Grow Through International Expansion

Propelling Business Through Disruption to Success with Dan Simmons | Propelia #31

In this podcast I’m talking with Dan Simmons of Propelia about how he helps company founders and CEOs navigate through new challenges – let’s call them disruptors – that conspire to upset the status quo of their business.

Over the last 20 years, Dan has helped many Start Ups and Scale Ups strategically leverage their thinking, brand and IP to disrupt new market sectors. He is a recognised Thought Leader in how disruption can be repositioned from a creative, strategic and planning point of view.

There’s always been disruption in business. It was hard scribes when Gutenberg invented the printing press around 600 years ago, and for carriage makers when Ford brought in the Model T. But everyone can agree that things have never been changing as fast as now.

But what’s that got to do with international expansion, you may ask. Well, setting up an operation abroad or simply starting to export to other countries is disruptive in itself. Businesses inevitably need to make some changes just to make the most of their new international opportunity, and it’s perhaps an ideal time to take a new, hard look at one’s entire business model.

So how do you go about that? As a true Thought Leader, Dan’s invented whole new approaches to what he terms “the Almost Now” – basically, rethinking business in an innovative and efficient way. He’s branded Propelia’s methodologies as Flightpath and Airspace, for reasons you’ll understand when you listen to our conversation.

I’ve worked with good businesses that failed to change, so simply faded and failed. I’ve met consultants who charge top dollar, but only tell you what you already know, or – worse - leave you feeling that they know a deal less than you do. This process strikes me as really different – and I believe can usefully be considered by every type of business that wants to survive and grow, regardless of their global ambitions. I’m sure you will find my conversation with Dan great food for thought.

Bonne Chance en France with Bernard Hot #30

France is such an interesting country. Politically and economically, it’s one of the strongest countries not only in Europe but the World. It’s a market of 60 million, and although a large country it has great infrastructure. It has a reputation - perhaps unparalleled - for culture and gastronomy. It has a beautiful and varied landscape. With 87 million visitors a year, there is no other country in the world visited by more tourists. Many are British, of course, because physically, it’s the nearest country for most of us. Many buy second homes or retire there. Like me, more Britons learnt French at school than any other language.

So you’d think that it would also be Britain’s major trading partner in Europe. It’s a big one, of course, but not the biggest and, in terms of trade per head of population, is quite a way down the list.

But when businesses talk about expanding to Europe, France rarely figures as a must-go-to destination. Maybe that’s the result of natural reticence born of centuries of a mutual love-hate relationship. But it’s probably more because it’s seen as a more difficult market – culturally, linguistically and in business style. Businesses are cautious, and don’t want to invest heavily in international expansion unless they’re really confident of success.

In this podcast, our host Oliver Dowson talks to Bernard Hot. Bernard works for D&A, a French business consulting firm. They’ve developed services for business development – aka sales – that could be a great way for foreign companies – British, American or from anywhere else – to build a market and establish a foothold in France quickly and economically.

Bernard is an interesting guy. He’s a business strategist with over 20 years of experience, who started his career in London in after university. He worked in the City in banking and Law and then into business consultancy, advising Telco multinationals in Africa. After that he went into education as a lecturer, and established an internationally-accredited corporate training centre with operations both in the UK and in Africa, training students in Cameroon and Senegal engineering and medicine. He’s recently returned to London, joining D&A as their UK Business Manager.

You can find more information about D&A at http://www.dabusinessdev.com/eng/index.html

Also on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/d&a-business-development/ and  https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernard-hot-8b331618/

Extinction Rebellion is an International Issue #29

I'm not in London this week, but I've been following the Extinction Rebellion with interest, especially having spent most of my career playing a small part in helping corporations reduce their energy consumption and improve environmental impact. There's a lot that needs to be done, but in my opinion, the priority is not in the UK but elsewhere - and that should be a clarion call for startup businesses that are developing solutions to move immediately to international expansion. I've made a video with my thoughts - what are yours?

Expanding Opportunities for Foreign and Local Companies in the Czech Republic #28

One of the European countries that I visit where I’ve seen the greatest changes and most rapid development is the Czech Republic. I first went to the then Czechoslovakia in 1977, long before the fall of the Iron Curtain, so obviously you’d expect the changes since then to be massive. But I’m actually referring to just the last decade.

When I first set up a company in Prague in 2009, with a Czech colleague who remains a great friend, it was a relatively quiet city. The Czech Republic had only joined the EU in 2004, and it was still in a way searching for a business identity. The economy wasn’t very strong, but it was growing. Now, 10 years later, it’s become something of an economic powerhouse in Europe.

Most people, of course, only know Prague as a tourist destination – and it’s certainly become one of the most visited cities in Europe. Even on a Monday evening in early April I had to fight my way across the Old Town Square and the Wenceslas Bridge was a sea of people with selfie sticks. The government is doing its best to encourage tourists to visit other parts of the country.

But back to business. It may surprise you to learn that Prague figures in the Top 10 regions of the EU for GDP per capital – ahead of Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm. The unemployment rate is practically zero. However, elsewhere in the Czech Republic there are plenty of opportunities for international businesses, especially those in the industrial sector.

Although it’s right next to Austria and Germany, and a great central hub country in Europe from which to do business, costs are lower and there are a lot of good reasons to consider it for international expansion. When I was in Prague recently, I met Petr Heczko of CzechInvest, the government body promoting international trade.

Also in our meeting was Marketa Havlova, who manages support for the many exciting Czech startup companies, mostly in the IT sector. She steers a really interesting programme to help those businesses expand internationally right from the word Go.

In this podcast, I’m talking both with Petr and Marketa about a whole range of opportunities for international business in the Czech Republic.

More information about the Czech Republic and CzechInvest can be found at https://www.growinternational.org

Mentoring Startup Expansion Plans #27

Most ambitious small business owners who want to grow big know that they need to plan international expansion. Most times, though, they’re not sure where to go, what to do or how to do it – or they have preconceptions (and sometimes prejudices) that direct their thinking towards a specific market or country.

Entrepreneurs who seek independent advice either don’t have such preconceptions or are prepared to have them blown away. They’ve mostly already talked to the normal sources of advice, for example the government department in their country that encourages and supports international trade.

Our Host, Oliver Dowson, often gets asked how he goes about advising these people, and how his approach differs.

In this podcast, he shares a soundclip from an introductory meeting that he  recently had with Sheila, a business founder. She’s originally from the USA but now lives in the UK, where she runs a small, growing and successful business in MedTech, and is really ambitious to take it to the next level. Kindly, she agreed to having part of her first meeting with Oliver recorded for this Grow through International Expansion podcast series.

However, as we’re sure you’ll understand, she’d prefer not to give out her full identity or company name.

Exploring the Advantages of Free Trade Zones #26

Historically, Free Trade Zones were confined to manufacturing and warehousing, but in recent years they’ve also been housing office operations, liked the shared service centres we were talking about in an earlier episode of Grow through International Expansion.

Where they exist, Free Trade Zones bring some obvious advantages to businesses setting up in another country. To start with, the “Free” means free of taxes – essentially they are zones physically within one country that treat every economic activity within them like being in a duty free shop – there’s no tax as long as everything created or manufactured is then sold abroad in another country. Some countries also allow sales within the country, though they are usually restricted in some way, typically by proportion of turnover or for a limited number of years.

But there are other advantages to Free Trade Zones too, such as being co-located in the same campus or complex as other similar businesses. That can help a lot with shared resources such as meeting rooms and catering, and helps with recruiting suitable staff too.

When our host, Oliver Dowson, was in Uruguay a couple of years ago, he was introduced to the different types of Free Trade Zones in the country, and was really impressed. Uruguay is different to other South American countries in that it’s the only one with Free Trade Zones. It’s a small country that’s used FTZs and leveraged its position and economic strength to become an attractive hub location for doing business all over Latin America.

On a recent return visit, Oliver took advantage of being there to revisit four very different Free Trade Zones. For this Grow through International Expansion podcast, he talked to the directors of each of them about the opportunities they offer and the differences between them.

The FTZs featured in this podcast are

Aguada Park - director Francisco Ravecca – www.aguadapark.com

Zonamerica - director Leandro Bonilla – www.zonamerica.com

World Trade Centre - director Ignacio Del - http://www.wtc.uy/wtc/

Parque de las Ciencias (Science Park) –General Manager Enrique Pueblo - http://www.zonafrancapdlc.com/

How FinTech is Growing in LATAM with Martin Naor | Bankingly #25

One of the most exciting and active sectors of business for new startups all over the world is FinTech – Financial Technology. Briefly, that’s the application of information technology to the world of finance. The term FinTech really shot to fame – or perhaps infamy - with the rise of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the last two or three years. But, whilst there are a lot of recent startup companies working with such cryptocurrencies, it would be a big mistake to assume that’s the whole story.

If you use a mobile app for banking or make a card payment with your mobile phone, that’s FinTech at work. If you transfer money to friends or family abroad over the internet, that’s FinTech at work too. It’s become the norm rather than the exception.

And it’s revolutionising money management in developing countries. There are now easy to use tools that can be used by people in remote villages who’ve never had access to a bank.

Some of the most successful new FinTech apps and services have been developed in countries that are themselves developing, or have reached full development but still recall the stages of development they went through to get where they are today.

There are so many new developments in so many countries that big international meetings to present and discuss the latest – FinTech summits – seem to happen almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

One of the biggest and most important in Latin America is the annual Montevideo FinTech summit. Uruguay is a good example of a country that has itself developed over the last 20-30 years and is now really active in building new IT tools – not just FinTech – that are particularly apt for developing countries in Africa and parts of Asia.  

When our host, Oliver Dowson, was there recently, he met with Martin Naor, the President of the Uruguay FinTech Chamber. He’s also the Founder and CEO of Bankingly, where they’ve developed digital tools for financial institutions, no matter how small and no matter where they are. In our conversation that we recorded for this podcast, Martin talks with Oliver about this development, how Uruguay is leading in Latin America in development of Fintech solutions, and why international delegates should plan on attending the Montevideo FinTech forum

No Branch Should be an Island #24

A story of discovering why cohesive corporate identity matters

Walk through the doors of any branch in the world of a major retail chain, and you might forget which country you’re in. They really are all the same. Those multinationals have spent millions on brand identity – and replicate it wherever they go.

Not so the offices and factories of other types of business. The sign over the door may be the same, but very often, that’s where it stops.

This podcast is a solo by our host, Oliver Dowson, who tells a story from his early international business life, how he experienced the “missed trick” of a failure to adopt a common corporate identity in the company he then worked for and in others that he visited, and why he thinks it’s a mistake that should be avoided. It’s an entertaining story with a moral. 

You’ll also find his article “The Elusive Prize”, on the Grow through International Expansion website at https://bit.ly/2YgJoY1

Hedging Currency To Avoid Costly Mistakes With Barry Mccarthy | Assure Hedge #23

If your company sells abroad, you’ll probably be getting paid in a different currency to your own. And you’ll certainly be aware that there’s a lot of volatility in exchange rates. You work out the price today, when you send out the quote, but you might not get paid for months – and by then the exchange rate could be very different. Maybe in your favour, but you could easily lose out.

There’s a potential solution, currency hedging. But isn’t it something that only huge multinationals can do?

In this podcast, Oliver Dowson talks with Barry McCarthy, an expert in currency hedging who has developed solutions that even SMEs can take advantage of. If you ever need to deal in two or more currencies, you’ll find their conversation quite enlightening.

3 Things You Didn’t Know About GDPR with Henry Herbert | Herbert & Ball #22

What do you know about GDPR? You’ve almost certainly seen a buzz of publicity about it in the last year, and will have received dozens of emails asking you to “opt in”. It’s not just email. Any business that holds personal data on a computer – so every business - has to comply with GDPR.

It’s about to become more complicated. For example, non-EU companies – including the UK after Brexit – have to appoint a GDPR administrator within the EU.

To unravel the rules, Oliver Dowson talks in this podcast with Henry Herbert, a legal professional who advises SMEs on GDPR compliance.

Whether you’re into international business, or simply just want to understand GDPR better, you’ll find this a must listen.

Insights Into Exporting with Douglas Jackson | DNA Business Engineering #21

“Who ordered the battered cod” doesn’t sound like a book about exporting. But it is, written by a real expert in the field, Doug Jackson. We think it’s a must-read for anyone in business thinking about exporting – and even those who are seasoned exporters will find many useful insights. Doug explains the important methodologies of export through a whole panoply of his own anecdotal experiences, as well as those of others. In this podcast, Doug talks about his book and life experiences with our host Oliver Dowson.

Gateway to the Baltic States and points East with Martins Tiknuss | Gateway & Partners #20

More countries off the usual business radar.

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia…. Most business people don’t know much about them, except they were long ago part of the USSR, and are popular for weekends away in summer months.

In this podcast, Oliver Dowson talks to Martins Tiknuss, CEO of Gateway Partners, based in Riga, Latvia, about business opportunities across all three of the Baltic states, and also in Bulgaria, Romania and less travelled but rapidly emerging countries such as Georgia and Moldova.

Bosnia & Herzogovina – A Country Off The Usual Business Radar with Zlatan Vujanović #19

What do you know about Bosnia and Herzogivina? Chances are, not very much. And certainly there don’t seem to be many business leaders talking about international expansion who’ve got it on their radar. Maybe that’s a significant oversight.

Oliver is often telling people that they shouldn’t just consider the “usual suspects” but look more widely, as there can be real advantages in expanding in countries that the competition have also not yet reached. Recently he was able to update his own knowledge about the country and was honoured to meet with Zlatan Vujanovic, the Minister of Trade for Bosnia-Herzogovina.

When Picking a State, Who Should Focus on Southern Virginia with Joe Anwyl #18

In another recent podcast we talked about why businesses expand to the United States. But it’s a huge country with 50 states and they’re all different – not just geographically, but in terms of laws, culture and doing business generally. So where do you go?

Well, that depends on why you’re setting up in the States, what sort of business you’re in and what markets you’re trying to reach. Recently I met up with Joe Anwyl to talk about one state in which he specialises, Southern Virginia.

Joe’s professional background is in engineering project delivery, team management, and business development, and he has first-hand experience of trading in USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, South America, India, China, ​and Malaysia.

In our conversation, Joe’s talking about the advantages of Southern Virginia and the businesses it should appeal to. However, whatever your business, and even if that state is not the right destination for you, I think you’ll find Joe’s commentary really interesting and helpful.

Since 2013, Joe has been working to support UK and EU firms expanding to Virginia. He’s worked closely with Rolls-Royce North America and has helped a dozen firms establish companies in the US. Most recently Joe has been helping international companies make the engineering and tech-centric location of Southern Virginia their operational base in the USA.

How Shared Service Centres Add Value to Business with Nelson Gonzalez | Travel Leaders Group #17

BPO offshore operations have continued to mature. Staff are experienced, local management has progressed and they have expanded to take on more advanced work such as R&D.

They may no longer be sited in the lowest cost countries, but strategically located to deliver the best value based on skills, languages and time zone. They’ve also gained a better name – Shared Service Centres.

On a recent visit to Montevideo, Oliver Dowson met with Nelson Gonzalez, General Manager of Travel Leaders Group’s Global SSC. It’s a great example of how Shared Services Centres can play a key role in business success.