IT’S IMPORTANT TO understand that anyone contemplating expansion overseas must first be strong in their home market. If you are unable to compete, or in fact be dominant at home in our small markets, overseas expansion is somewhat unrealistic.
The first lesson is to be customer-centric. Most companies, as they get bigger, tend to become very internally focused.
We think in terms of policies, procedures, products, protecting assets, improving efficiency and so on. However, customers tend to do business with companies that make it easy for them to do business, by providing convenience and solutions.
The second lesson is your brand is your most valuable asset. A great brand is critical to success. It defines you.
Therefore, it’s vital that you nurture it, and care for it and protect it. With a well-managed brand, customers will know your business, its personality and the promise you make through your marketing and communications, which must be cemented in the experience when they do business with you.
Lesson number three: this is specifically for the exporters among us, you must understand the market you are targeting for expansion.
Before embarking on new territory, it’s important to understand the specific country’s culture, customs, needs and unspoken rules. They will ultimately help you tailor your offering.
Without a competitive advantage your chance of success is unlikely.
So expanding globally requires you to think globally, so you can create the right strategy with your partners in the markets you are targeting by being proactive.
They will recognise that you have done your homework on your market and as such you are committed to taking on the local competition and winning. Hoping you can compete will never work.
Lesson number four: go for the low hanging fruit. If you want to expand globally, start in your own backyard in the Caribbean where we speak the same language, have similar cultures and share a common market.
Test your model or product here so you can get a grip on the issues associated with doing business in other countries. And to be honest, if you can’t compete in your own backyard, then you probably can’t compete on the global stage.
Lesson number five: always bite off what you can chew. I think this is a very important lesson as you start to expand because it can get exciting and sometimes scary and sometimes send you broke.
Sometimes when you spread yourself too thin, it could really jeopardise the business’ long term success.
Lesson number six: getting your product to market. If you control the end-user experience, you will have an advantage.
You must use innovation to create a competitive advantage. Without innovation, I don’t care what you produce, even if you are successful, it will be short-lived and it will die. Surround yourself with brilliance.
Great teams don’t just happen, they are built and maintained deliberately. You have to start by hiring right, ensuring that the first thing that you do is recruit stronger than yourself. You must know your strength and weaknesses.
To be successful in business, it is not about having a great idea. It’s really about the execution.
I believe there is a simple solution to being successful in business and that can best be summed up in this formula: success equals opportunity multiplied by execution.
Dereck Foster is executive chairman of Art Holdings Group. He gave this advice during an address at last week’s Caribbean Exporter Of The Year Awards at Hilton Barbados.
