Hello!
Want to learn something for free that will help you grow your business? Why restrict yourself to your home country for clients when there is a huge and ever expanding market out there. So read on!
Why could you do with this advice? Surely you know how to run your own company or division...Because a. globalisation is here to stay, b. the recession is forcing companies to either cut costs or increase their customer base and c. going global is not as easy as you may think.
Even large companies like Fiat make big blunders, for example when they created the Croma model of car and launched it in Holland. Unilever had very prominently marketed the exact same brand name for butter for decades, resulting in very poor car sales. If Fiat had used a good trademark attorney and consulted staff in any of their Dutch dealerships this could have easily been avoided.
An American company I worked for could not understand why we could not roll out their marketing campaigns across the whole of Europe, Africa and the Middle East in a matter of weeks. It was often hard to explain that not only did we have to have all the material translated into several languages and products priced in different currencies, we also needed to make sure there was a requirement for these products in the various territories. Having one of the senior managers come over to Europe for several months really helped overcome this issue.
Many companies approach acquiring foreign clients, serving clients with a global footprint, finding foreign agents and distributors or setting up a foreign office the same way they would approach these matters if they were inside their borders. This simply is not the case and can cause you to make very expensive mistakes!
Here are a few of the indicators of what to look out for:
These are just a few examples, there are many more issues to consider! The main thing to do is keep your customer, employees and competitors in mind with everything that you do when dealing on an international basis. Make sure you are set up so that your competitors can't copy you, customers find it easy to deal with you, employees are happy to work for you and legally you are safe. Of course there are costs involved with taking care of these matters as there always are when you expand your business. However, sitting still is not an option unless you want to lose huge amounts of market share!
This is a first posting on my blog and I welcome anyone who has any questions, funny anecdotes in this area etc. I may be off line for a little while as I am going to Morocco this week - a sunny 23 degrees forecast!
Want to learn something for free that will help you grow your business? Why restrict yourself to your home country for clients when there is a huge and ever expanding market out there. So read on!
Why could you do with this advice? Surely you know how to run your own company or division...Because a. globalisation is here to stay, b. the recession is forcing companies to either cut costs or increase their customer base and c. going global is not as easy as you may think.
Even large companies like Fiat make big blunders, for example when they created the Croma model of car and launched it in Holland. Unilever had very prominently marketed the exact same brand name for butter for decades, resulting in very poor car sales. If Fiat had used a good trademark attorney and consulted staff in any of their Dutch dealerships this could have easily been avoided.
An American company I worked for could not understand why we could not roll out their marketing campaigns across the whole of Europe, Africa and the Middle East in a matter of weeks. It was often hard to explain that not only did we have to have all the material translated into several languages and products priced in different currencies, we also needed to make sure there was a requirement for these products in the various territories. Having one of the senior managers come over to Europe for several months really helped overcome this issue.
Many companies approach acquiring foreign clients, serving clients with a global footprint, finding foreign agents and distributors or setting up a foreign office the same way they would approach these matters if they were inside their borders. This simply is not the case and can cause you to make very expensive mistakes!
Here are a few of the indicators of what to look out for:
- Cultural issues. Is bribery accepted or expected in any of the countries you are targeting? How do people express themselves, what characteristics are appreciated in a manager or sales person? Is there a culture of asking questions or just doing as you are told?
- Language issues. Do you need to publish your marketing materials in every language on the globe? What languages are key? Do you need a native speaker to do this?
- Intellectual property. Do you have it secured for your products, company name, promotional materials etc? Do you know what countries will actively enforce any breach of this and which ones won't? What do you do to stop others from simply copying your work or reputation?
- Legal. Where are you getting your legal advice? Do your lawyers know the local laws of the countries you are working with? Do you have all your work with both suppliers and clients legally secured?
- Go direct or via channels? What is more important to you, having full control and retain all profit or get instant local knowledge and contact? Do you wish to work with third parties?
- Customer and technical support. Do you have staff who can communicate in the customer's own language or be on site the same day?
These are just a few examples, there are many more issues to consider! The main thing to do is keep your customer, employees and competitors in mind with everything that you do when dealing on an international basis. Make sure you are set up so that your competitors can't copy you, customers find it easy to deal with you, employees are happy to work for you and legally you are safe. Of course there are costs involved with taking care of these matters as there always are when you expand your business. However, sitting still is not an option unless you want to lose huge amounts of market share!
This is a first posting on my blog and I welcome anyone who has any questions, funny anecdotes in this area etc. I may be off line for a little while as I am going to Morocco this week - a sunny 23 degrees forecast!
No comments:
Post a Comment