Global Entrepreneurship: December 2004 Archives

The international marketplace has a new danger for small businesses to be aware of as reported in this story about AbroIndustries (a small seller of glues, tapes and epoxies that employs 24) in StartupJournal.

"Abro's two-year fight with Hunan Magic Power Industrial Co. (a Chinese Company) marks a new twist in the annals of international trademark piracy. Hunan Magic isn't just knocking off a few of Abro's products. It's acting as though it is AbroIndustries. 'This is attempted identity theft at a corporate level.'"

Fighting the bad guys in this case does not come easy--or cheap.

"AbroIndustries...has hired dozens of lawyers and investigators, sued Hunan Magic, and gotten raids conducted in the United Arab Emirates and other countries, at a cost to Abro so far this year of more than $600,000...."

And the battle will not end if they prevail against Hunan Magic. There is now a South American company gearing up operations to produce and market fake Abro products.

Opportunities seem everywhere when looking at global markets. Technologies, products and services can be introduced into markets that are hungry for such offerings. However, Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge offers a story that highlights the risks of business formation in developing countries.

"When Liberia-born Monique Maddy (HBS MBA '93) started Adesemi to offer users throughout Africa a wireless system of pagers and public pay phones, she believed that tremendous pent-up demand would launch her company to success. But in fact, the company eventually had to be liquidated, a casualty not only of internal miscalculations but also of the bureaucracy, corruption, and environmental factors faced by start-ups in Africa and other developing countries."

This article offers a candid Q&A about this would-be global entrepreneur's perilous journey.

Thanks to my colleague Howard Cochran for passing this story along.