Export Excellence Program
Export Excellence is a program organized by the Idaho District Export Council. Companies who have unique and innovative products with the potential to sell well internationally are recruited into this program. These companies are usually small to medium sized who have limited experience exporting.
Each company is partnered with an exporting coach, usually a seasoned professional from the international business community in Idaho, as well as a BSU intern. Groups work to identify ideal target markets, market size and potential, competition, cultural nuances which may effect business, potential trade barriers, and risks. The companies have many resources at their disposal, including the US Commercial Service, Idaho Department of Commerce, Idaho Department of Agriculture, Boise State University, International Lawyers, International Bankers, Freight Forwarders, etc. With this plethora of resources they are able to create a viable plan to start exporting.
Interns
Export Excellence started using interns for the first time in 2010, since then they have been astonished by the knowledge and skill that these interns, and how much they have contributed to the companies’ success. The interns in turn have gained invaluable experience which will be an asset to them in their future career plans. Upon graduation, these students will enter the job market with valuable exporting experience, solid references, and a wealth of business contacts in their desired career field.
Each year the program has grown and improved, and we hope to increase the number of BSU students applying for this internship in the upcoming year.
Companies that have participated in this program include: PRECO, Scentsy, PCS Edventures, Sloan Securities, Treasure Valley Food Group, Rekluse Motor Sports, In the Ditch, Premier Technologies, Wear Ease, Bully Dog Accessories.
The program is held every Fall, from August to November, all International Business students will be informed of the application deadline and requirements via email. We strongly encourage all students to apply, other majors are also accepted, we prefer a large applicant pool so that we may better match up students to companies. Intercultural or language skills are an asset to all applicants.
For companies that are interested, please email intbus@boisestat.edu for details on the program.
Below are photos from past sessions.
Export Excellence 2011 Interns: Leo Raya, Denisse Taylor, Geoff Moore, Jeff Sayer [director of the Idaho Department of Commerce], Vera Zdravkova, Blanca Morales, Hilary Dovey, David Christensen [BSU professor and IDEC member], and Emin Bayramov.
Testimonials
“Thank you to all the people who made it possible and volunteered their time to hold the Idaho Export Excellence Program. This training not only opened our eyes to what we didn’t know that we didn’t know, it caused us to build a long-term export plan for Rekluse. The expertise and genuine support we received during this program is truly remarkable. The resources we had available to us in exporting have exploded! We covered everything from shipping logistics, market research, translation, export regulations, trademarks, legal distribution contracts, cultural training, domain names, distribution methods, free trade agreements, credit insurance, currency, zone pricing, distributor training methods, and more. Sounds overwhelming doesn’t it? This was an invaluable experience and we couldn’t have done it without our Boise State University intern and supporting professors, the US Commercial Service personnel, Idaho Department of Commerce and the private companies that volunteered their staff to coach the program.”
Joe DeGano
Sales and Marketing Manager at Rekluse
( 2011 Export Excellence winner)
“Dennise Taylor [intern] was quick to learn about our business, intently heard our exporting needs and struggles, and asked all the right questions. She studied different Latin America countries and summarized all costs associated with a successful market entry, from tariffs to labels requirements. Together we focused on the country of El Salvador and she helped us create an exporting plan. Denisse not only has the intangibles an exporting company would look for but in the end Dennise found an alternative freight forwarder that will save our company an average of $1200 USD per shipment.”
Emmanuel Navarro
Director of Latin America Sales and Logistics at Treasure Valley Food Group
Export Excellence consists of three all-day sessions were the companies are prepped and introduced to the world of exporting. The diagram below shows the flow of the program.
