EFI Logistics, headquartered in San Francisco, is a company providing a wide range of services to exporters and importers. In addition to performing the traditional foreign freight-forwarding and custom-house broker functions, it can provide information to potential exporters and importers and assist them in developing contacts and establishing relationships abroad.

The company was established in 2004 by Jim Fitzgerald and Dave Enberg, each of whom had over 30 years of experience with their former employer, J. E. Lowden & Company.

The mission of the company is to provide the highest quality of international logistics services to agricultural importers and exporters on the west coast of the United States. It is meeting its mission by using new technologies and procedures in what is a traditionally based industry. The founders of the company believed that it would have been difficult or impossible to make the technological advances within the constraints of an existing company.

The company had a challenging, and sometimes frustrating, initial two years. In order for a company to provide a full range of international logistics services, it must have two licenses. One is required in order to provide foreign freight-forwarding services for American exporters and must be obtained from the Federal Maritime Commission.

The other is required in order to provide Customs House services for importers and must be obtained from the US Customs Service. EFI Logistics was able to quickly obtain the license to function as a foreign freight forwarder. The problem arose in obtaining the Customs House License. This was a direct result of US government organizational and procedural changes following the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001...........

Questions

1. Do EFI’s marketing strategies appear to be appropriate?
2. Do the organization’s structure and stated objectives appear to be appropriate given the existing and potential customer base?
3. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of attempting to expand into other geographical areas or into providing similar services for other lines of business?