Searching for International Business Opportunities in a Risky World - BECH 2024

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Searching for International Business Opportunities in a Risky World. The BECH Index 2021-28 A New Perspective The primary goal of this annual whitepaper, which involves ranking countries based on their economic potential, was initially designed to assist software executives in identifying the most promising global expansion opportunities. While economic capacity was originally used as a straightforward measure for assessing market size, the underlying assumption was that a certain level of critical mass was necessary given the investments required to establish a revenue-generating infrastructure. Expanding internationally necessitates activities such as product localisation, translation, and the establishment of country-specific revenue generation and support capabilities. However, in the present economic and political landscape, making investment decisions of this nature has become increasingly challenging. Fortunately, we now have alternative options available. THE VIRTUAL FORMAT The information technology industry is, by nature, global. No wars, pandemics, or climate problems will change that. Our industry is blessed with low cost of entry and simple supply chains. Serving customers in other countries doesn't require opening warehouses, building factories, setting up repair shops or investing in other CAPEX-heavy 1 assets and infrastructures. International growth, therefore, is much more accessible than in most other industries. With the proliferation of the internet, the introduction of cloud-based computing and the increasing popularity of software-as-a-service, it has become possible to serve customers worldwide without needing a local presence. The pandemic pushed the threshold for what companies are prepared to purchase without meeting with the potential vendors. We got used to web meetings and learned to use virtual collaboration tools. As you consider your options for global growth, you should carefully review if you can take advantage of the virtual go-to-market approach. As I describe in the book Going Global on a Shoestring, there are products so generic that they don't need any, or only minor, localisation. They can be used as they are in any country. There may even be a global market for just the English version of such a product. You may not get deep penetration with an English-only version in other segments, but it can be an excellent starting point. For certain products, selling them doesn't require that you have any feet on the ground. All customer interaction can be done virtually and asynchronously. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 1 CAPEX: Capital Expenditure 6 www.tbkconsult.com
Searching for International Business Opportunities in a Risky World. The BECH Index 2021-28 In some situations, communicating in English may also be acceptable. In such situations, there is no need to pick a market. You can run your global business from your current office, complemented with freelance resources located anywhere in the world. And even if you need to master local languages, the fact that you don't need to meet physically, face-to-face, with your customers will enable you to run your operation from any location or even in a fully remote or virtual format. All you must do is invest in a professional presence on the web and lead generation activities 2 . Then, you can generate revenue from customers all over the world. Examples of well-known companies that started this way are Salesforce, Atlassian, Basecamp, Zendesk, ZoHo, WordPress and HubSpot. In my recent book, you can find more examples of lesserknown and smaller companies that do the same. LET THE MARKETS PICK YOU If you can generate international business virtually, you may already have an installed base from which you can expand. Working from a position where you already have reference customers is preferred over starting from scratch. Are there ways these customers can introduce you to other potential customers? Are there resellers or a distributor that could represent you? An opportunistic approach, where you respond to inbound inquiries, may seem lazy. Still, provided you qualify them carefully, it can be a great way to get started in a new country. This is often the case with large projects in super niche markets where there are very few competitors and where you have a significant comparative advantage. Such an advantage can be on the product side, where your solution is more innovative and attractive to visionary customers. But it can also be a better product/market fit for specific customers. Your product may not be the most innovative, but you have references that match perfectly with what risk-averse customers are looking for. I have several examples of such situations in the book Going Global on a Shoestring, where software vendors only pick a market when one or more customers are ready to engage. The business case can then be built on these references, which removes substantial risk. If you fall into this category, you must have a team that can travel the world and convincingly represent your product and company. These people must have the skills to qualify and develop the opportunities that present themselves. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 2 Click here for inspiration on how to generate international inbound leads. 7 www.tbkconsult.com
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