the exports. Our most pessimistic estimates, prepared by our Extenda Business Intelligence department It was a drop of 18% and the best around 12%-13% and precisely, in the month of March, this inflection has led us to a 12,5% ​​loss compared to the same period of the previous year. I understand that this crisis situation is also a situation of opportunity and in that sense we are also adapting at Extenda.

 

 

The foreign sector was one of the fundamental drivers of recovery from the 2008 crisis. What role do you think it will play this time?

 

Without a doubt, we are playing a fundamental role. The exporting It is not just a decision International Trade. It is not just a decision to be able to sell outside the natural market, which is the nearby market. It is a decision that encompasses all the elements of the company: it restructures the company, consolidates it, makes it larger, more powerful in its operations... and that makes the internationalization process be a guarantee for the company in the future. For this reason, in 2008, when companies saw that their national market was suffering, by going abroad, they not only reached new markets, but they were better sized and structured. They learned about new tools and new business techniques, they improved their business plans and that meant that companies, now in this crisis, were much more prepared than they were in the worst crisis we had ever known, that of Lehman Brothers. On this occasion, I understand that the effect is going to be less than what we expect from those predicted by large supranational institutions.

 

Companies have reacted very positively to this crisis situation since they are looking for elements of differentiation, elements of new markets and, above all, information. What we are offering is relevant, first-hand information, serving the opportunity markets where they can move not only those they already had, so that the markets where they already were, we offer product repositioning but also the possibility of accessing new markets based on what their competencies and product positioning are. This duality of actions is what we are currently promoting with companies in Extenda.

 

To understand the exporting In the Andalusian business ecosystem, in 2008, the exports of Andalusian companies did not exceed 15 billion euros. After the crisis, in 2019 we have exceeded 32 billion euros. A 120% increase. We were the sixth community in Spain in exports and now we occupy second place, the exporting companies by 54% and regular exporters went from 3.800 to 5.800, a 46% increase. The Capabilities It was a strategic solution for companies at that time and I believe that on this occasion it will be so again.

 

Will the Covid-19 crisis force the foreign sector to redefine its strategies?

 

All companies, both public and private, pursue stability. It seems that if there is no stability nothing can be built. I believe that this crisis and the previous one and all those that come from now on, because the crises are becoming more frequent and deeper, are going to affect us more quickly. The new scenario is not called stability, the new scenario is crisis and the aspiration for stability is childish. Therefore, if the new rules are the crisis, crisis situations must be managed. And for that we have to build a new business strategy not based on stability but based on crisis management. And this strategy requires information, which is the key element and on which we are working decisively. Information, intelligence, anticipation... do not reactivate. We want to be leaders in exports since we are the second exporting community in this country and we have to know how to manage crises. Companies have to work in this dimension and the most important thing is to have as a key element the international vision. The nearby market does not have to be the most profitable. With the crisis it has been noticed that the part that has recovered later has been sales to the national market since due to the crisis the recovery is slower. However there is already international markets that begin to emerge as China with growth rates of up to 86% in some sectors such as meat.

 

I think the areas of opportunity are outside the near market even right now they are outside the European Union. For us it is 65% of our foreign market and that means that we have too many eggs in the same basket. We have to relativize that figure and expand our export markets en America, North and Southry of course in the area Asia and in particular, Pacific Asia.

 

How is Extenda articulating its support for Andalusian companies abroad?

 

We have contacted the companies and this may seem trivial, but we must contact the companies. The first information has to come to us from the companies. We have tried to know the depth of the impact of the crisis on each of them and to know what their plans are now and based on that to build a new strategy that we have included in our plan for the day after. We have basically worked on information and relevant information based on a criterion of business intelligence, market intelligence... We have been working on this for a few months and what the crisis has done has been to accelerate this entire procedure to now have available of the companies and also of the Extenda organization itself.

 

We have transformed internally and externally all our operations processes to really continue doing the same thing we did, and that means transforming an action plan of more than 1000 actions per year so that they can be undertaken through a virtual channel. Except the ferias that involved movement and physical assistance to a closed environment, the rest of the actions are being transformed to be addressed in the virtual channel.

 

We have carried out twenty webinars with our opportunity markets led by our Outdoor Network which has 38 offices around the world to cover 55 countries, and these webinars unite the company with our Foreign Network in terms of knowing what the market and business opportunities are for each of the leading sectors in Andalusia in those areas. in the world, with a very special focus on the area of Pacific Asia which is having the best increases along with China e India, but also Australia or the surrounding countries, showing that indeed what we said before the crisis has now accelerated.

 

Because if this crisis has caused anything, it has been a celebration in terms of the trends that have been observed not only in the centers of the countries that are having the best increases and the best developments, but also in those policies that in some way implied a paralysis of the open commercial trend. That is why it is important to have relevant information to act proactively, anticipate changes to obtain a position of competitive advantage in the market and that is what we want to provoke with this business intelligence strategy that we are putting in the hands of companies.

 

And not only from a quantitative point of view, that is, through large dashboards and observatories such as the COVID-19 Observatory we have a great export opportunities map. A map that is updated every day in which all the possibilities and all the evolution of the pandemic in the different countries are agreed upon. If the borders are open or closed, if it is possible to market or establish ourselves in the horeca channel that is so important to us... If not, we also have qualitative information that our Foreign Network offers us and of course the professional team that makes up this house in Andalusia. 

 

When you experience a crisis of this dimension, it is when you realize the capacity and quality of the team around you. Andalusian companies can be proud of Extenda and the commitment of their professionals because Extenda will be at their side in their internationalization process.