The world is not as big a place as it used to be. Today you can buy a product online and get it shipped to anywhere in the world. Your small business may have its bricks and mortar store in suburban Sydney but thanks to eCommerce you can sell to customers across the globe. Globalisation is not coming, it’s here.
And what if your product or brand has done so well it’s thinking of expanding its physical presence into an overseas market? How do you ensure your company culture and values remain the same?
It’s a question more and more businesses are asking as they make the great leap forward to scale their business. Yet scaling up can be fraught with pain points for many.
“We’re seeing loads of business startups,” says NetSuite Executive Vice President Jim McGeever. “Venture capital funding has never been higher – but what you’re seeing from the headlines is there is an enormous amount of information out there that it is becoming really hard to scale a business.
“So why is it that hard to scale a business? How can you go from a small company and grow to medium and then hopefully large?”.
McGeever suggests businesses must avoid complacency if they want to grow.
“The quickest way to destroy a business is to get complacent, to think based on your previous successes that that will just continue into our future,”
According to McGeever to have any chance of achieving success, businesses must constantly evolve.
Jason Maynard, Senior Vice President of marketing and strategy at NetSuite is in agreement. However, he suggests when it comes to setting up your business in a foreign market it’s not legalities or compliance that will trip you up, it ’s ensuring you maintain the integrity of your brand.
“You need to ensure that whatever made you unique, whatever made you special remains the same. And you don’t go into a new market and have new people teaching new people.,” he says. “You want to maintain that company culture.”
Understanding the market is essential. Maynard suggests it pays to do your research.
“You can’t just rest on the merits of your product. You need to understand where it fits in the playing field,” he says.
Both suggest that maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset is essential.
“Adaptability is key,” says Maynard.
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