Introduction
Companies at different stages have different needs relating to planning and managing a global expansion. The current revenue levels, funding stage and cash budgeted for a global expansion can drive these variables. The decision-making, software tools, types of vendors and go to market strategy should be approached differently by a startup, a hyper growth company and an enterprise firm.
Startup
A startup will be focused on cost, the ability to be agile and have centralized decisions, often with the founder or a key C-Level leader managing the expansion directly. They have the flexibility to localize software and can engage with more cost-effective, boutique service providers to create a custom solution. Startups want to establish a brand and often will tackle one country at a time in order to focus on learning about the local customer.
Hyper Growth
Hyper growth companies will have sufficient funding or revenue to expand to multiple countries at once or an entire region. Speed takes precedent over cost, and there is a preference for qualified, white glove solutions that can be implemented quickly. Hyper Growth companies will often require regional or global vendors and providers to support the scale of their ambitions as opposed to beginning a new procurement cycle for each country. They look to extend their brand and are beginning to cement internal softwares and SOPs, thus requiring global solutions to fit into their established systems.
Enterprise
MNCs or large enterprises have larger budgets and the difficulty with expansion plans stems from having so many cross functional stakeholders with moving pieces. The needs of large enterprises include partners and vendors with APIs, enterprise-level software, global platforms and global banking. An enterprise will often have a well-defined brand that has already been successfully launched in a new country. Enterprise firms must balance the rigid execution of existing SOPs with the innovative, curious mindset of lean startups to address the customer pain point with creative solutions.
Summary
Understanding which level your company is at can help to tailor the necessary types of project plans and partners to engage as you expand globally.
