Expanding Your Business Globally?

In this digital era, the success of start-ups depends not just on their innovations but on how quickly they scale up. The world is becoming more connected and technology enables start-ups to enter international markets faster than ever before, this is something Biotech start-ups should take advantage of.

However, when it comes to building, growing and globally expanding a business, there’s always more to do than just taking advantage of technology: having an expansion plan, identifying the right timing and the target countries, getting the right channel partners and marketing plans, and staying locally relevant while maintaining a global view.

How do we know when our business is ready to go global?

When is The Right Time to Go Global?

If your company is in a large country such as the US or China, you may want to focus on your local market first and then after your home market has matured, you should then consider expanding to other countries.  However, if you’re in a smaller country such as the UK, European countries or South Korea, international expansion becomes significant very early on. For example tech companies in Europe expand internationally 19 months faster than their American counterparts.

There are three most important factors that you need to assess honestly: whether your team is ready, whether your company’s operations managment system is in the right stage for expansion, and whether your products truly ready to go global. If you have successfully launched your products and dominated your domestic market, you have a higher chance to be successful in a foreign market.

Do you have the resources in place to expand? If your systems and other resources are not at the point where they are working well in your current market, you’ll be better off waiting until you are ready.

Is there a team commitment across the organisation to expand? It is necessary to have a clear strategy across the organisation so you can have full support from your teams.

We Need to Make Sure to Ask Questions Like:

• What are we good at, what do we do best?
• Is our ‘product offering’ a recognised category in that country?
• What is the TAM (Total Addressable Market) in the region?
• Do we understand the geography, verticals, and market segments?
• What are the channels to market and the cost?
• Have we done a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis?
• What do we understand about the culture in the new market?
• What do we know about the competitive landscape?
• Is the talent we need available in the region?
• What are the legal issues we need to be aware of?
• Is there anyone who can help us?

How to Decide Which Country to Target First?

Which country to enter will depend on where your headquarters are; many companies choose to enter the countries that speak the same language, and have similar cultures or laws as they are easier to approach. It is also common to start with neighbouring countries as companies can control their entry cost more effectively. As an example, Abcam started selling to EU countries using a virtual office and only opened a US office later, when needed.

What about Cultural Differences?

It is essential to know the cultural differences between your country and your target countries. As we are human, a lot of our decisions are influenced by our culture.  It is also important to know the country’s business environment and system so you can work out how you can fill the gap.

Which Distribution Channels Should Be Used?

To enter a market, your company needs to decide whether to have indirect exports, direct exports, licensing, joint ventures or direct investment.  This will depend on your company’s commitment and financial situation. There are many different types of distribution channels that companies use, such as setting up a branch office, having partners, distributors or licensing out.

How to Set Up Localised Marketing Strategies?

Setting up a well-structured sales and marketing strategy is extremely important as this will make your company focus on what to do to grow globally.  You can decide whether you want to use marketing agencies, direct digital marketing or use your partners or distributors’ marketing team, or mix and match. 

Don’t just assume that if something works well in your home market, it will work well in other countries. Meet potential customers in your target market and actively ask them whether your products fit their needs, educate yourself on local customs and languages if possible, and work with people who know the market and can assist you. It’s a big investment that will pay off, no matter how many markets you reach.

 

Megginson quoted in 1963:

“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.“

Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963963)

In Summary

As we have discussed, ‘going global’ is challenging, but when you start to build the right team and infrastructure and adapt to your target country’s culture, you’ll be able to crack global complexities to put yourself in a great position. Not just to win locally, but to win the world.

In my next blog, we will be discussing ‘How to Decide Which Country To Target First?’  in more detail.

Better Together so Let’s Get Started!

Let’s talk about growing your business globally.  Connect with me today!  Get started on building a strategy and roadmap to achieving your business goals faster!