3 Simple Steps for Achieving Global Domination

So you want to take over the world, huh? Not quite sure how to get started, you say? Then I have a treat for you

Building on our last post about how to think about capturing the huge global opportunities that are out there to improve your business, today I'll offer some practical advice on how to get started.

Going global is intimidating. For some, anything beyond buying toys with a "Made in China" stamp on them can freak them out. But with a focused and measured approach, you too can start down the path of making your organization global.

In the last post, we covered some notions around evaluating opportunities on the revenue side and the cost side of the ledger. To capture them, you have to think about market entry, product/service delivery, and communications. Without those three, your efforts are dead on arrival. Are there other considerations? Sure. These are simply the first three I recommend considering as part of your global conquest plan.

Market Entry

The scariest part about going global is not knowing where to begin. Who are the possible customers? Who are potential suppliers? What are the applicable laws? What are the cultural norms I need to account for? Those are some daunting questions.

The good news is other people have likely already answered them. I highly suggest finding yourself a current domestic customer or potential partner to speed your market entry efforts along. For our thoughtLEADERS courses, we have a large domestic client who happens to have offices all over the world. Our focus on entering those markets started with working with that existing client to serve their overseas business units.

As we build our global experience and reputation, our ability to land new clients or begin serving other domestic clients with overseas offices will increase. We've received our initial boost into those markets via a client we know and trust.

Review your existing client/customer portfolio as well as your current supplier list. Who on those lists have offices overseas? Do any of them have a presence in countries that are attractive targets for your goods/services? If so, simply open that conversation through your existing relationship and express your desire to serve them/work with them on a more global basis. It's much faster than trying to develop new relationships in foreign countries from scratch.

You can do things from scratch - it just takes longer. For example, this blog has been reposted in Norway (here), Bahrain, at an international bank on their intranet, and several other countries. That said, they're not (yet) banging down the door with invites to go teach there. If you are going to enter a market from scratch, be realistic about how long that will take and how many resources you'll need to throw at it to make it work. That's why I suggest the partner/customer approach above.

Product/Service Delivery

Now that you have some international introductions, you have to deliver the goods (or your suppliers have to deliver them to you). In cases where you're the buyer and your supplier is international, I recommend choosing partners with a domestic presence. It will make managing your supply chain much easier and more reliable.

If you're the one shipping product or delivering services internationally, build a relationship with a local liaison in the target country. Creating that stable relationship will help you sort out logistics, cultural challenges, and will provide a general level of stability to the relationship.

For example, when we teach thoughtLEADERS courses internationally, we work with a single point of contact at the target location. That contact helps coordinate travel, meeting planning, course materials, and anything else that's hard to coordinate from thousands of miles away. And be sure to treat that liaison well. They can be the difference between a great international experience or a terrible one. They'll save you countless hours of work and improve the quality of your relationship exponentially.

This liaison will also help you understand and navigate cultural differences. My liaisons have reviewed our course content and made suggestions on sections that would require special emphasis or that might need to be changed. The translation for your business is that the liaison can help you take your core offering/product and help you target it to the local market much better than you can do so yourself. Take advantage of their knowledge. You'll be more successful if you do.

Communication

The last section begins teeing this point up. You MUST have close communications with your international counterparty. In some cases, this will be someone domestically interfacing with the international team or it will be you working with the international team directly.

Regardless of how it works, you'll need a solid communication plan as well as some flexibility on your schedule. When I was in Vietnam teaching, we had an 11 hour time difference. Conference calls with my clients back here required me to stay up late or get up very early. Get over it - it's a sacrifice you must make if you want to capture the opportunities.

Fortunately, electronic communications can make this a breeze. Better yet, you can send out some "to do's" at the end of your day and when you wake up, the team across the world has put in a full work day on the deliverables. This was a great experience to have with some development outsourcing we did at TiXiT. Granted, it wasn't a 12 hour time difference between us and our developers but it did lengthen our company's work day substantially (without any of us individually putting in more work time).

Overcommunicating in these scenarios can prevent lost details, confusion, and excessive costs. The time you spend communicating is certainly an investment but if you're serious about going global, it's a very worthwhile one to make.

I hope these last two posts have demystified globalization a bit. It's not as intimidating as it sounds. It definitely has its benefits (like drinking Guinness beer *in* Dublin, Ireland).

What other simple things should other readers be thinking about as they try going global? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC