Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them, Volley’d & thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot & shell, Boldly they rode & well,
Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
(Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892)
HBHGlobal - A new approach:
International market entry basic question should be “ How do I make my company that is based a number of time zones and cultures away from my target market, a local company within an international organizational structure”. Or, if you have a sense of humor “How do I make sure that my new international venture into an unknown market does not end up as a bankruptcy statistic”.
Globalization is the word in politics, science and business. Type the word globalization in Amazon’s book search engine and you get 21912 results. All of them I am sure very interesting and profound books on How Globalization is changing the Future of ….. (you type in the word you want and there will be someone writing about it).
As an international business team with almost two decades of international business experience we have come to realize that in an international venture you encounter problems that go beyond the traditional business planning processes. The “How to plan for success”-approach is gradually overtaken by a sense of “how do I avoid making mistakes”.
Doing business in an international context means doing business in other cultures with people who react unpredictably and “illogical” at first sight. Legal systems, bureaucratic organizations, rules and regulations, are often fundamentally different and require a lot of “adaptive” work.
Besides challenges there are rewards as well. Many as far as we are concerned. Personally we have always found the exposure to other people and cultures highly interesting and it has provided insights we would otherwise have missed.
However, being in business means you need to go beyond being a tourist and get results. In the end, the bottom line is the only thing that counts and should be the focus in managing a business.
The process of making money is more complicated if it is done in an international context. There are issues that need to be addressed that a home market focused company does not need to. And the only way it can be successful is when it is done in a highly structured way with clear objectives.
Our focus is to avoid the Valley of Death with a strong and clear focus on solving the “problems” in international market entry strategy and implementation.
Organizations are at their most dynamic when they are in the process of BECOMING.
