The Challenge : Where do you start?

In our experience creating successful expansion strategies and implementations, what we have learned is that we need to start at the beginning. That may sound a little too obvious, however it actually isn't and it is one of the most important steps you will take in increasing your risk of success. Knowing where the beginning is or in other words know where you are starting from is about mindset and culture. What do the members of your team, as it currently exists, think about being an international company? Knowing the answer and how to create alignment within the team around the a new bigger future is critical. Creating a sense of urgency to put plans and strategies in place and into action doesn't happen without a team that not only sees the bigger picture but accepts it.

How do you want to be seen at an international level? 

If you are serious about international expansion, an important step in your process is to start your research and feasibility by assessing your organization first, to understand what you have and what you don't have to support an international strategy. Identify a partner you can work with as a resource to guide and support your teams at each level to prepare. Start to engage the organization at each level, as is appropriate, to create the mindset to think internationally. Do you want to be an American or Canadian company that markets its products internationally or do you want to be a global company that has a home or head office in the United States or Canada and operates locally around the world? A very important consideration that will determine your next steps and how you present locally and internationally going forward.

The Solution: The Case for Culture

As you proceed with your assessments, training, research and planning it is important to understand culture. Not only your culture as an organization but the local culture of where you want to do business. Learning to understand and accept cultural practices at both a social and business level enables you to focus on outcome rather than on practice or policy. After all, is your goal to have operations, distribution or manufacturing in foreign locations all operating to one set of policies or rules or is your goal to expand your business into international markets to become a successful global company in each market? When you understand culture you have the foundation to build a common language across a broader and more disparate organization that has a strong internal culture of success and communications that flow unambiguously across the entire breadth and depth of the organization and what it is becoming. 

Framework and Project Planning

The framework and project/program planning and implementation for your expansion includes risk assessment and analysis, corporate structure, financial and operational planning, technology and research and development and a number of other considerations. All of these are directly impacted positively by leveraging a team that believes it has an international focus and is in fact an international team that crosses cultures because it has well developed communication strategies and a common language.

Local Market Perception is Your Reality

The manner in which your organization is perceived in each market and globally is important. Your organization will be far more likely to succeed at an international level because your organization is seen and accepted as being willing to engage locally and has an organizational mindset that demonstrates, through its actions, that it understands and accepts local market practices and culture. Empower your organization at every level to participate and contribute.

Case studies: http://manzimvula.com/our-work/our-case-studies/manufacturing-a-distribution.html

Your Comments: Let us know what you think. For more information and to find out more about our work and how we can support your organization, please contact us using the information provided below.

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Manzimvula® is a values-based as a consulting practice and a Certified B Corporation, and specializes in sustainability and corporate responsibility. To stimulate ingenuity and create growth, we work alongside our clients, guiding them through our Purposeful Path to Sustainability Program™ utilizing our Integrative Strategy Approach™ to help them engage their organization at a deeper level to understand mindset and create alignment with core strategies and principles.

For more information please contact:

Stephen Adelman, President, CSR Initiatives

e-mail: stephen.adelman@manzimvula.com

Tel: 805.646.2600