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Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since September 2017 | Week 309 | August 11-17, 2023

3 Ways to Successfully Expand Your Business Internationally

By Jenna Anderson | Inc Magazine | August 11, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

Scaling abroad has the potential to increase a company’s market reach and revenue, give it access to a new pool of talent, and diversify its assets. In a 2021 survey of companies in the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany by the international employment firm INS Global, 42 percent of the businesses considered their best growth opportunities to be outside of their domestic market.

For the past three years, the team at Grupo Shogua, which runs retails at airports, has been researching and planning the company’s international expansion. After overcoming a number of challenges along the way, Nasser has garnered advice for other businesses looking to expand internationally.

1. Research the barriers to entry.  Commercial space in airports is limited, creating an inherent barrier for Grupo Shogua brands to enter them in new countries. ​​”There’s a lot of politics and lobbying around it,” Nasser says. “Big companies all want a piece of these spots in airports.”  Nasser and his team researched the political and lobbying processes in their target countries and came prepared to show their added value, like support for renovations and willingness to work with smaller companies.
2. Send a hiring team who believes in your vision.  One of the most difficult parts of international expansion, Nasser says, is finding trusted talent in the new countries. Initially, the Grupo Shogua team considered hiring and training remotely, but Nasser quickly realized it would be impossible to get new employees to understand their culture, mission, and vision without being there in person.  So Nasser sent a team of Grupo Shogua higher-ups to recruit and train talent in the new countries After years of believing in the company’s vision and having a say in the business, the directors were willing to travel without much incentive. “It’s not something that motivates just me. It also motivates my team. They want to grow with the company,” he says.
3. Show up and build relationships.  You’ll face new competition abroad, and Nasser says his international competitors weren’t happy about his arrival, encouraging lawyers and lobbying groups not to work with him.   So, Nasser says he worked to build up his company’s reputation. He says he made plenty of visits to the new countries over the past two years and went “knocking on doors” of commercial offices, lawyers, and other people involved with the airport sector. “You have to show yourself. You have to be there,” he says. “You have to be trustable for them to understand you’re here to do things right.”

3 key takeawaysfrom the article

1. Scaling abroad has the potential to increase a company’s market reach and revenue, give it access to a new pool of talent, and diversify its assets. In a 2021 survey of companies in the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany by the international employment firm INS Global, 42 percent of the businesses considered their best growth opportunities to be outside of their domestic market.
2. For the past three years, the team at Grupo Shogua, which runs retails at airports, has been researching and planning the company’s international expansion. 
3. After overcoming a number of challenges along the way, Nasser has garnered advice for other businesses looking to expand internationally.  Three of these are: research the barriers to entry, send a hiring team who believes in your vision, and show up and build relationships.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, International Business, Risk Taking

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