For Big Business, It's A Small World
What keeps a huge high-tech player like EMC Corp. up at night? You might guess competition from West-coast rival Hewlett-Packard Co., high-powered hackers or general economic malaise.
But there are some other, less-obvious concerns, detailed in the section of its annual report where the company is required to list risk factors. Uprisings in Egypt, where EMC has a research and development facility. Complications in converting U.S. dollars to bolivars, the currency of Venezuela, where it has a sales subsidiary. International employees or contractors who overlook official U.S. policy in favor of a local culture that accepts bribes as a cost of doing business.
For most large companies based in Central Massachusetts, doing business internationally is a given. For some, it’s pretty much the whole ball of wax.
American Superconductor does the majority of its business with a Chinese wind power company. It’s making an effort to diversify its customer base, but when CEO Greg Yurek talks about these efforts he doesn’t mention the U.S. — which now provides 13 percent of the company’s $316 million revenue — too much. Instead, he talks about South Korea, India and Australia.
Milford laboratory equipment company Waters Corp. already has a very balanced customer base, in which the U.S. provides about $500 million in revenues — slightly more than Europe but somewhat less than Asia.
Evergreen Solar has become a punching bag in the state for its decision to close its Devens plant in favor of production in China, even after accepting hefty subsidies from Massachusetts. But the other side of the equation is that the company doesn’t get much of its revenues from the U.S., either.
Mostly what Evergreen does, despite its Marlborough address, is make stuff in China to sell to Germany. About $204 million, or 62 percent of its revenues, come from German sources, compared with $50 million from the U.S.
Of course, some companies remain primarily domestic operations. Framingham-based discount retailer TJX Cos. Inc. gets a respectable 78 percent of its revenues, or $15.8 billion, from the U.S., though it says it’s growing its European operations.
Another major Central Mass.-based retailer, Staples Inc., also does a strong majority of its sales domestically, $16.5 billion out of a total of $24.5 billion. But Staples’ operations in Europe are also on the rise. Between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2010, its U.S. and Canadian revenues rose 22 percent and 27 percent respectively. Its European revenues grew 119 percent.
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