When we start new tech business, should we start locally or globally?
While global business motivation consists of lots of opportunities, it also includes much more challenges, requiring intellectual property, operational and financial investment. At the point where companies or teams consider globalization or doing business abroad, there are 2 types of approaches:
Companies who grow locally and expand globally
Those who start with a global vision
At this stage, with your permission, we would like to express our personal opinion, WeI think every software company should be born global. If the firm gives priority to the domestic market and then plans abroad, it will experience some internal difficulties in addition to normal development. I tried to elaborate below.
1-Strategic Planning
When companies born with the vision of a global company will organize their resources with this paradigm. With or without active marketing, the company will be ready for opportunities. Companies can design business processes, language, documentation, certification and legal compliance and employees qualification. Although this may seem like an extra effort at first, it will play an important role in the future of the company as a building with a solid foundation. In the event that the priority is given to the domestic market and then the studies related to abroad are started, additional difficulties will be experienced at every stage in terms of human resources, process, compatibility, language and documentation competence, which are the wheels of the company, and a change plan that has its own difficulties and may take several years will need to be made.
2-Human Resources and Team
Although our subject is technology companies, I think it would not be wrong to say that the equity capital of technology companies is human. Companies born with a global objectives will establish their staff with language competence as well as technical competence. While this will result in being more selective than a narrower pool at the beginning, it will eliminate the problems that may arise from the development of the products and services to the documentation. When global studies are added to the agenda later, there will be constant need for retrospective corrections and changes, especially language, from code level to documentation and configuration issues. Recognizing these at the point of contact with the customer will cause loss of reputation.
3-Business Processes
The business processes of the domestic market and the global market are different. It will not be easy for the team or teams accustomed to the dynamics of the domestic market to get used to the requirements of the foreign market and to give the necessary responses. Even if the team is dedicated, and it is often not easy to break away from the past, there will be differences in the work culture and difficulties in focusing, especially in the early days. Once goals related to the foreign markets are defined from the first day, the marketing, sales and after-sales processes, requirements and tools will be organized accordingly, and the necessary service and product quality will be provided for the team, regardless of the difference between the domestic market and the foreign market.
4-Branding
While the picture will be clear in companies born global, since both the digital and corporate appearance of the company will be designed accordingly, it will be a matter of discussion whether the later transformation companies will look according to the domestic market, where sales are mostly coming, or whether the foreign language will come to the fore for the foreign market that does not yet generate income, and It will cause a waste of time and energy in itself.
5- Language and Documentation
Global target means foreign language. Since the work done by technology companies is a technical job, the service you receive from a standard translation office will always bring corrections with additional effort. Getting all resources, processes, development and documentation right from the first day will bring much less effort and success than correcting the wrong or incomplete.
6- Legal Compliance
Legal issues cannot be ignored and in case of their absence, they either make the business unworkable or in return have the risk of penalties. The fact that the architectural structure of the product or service is not made in accordance with the necessary legislation may bring about more difficult change requirements later on.
As I mentioned above, if you are a technology startup or software company, my personal opinion is that the company should think about born-in-global. Of course, life is not linear and there is no such thing as everything will happen from the first day, at least I think it would be better if companies start to think about being global today.