We need to internationalise the company

Tired of hearing the same old story?

We need to globalise the business.

For example, at least 40 per cent of sales should come from abroad. Easy:

1) An Export Manager – a good salesperson – who can open up new markets with minimal investment (a couple of trade fairs will do; we’ll take care of the rest from here) and who can sell the product, which is a good one.

2) Interns – they know English and the Incoterms.

3) There’s an ICEX trade mission out there somewhere… well, let’s see if we get lucky.

“We’re already generating nearly 8 per cent of our turnover abroad. Of course, it’s a right mess with the invoices – some proper headaches. What’s more, we can’t build loyalty amongst our distributors, and they’re constantly on our backs to lower prices, saying the product isn’t a good fit, that the market’s different in this or that country, and that there’s loads of competition…”

“So what’s the point of strategy? Or market research? Or positioning? What’s the point of reviewing processes? What’s the point of intellectual capital? At the end of the day, all we need are orders!”

Well, internationalisation really is a tired old topic.

And what about ‘outsourcing’?

And if we throw in a third term, ‘internalisation’, we’ve got ourselves a real tongue-twister.

The market is global and internationalisation is a necessity: not only to reduce risks by operating in different markets, but also because, whatever sector we’re in, a large part of our ecosystem is abroad: suppliers, partners, competitors, new trends and technologies, and so on. The decision to outsource or insource a task like this involves striking a balance between time, information management and efficiency in resource allocation.

Internationalisation means transforming an organisation into an international one.

Customers, processes, or both. But when internationalising customers, the processes are not the same. It is a critical task that affects the very nature of what the company does and how it does it, as well as having a direct impact on the areas of activity and authority of the people who make up the organisation.

When we are faced with a change project such as this, the logical approach is to allocate temporary resources – preferably external ones – without any long-term commitments.

The project must result in the establishment of new processes and, of course, new clients. Once established, these processes will take on a longer-term outlook, meaning that day-to-day management should be taken in-house by the organisation’s own staff.

It is reassuring to think that the internationalisation of a Spanish company is not very different from that of an American company. In fact, recent personal experiences have shown me that frustration and conflict always stem from a misguided view of the task at hand. And yet the checklist is well known: what strategy, which countries, which market segments, which channels, which product, what positioning, what resources, what risks, what integrated marketing, what sales plan, what processes… and what changes do I need to make to carry it all out successfully?

And yet, both in the US and here, we jump straight to the sales plan! Each of those items on the checklist requires meticulous attention, and change management requires more than just an export manager.

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Through interim management, it is possible to design and implement internationalisation strategies and tactics, ensuring the success of the process, without compromising internal resources allocated to other objectives and with an orderly exit. [BUTTON url="http://epunto.es/contacte-con-nosotros/" text="Would you like to find out more about us?" side="right"]