International Trade Network with Chris Walker

Chris Walker is CEO and Director of Diamond Hard Surfaces Ltd, a high-growth SME in the Advanced Engineering Sector producing innovative patented coating materials and thermal management products. The business was established in 2005 and currently exports 60-80% of its turnover to 22 countries worldwide. Chris is an entrepreneur, Chartered Marketer, and Engineer who has specialised knowledge in establishing relationships between blue-chip companies and early-stage technology businesses to exploit new innovations, and markets. He has a broad knowledge of general management in an international environment. He is also a co-founder of SIITACE and Chair of FSB’s (Federation of Small Businesses) International Trade Policy Unit working to forge new policies to encourage and promote International Trade. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you have an international trade network, the entire international trade process can be made more efficient. This is because the people in this system are not only exporters or suppliers but also the people that will be doing business with them like international trade advisors and translators. Having access to this kind of network can make all aspects much easier when expanding into new markets. BEST MOMENTS “FSB has chairs of policy units, which basically follow each step, each government department so in this case, he wanted me to work with the Department of International Trade and to shadow them and to collaborate with them and to influence and leverage the information and needs of the members of which 160,000 small business members in the UK to influence government policy about how to support international trade.” “One of the challenges is finding the right resource to be able to support you in understanding what the export journey should and could look like and facilitating the vast amount of paperwork and procedures and processes which are required to be able to develop an international business plan. And that's the key really is having an international business plan within your general business plan.” “We have to value what these international trade experts do, whether it's in translation, whether it's in business development, whether it's in customs, whatever, and we have to try and forge it, forge a difference and at least very least get the international trade network to work together with these independent people more effectively.” “It's just humanities like that, that you have to take into account that consideration that different customs, they're slightly different nuances, as you mentioned.” ABOUT THE HOST Levent Yildizgoren, the author of 'Good Business in any Language', is an award-winning entrepreneur, localisation professional, and a PRINCE2 qualified project manager. CONTACT METHOD Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/leventyildizgoren/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yildizgoren IG: https://www.instagram.com/levent.yildizgoren/ ABOUT THE GUEST Chris Walker is CEO and Director of Diamond Hard Surfaces Ltd and Chair of FSB’s (Federation of Small Businesses) International Trade Policy Unit. CONTACT METHOD https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswalker/ https://www.diamondhardsurfaces.com/ VALUABLE RESOURCES Do you have any questions about translation, localization, or international growth? Visit TTC website: https://ttcwetranslate.com/ Take your business global with the 5-step LINGO modal! Purchase 'Good Business in any Language' on Amazon now: https://cutt.ly/2ORR