DEC and CIBER cooperation

Business America, March, 1996 by Raymond J. Brimble, Robert Green

The District Export Councils (DECs) of Texas and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin have developed a low-cost, high-impact partnership to maximize their export development programs. By developing similarly innovative and productive relationships, the 51 DECs and 27 CIBERs located nationwide may find an effective way to cope with increasingly reduced resources.

DECs and CIBERs share similar and complementary missions. DECs were created by the U.S. Department of Commerce to act as export "brain-trusts," leveraging the international trade expertise of more than 1,500 exporters and export service providers nationwide to support local exporters. CIBERS were created by the U.S. Department of Education to develop academic expertise in international business: participating universities and colleges share their resources with the communities they serve, while the private sector's "real world" experience helps internationalize academic curricula.

Several years ago, the Texas DECs and CIBER/UT began to pool their resources by sending speakers to each other's conferences and acting as sounding boards for each other's programs. DEC programs benefited from the vast human and informational resources university programs brought to events. CIBERs benefited from the private sector's feedback on academic programs as well as business speakers for academic forums.

In the past year, the Texas DECs and CIBER/UT have expanded their cooperation in new and even more fruitful directions. In June 1995, CIBER/UT and the Camino Real District Export Council hosted the first-ever statewide DEC roundtable in Austin. DEC members from all over Texas convened to discuss issues of regional importance and develop solutions to implement at a state level. CIBER/UT served as a central facility, an "honest broker" and an informational source in providing several speakers on topics of importance to international traders. In exchange, the Texas DECs benefited CIBER/UT by bringing 60 private and public sector globalists to campus to interact with faculty, staff, and students.

In 1996, the trend continues with at least two cooperative events. In February, CIBER/UT hosted the Business and International Education National Conference in Laredo, Tex., bringing together educators from all over the states to discuss internationalizing their programs and curriculum. The Texas DECs provided several speakers for the conference to talk about "Market Entry Strategies in Mexico." These talks helped give educators a private sector view of the Mexican market. Later this year, CIBER/UT and the DECs are jointly sponsoring a series of town hall meetings around the state to discuss regional international trade issues. The results of the meetings will be used to make recommendations for specific legislation on international trade to the Texas Legislature in 1997. As a measure of the strength of DEC/CIBER cooperation, the Texas DECs and CIBER/UT were jointly invited to undertake this mission by Senator Carlos Truan, the Dean of the Texas Senate. Furthermore, this joint effort enjoys the full cooperation of the Texas Senate Committee on International Trade and Technology.

Because of Texas' success, DECs and CIBERs throughout the country are urged to seek each other out for cooperative ventures to further both the trade development and educational mandates of each organization. For more information on DECs, contact Nathanael Herman of the U.S. Commercial Service at tel. (202) 482-5956. To find out about the nearest CIBER, visit the CIBER Website at http://www.2.mgmt.purdue.edu/centers/ ciber/Ciblist.htm or call tel. (317) 494-4463.