Global vision from day one: Building for scalability and cultural adaptation

Why should you consider culturalisation and a global approach from day one when launching a new business?

When your company's decisions are made to operate on a global scale from the get-go:

🛠️ You'd build easily adaptable and scalable tech solutions to address different needs when you're ready to expand. Starting with a globally friendly architecture helps to avoid the rework cost in the future.

🧠 You'd build products/services & set up a business model/proposition that works in both your home market AND others, with adjustments for local needs & cultural context when going global.

💡 By embracing a global perspective early on, you could take advantage of creative ideas & innovations that emerge from cross-cultural interactions, potentially becoming key differentiations of your business in your home market. Cultural diversity can be a source of innovation (see my previous post: link in the comment)

📈 You/your team would be able to view your services in a broader context & position your business for global expansion right from the start. It aligns with a long-term vision with goals that extend beyond local markets, ensuring a sustainable growth strategy

🧗🏼‍♀️ The learning curve for internationalisation will be steeper in the future if you don't embrace this approach from the start.

👥 Cultural nuances matter even in the home market.

With international considerations woven into the foundation of a business, it becomes inherently adaptable. Strategies can be adjusted more seamlessly to cater for different markets later.

🩺 Example: A digital healthcare start-up was set to deliver scientific-based & personalised health info before, during & after pregnancy via a mobile app. As the UK was their kick-start market, all efforts went into how they could stand out in a crowd of competitors in this market.

But, antenatal & postnatal care systems vary significantly from country to country. E.g. Terms used | When appointments/scans are due | Who medical experts are | Access to the experts | Types of care/support given | Classes to attend (e.g. NCT or antenatal classes are very much a UK thing) | Cultural differences, e.g. Asian 30-day postpartum confinement | Lifestyle/diet | Social setting: Living with big family, etc.

These differences could significantly impact the app's design for global success. By building the business based solely on the NHS-led UK market, it was challenging for them to then adapt & extend to other markets. They struggled to reposition without having to rebuild most of what they had, change their business proposition & impact the growth of their UK market.

🔍 A global approach from day one encourages you to focus on developing what makes sense globally, enabling easier expansion with universal and unique functionalities.

One of the reasons only a small % of companies succeed past early investment is taking a disjointed short-term approach to growth.

🚀 Apply long-term global strategic thinking for sustainable growth 🚀!