Last week, I had the real pleasure of spending some time with Mike Myatt, a fellow Forbes contributor who is also a very successful business owner, as well as a world-renowned leadership thinker and coach. I had read Mike's column at Forbes, and appreciated his thoughtfulness, humor and no-nonsense approach - and he's even better in person.
I was attending the Soundview Author Summit in Atlanta - a wonderful gathering of published business authors and the people who enable our success: publishers, agents, publicists, content distributors and designers. Mike had been invited to talk with us about expanding our businesses internationally, and he offered simple, practical advice that I found very helpful. Mike’s company, N2Growth, has a number successful international offices, and they seem to be opening a new one every few months, so I was fairly confident his advice was grounded in real-world experience.
Mike's insights were particularly useful to me right now, since my company, Proteus, recently opened an office in Santiago and is looking to open another in Asia Pacific (most likely Hong Kong or Singapore) within the next year. His advice clarified for me some of what my partner and I have been discovering as we approach this new element of our business growth. I thought it might be helpful for you, as well, if you’re at a point where you’re considering creating an international presence for your business. Here's the essence of what I learned:
1. Already have a presence. Mike warned us against trying to start from nothing. He noted that N2Growth has been successful in opening international offices when they already had clients in the region, who would be thrilled to have easier access to their services and products. He noted that having existing customers in the area also makes for much easier business development; potential customers will be much more willing to trust the recommendations of other regional business owners. More by luck than design, we used this approach in opening our first international office in Chile; a number of our US-based clients have a major presence in Latin America, and were enthusiastic about the idea of having Proteus available to them locally. We've been able to satisfy that need, and to begin to build new client relationships based on those existing ones. Trying to build an international office from a standing start puts a great deal of stress on your business financially in the early years; being a known quantity and starting with some local clients can dramatically speed your success.
2. Find a local influencer. Mike also encouraged us not simply to hire locals, but to hire locals who have lots of connections and are seen as positive and influential. Having someone who knows the local language, and understands how business is conducted is essential to your success - and it's even more helpful when that person already has a great professional reputation. He noted that when they recently opened a new office in Southeast Asia, they were able to bring on a very highly respected and well-known professor of business management as the head of their new office. This local influencer's partnership with N2Growth gave instant credibility to their new office in his country. We were fortunate in the same way; our Latin Americas Director was a respected trainer and management consultant before we ever connected with him. His knowledge of local business practice and command of both Spanish and Portuguese were necessary - his positive reputation was the icing on the cake.
3. Look for the personal fit. Finally, Mike advised us all to make sure that the key people in the new office are culturally aligned with your company, and willing and able to deliver your products or services in the ways you deliver them. He encouraged us to look beyond resume, and even beyond "local influencer," to make sure that this person will be a great representative of your particular brand. This was especially resonant advice for me; we recently came very close to partnering with someone in Asia Pacific who wouldn't have been a great match for us - for exactly these reasons. This person was very, very smart, articulate and well-educated, but we realized (fortunately for her and for us), that her approach and skills were quite different from ours, and that it would have been a constant struggle to get and stay on the same page. Most of us have experienced how difficult it can be to make a partnership work with someone when values or skills may not be completely aligned. Trying to do it when you're thousands of miles apart and that person is your only representative in the region - a sure recipe for frustration and disaster.
If you've had experiences in opening international offices, I'd love to hear about it. Does your experience accord with Mike's advice, or do you have a different point of view?
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