About Roxanne Baumann | International Business Executive

People often ask how I got into international business.
The answer is simple: I didn't plan it.
I planned to be a French teacher.
Growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, I learned business through my family's small business—customer service, accounting, operations, and, above all, the importance of taking care of customers. I didn't know it at the time, but those lessons would become the foundation of my business philosophy.
After earning my degree in French and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, I spent a summer searching for a teaching position while providing translation support to Fox Tractor, a division of Koehring Crane & Excavator.
At the end of the summer, my résumé found its way to Koehring International Marketing Company in Milwaukee.
A French-language interview with Bernard Bandeville of Marseille led to a job offer.
And international business changed the course of my life.﻿

The Journey Behind Baumann Global 

How a Future French Teacher Became an International Growth Executive

Learning International Business from the Ground Up

My first major assignment was supporting an $89 million international water-well drilling development project for Algeria.
Reporting to international executive Fred C. Chambers, I coordinated with the Algerian Embassy in Washington, secured visas for French-speaking Canadian drilling specialists, translated French correspondence and telexes, coordinated international travel, and managed export documentation for equipment shipments leaving the Port of Galveston.
What began as a language position quickly became an education in how international business really works.
Following the Algerian project, I moved into International Parts and took my first international business trip—to Belgrade, Yugoslavia to take a consignment parts inventory in a factory. It included a stop in Paris along the way and my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.
For a young woman in her early twenties from Wisconsin, the world suddenly looked very different.

From Supporting International Business to Selling Around the World

I soon joined Artos Engineering, a manufacturer of wire-processing equipment serving major automotive companies around the world.  I wanted to move into international sales, so I learned the equipment. I participated in customer acceptance run-offs. I learned the technical side of the business. I wanted to understand what I was selling and the problems our customers needed us to solve.  Artos VP, Svein Andersen gave me that chance.  In 1983, I boarded a plane alone for São Paulo, Brazil.
Within months, I delivered a presentation on wire-processing modernization to more than 250 automotive professionals and with a great Brazilian dealer, secured a $2 million order from General Motors Brazil.  That experience confirmed it.
International business wasn't simply my profession. It was my passion.
My responsibilities expanded across Latin America, South America and Europe—developing distributors, working directly with customers, opening markets and building international sales.

Taking an American Icon Global Harley-Davidson International 

In 1990, Harley-Davidson recruited me to manage International Parts & Accessories and Licensed Products.  Throughout the 1990s, virtually everything Harley-Davidson sold internationally—other than the motorcycle itself—fell under my team's responsibility.
It was an extraordinary period of growth for an iconic American company, and my work took me throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and other international markets.
I wasn't studying international growth from a textbook.
I was doing it—in market, with customers, distributors and international teams.

Turning Experience Into a Repeatable Growth Process

Over the years, I saw the same challenge repeatedly.
Many excellent manufacturers had strong products and international opportunities—but lacked the structure, processes, market priorities, channel strategies and executive accountability necessary to turn those opportunities into scalable revenue.
That realization eventually led me to create Wisconsin's nationally award-winning ExporTech™ program in 2009.
More than 450 Wisconsin manufacturers participated. Companies averaged approximately $1 million in new export revenue during their first year. Wisconsin's program was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the best of its kind in the nation, and Wisconsin companies earned approximately 25% of all national Presidential “E” and “E Star” Awards for Export Excellence.
One manufacturer grew international sales from approximately $200,000 to more than $20 million.
The lesson was clear:  International growth can be built intentionally.

Today, that lifetime of experience comes together at Baumann Global.
I have sat in the chair.
I have opened markets.
I have developed distributors.
I have sold directly to customers in foreign countries.
I have worked through the complexities that arise when strategy meets the realities of international business.
And I have helped manufacturers turn those experiences into repeatable systems for growth.
That is the thinking behind ExportScale™ — A Baumann Global Methodology™.
Assessment → Roadmap → Implementation → Fractional Leadership → Scalable Growth
ExportScale™ brings structure, processes, best practices, executive leadership and accountability together to help manufacturers build sustainable international revenue.

And That Led to Baumann Global