If you are on the leadership team of a growing business, one of the most exciting milestones is the point when you're ready to expand into new international markets. You are looking at a greenfield of new revenue opportunities whether direct or through partnerships. This kind of expansion can also give new life to mature products that have reached the end of their lifecycle at home, but could still be competitive in another country. The trick is to quickly beat competitors that may also want to expand to this new territory, capturing all the benefits of the first-mover advantage.
Expanding internationally can help you diversify and find new opportunities in fast-growing markets. But succeeding internationally is not easy and takes careful planning.
In our technology-fueled global economy, business success hinges not just on the rate you innovate, but the speed at which you're able to scale your business. As the world becomes more connected and broadly-available technology enables startups to reach international markets faster than ever before, expansion beyond borders is on the radar for ambitious business leaders whose goal is rapid growth.
Global expansion implies more than just making investments in nations outside of the company's home; the concept includes maintaining an actual business presence in those countries.
An international expansion strategy comprises market entry strategy including crucial choices in regard to primary markets of focus, determination of target customer and channel strategy, resource allocation, product and service value offerings, brand positioning, and creation of an operating model. A successful market penetration strategy ensures the most suitable and efficient use of corporate resources and helps companies increase their success.
If you're in a small country, international expansion becomes very important very quickly. It's especially true in Europe, where companies expand internationally 19x faster than their American counterparts, mostly out of necessity. After all, companies in the U.S. can build billion-dollar businesses by focusing exclusively on their home marketwith its population of 325 million in 50 open-border states unified by one common language and a shared history.
Across the Atlantic, to reach the same number of people, European companies have no choice but to do business across borders in a continent made up of 50 distinct countries, each with their own policies, regulations, infrastructures, languages, and cultures.
Going global from the get-go isn't easy. It's complicated and comes with hurdles especially as you navigate them alongside the normal growing pains of scaling a startup. Building products for an international customer base and creating multicultural and multilingual brand awareness across borders adds a level of complexity to most facets of the business. But, on the flip side, those early pains can enable earlier gainspotentially providing an edge on competitors that aren't optimized to deal with the complex fragmentation of a global market.
Adan Corporate, through its successful global network of sector and strategy experts, provides services for determining efficient international expansion strategies.
Our experts partner with clients on corporate planning, providing perspective not only on immediate value and impact, but on long-term implications. We work closely with management and other advisers to leverage and complement their knowledge and ensure maximum impact, and actively support implementation and skill building.
