I learned a great many things throughout this wonderful study abroad over the past month. These are some of my major observations, although it is hard to limit this to just these.
In Europe as a whole, there is a high cost of energy. Europe is very focused on energy conservation, and most places we visited used air dryers instead of paper towels in public settings and bathrooms. Additionally, to join/conduct business in the market you wish to operate, there are many barriers to doing so ? you must speak the language of the native tongue where you are planning to operate. Many buyers in the European market are not on social networks. This creates a problem when you need to approach buyers to conduct business. Lastly, in the current market, with the cost of distribution being so high, you need to stay in the market you are planning on doing business in for a long time.
We visited Lloyd?s of London, and I learned a lot about insurance and how it is conducted in the United Kingdom and all over the world. Lloyd?s is a building? it is not a company. Lloyd?s of London is the insurance institution inside the building itself. There are two types of people that work in Lloyd?s of London: underwriters and brokers. Lloyd?s of London has a worldwide presence and for every 10 years of business, there will be seven profitable years and three years with a loss. Approximately 93% of all Dow Jones companies have insurance through Lloyd?s of London. In fact, 53% of all business conducted through Lloyd?s of London comes from the United States. There are many things that are different about doing business abroad, but many of the core values stay the same. Business is truly an international language.
