The Signal Note.
Our newsletter and archive of short notes on foreign-market questions worth bringing to the board.
Short notes for decisions that deserve evidence.
Each note frames one foreign-market question, the evidence that matters and the decision implication for the leadership team.
Boom-lift imports: decide which orders can proceed
Use one evidence, economics and capacity gate to decide which affected orders can proceed and what releases each held order.
Choose a first Digital Product Passport pilot that teaches you about the wider range
Use pre-set exposure, transfer and feasibility rules to select a readiness pilot with an owner, action and stop condition.
The PET safeguard investigation: calculate your margin and cash exposure
Calculate the potential PET cost left in margin and the cash required before supplier credit or customer recovery arrives.
Digital product records are turning product data into board evidence
The first useful question is who owns the proof before GB, NI and EU product-data rules split further.
The UK-India FTA has a hidden readiness test
Tariff preference only protects margin if the origin claim survives the process.
Steel risk is now a margin stack
Why downstream manufacturers should model steel quota, tariff, carbon and contract exposure together.
Mexico's nearshoring case needs an origin test
Why Mexico's nearshoring case should be tested through origin, control, distance and US-market access.
AI Act readiness is a market-access decision
How UK industrial and technology suppliers should decide where EU AI Act readiness protects revenue.
Trade deals need a corridor test
Why legal market access needs a corridor scorecard before exporters treat it as commercial traction.
The route is now part of the market
Why route exposure should sit inside market selection, margin approval and logistics contingency planning.
India's PLI opportunity starts with entry mode
Why UK manufacturers should read India's PLI schemes through ownership advantage, location fit and internalisation risk.
Digital Product Passports are a data capability test
Why UK exporters should build product-data maturity before EU Digital Product Passport duties arrive by product group.
The Gulf opportunity needs a winnability test
How to distinguish funded GCC demand from winnable opportunity before committing sales resource.
US tariff exposure now splits by lane
Why UK exporters should model the exact US lane by product, material content, origin and contract.
Vietnam's China+1 role needs a three-part test
Why a China+1 decision should separate Vietnam as sales market, assembly node and sourcing alternative.
Where your CBAM exposure actually lives
Why EU CBAM exposure now sits across supplier data, customer contracts, working capital and product-level margin.
Five board questions before CBAM becomes a margin problem
A board-ready control sheet for EU customer requests, supplier evidence and carbon-cost exposure.
Market size is not market fit
A research-backed way to compare export markets when demand, ease of entry and internal capability point in different directions.
When the right answer is not to enter
A decision rule for protecting attention before a weak market launch becomes sunk cost.
Start a conversation.
Bring us a market question the leadership team cannot yet answer. We will tell you whether it fits a defined product, what evidence it needs, and what the fixed fee would be. If it does not fit, we will say so.