By Staff Sgt. Tony M. Lindback
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Iraqi businesses put their capabilities on display at the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, Feb. 15-17, for a three-day exposition.
The first-ever Baghdad Business to Business Expo enabled business owners and managers to show other companies what they have to offer.
"This is the first time in Iraq's history they've actually had to market their wares and get people to look at it," said Maj. Robert Bertrand, civil affairs planner for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). "Getting out, marketing and selling something rather than being directed to produce is a big change for them."
Two Mahmudiyah-based companies in particular are now adapting to a free-market economy.
The Ready Made Clothes Company and the National Metallic and Bicycle Company are privately and state-owned companies that previously only produced goods for the government. With help from the State Department's embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mahmudiyah and the Rakkasan Soldiers, the businesses have expanded their lines of products and are trying to increase their clientele. The expo gave both companies an opportunity to do just that.
"If there's a restaurant and the restaurant needs uniforms, (they) have the ready-made clothing factory that operates in Mahmudiyah," Bertrand said. "They now know they can go there and have their shirts made. Or, if they need a table made, (they) have the national metallic bicycle factory that fabricates metal products."
John Stafford, a business expert with the ePRT in Mahmudiyah, is helping companies learn how to push products and other aspects of a free-market business. By maintaining close contact with the businesses, pushing them to broaden their horizons and working as their marketing officer, Stafford has given the clothing and metal-working companies a real chance for success, said Louis Lantner, ePRT team leader.
"Most companies (at the expo) and most companies in Iraq don't understand the concept or the need of a marketing officer," Lantner said.
Lantner said marketing is key to the success of even America's best-known brands. Though the brands may already be household names, those companies continue to spend enormous sums on marketing, something Iraqi companies had not yet grasped.
Allowing the companies to market their goods at the expo was a marker of success for the ePRT and Rakkasans who have worked hard to get the companies going. Not only was it proof that lessons of how to operate a company in a free market were working, it was also a triumph to have those businesses producing again and employing locals.
Area businesses' doors had been closed due to a lack of security in the Mahmudiyah qada, but now security has improved. With attacks down significantly, people are returning to work. As jobs are restored and businesses expand, the hope is for the Iraqis to achieve economic stability in the qada.