Read the full script of Module 2, Episode 2 of the Global Growth Master Class below. Want to get certified on global expansion? Simply click here to access the complete course today.

What do and don’t these top companies focus on? How do they think differently?

The Global Class Company’s approach to business distinct and effective, leading them to success on a global scale.

Global Class Companies operate with a different mindset. They don’t believe in the myth of being “born global.” Instead they think global from day one by designing their business to adapt to multiple markets. They plan for international growth from the onset, incorporating local customization into their offerings to attract local customers.

Global Class Companies understand the importance of strong leadership support for global growth and work to secure alignment, resources and executive champions. They recognize that going global is just as crucial as finding product-market fit in their first market.

In today’s world, it’s almost unthinkable for a new business not to have an online presence. Likewise, it’s natural for Global Class Companies to do business in multiple countries. This mindset of thinking global from the start will become increasingly common, not just from companies founded in small markets that need to look globally for growth and validation, but even for companies born in large markets aspiring to go global in the future.

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Global Class Companies possess a clear vision, knowing what they want to focus on and what they will not. They make the most of limited resources by focusing their efforts and avoiding distractions. They build their company in a way that creates momentum when entering new markets, with a deep understanding of the impact they will make, leveraging the right strategy to succeed. 

People and culture are key components of global success. The Global Class recognize that remote work has made the role of their team even more vital, as they proactively build diverse distributed teams that thrive even in virtual work environments. Talent is driven by skills, not location and cultural fit is paramount.

Let’s explore the Global Class Mindset in more detail.

Global Class Companies Think Global Day One

The key element of this part of the Global Class mindset lies in the word "think." During our study, we encountered people using the term "born global," referring to firms from smaller nations that target overseas markets early in their establishment. However, our findings revealed that no company that achieved worldwide success was globally active from the start (attempting to launch in multiple countries in any meaningful way at once).

Some companies are in industries or have models that pull them toward a global footprint from early on - Deel enables hiring global and Flexport freight forwarding services needed to deliver cargo all over the world, so their business models require global growth. Regardless if global is necessary for the core of your business or is just an important growth path, you need to be mindful of the team you are building, culture you are setting, operational model you have established and go-to-market strategies you have implemented, and whether they are built for the localization required of international markets or not. To be a Global Class Company, you have to be purposeful about building global into the company’s DNA

The notion of a "born global" company is a fallacy and taking this strategy can mean disaster. The limited resources and diverse, fragmented local regulations, cultures, and preferences make it impossible for a business to immediately tackle a global market. Scaling effectively entails more than simply offering a product in a new market. It's crucial to first seek validation in a primary market, establishing a solid foundation for future expansion into international markets.

Global Class Companies adopt a global outlook from day one by constructing every aspect of their operations - product, team, culture, and operations - to cater to multiple markets. In our case studies later you will see how BlaBlaCar built its team and product with a view toward global, and how Canva captured global market share by creating a culture and operational model that engaged their diverse customers and employees spread across the world. They devise strategies for international expansion from the outset. These companies tailor their offerings to align with local cultures through customizations. They assemble a multicultural workforce comprising skilled professionals from different regions and establish decentralized support systems to empower their local teams.

Reaching Global scale is an intentional process that you must work up to. The Global Class Mindset is a starting point - to help companies understand the elements it needs to nurture to succeed globally, a framing mechanism - to create a common language to be socialized throughout the organization and an evaluation tool to provide real-time status into how the organization is scaling and if it is straying too far from the most direct path to global scale

Global Class Companies recognize the significance of obtaining top-level support for their global ambitions and strive to secure leadership backing, sufficient resources, and key advocates. Their leaders understand that expanding globally is just as critical to the future success of the business as obtaining product-market fit in a primary market. Securing validation in a primary market is an essential step toward their international growth.

Let me tell you a story of a Brazilian entrepreneur named Alessio Alionco

Over a decade ago, he established a company named acessozero, building the company with his home market in mind, hard-coding everything for the Brazilian market. Despite him selling the business, he felt like he hadn’t fulfilled his true ambitions… He had a burning desire to build a global company. That led him to travel to get inspiration. His trip took him to Israel, a country known for globally minded business leaders - given the countries' small size, business people there know that you must capture opportunities abroad to build a sustainable business. 

The lessons he learned led him to build another, wildly successful business that he still runs today called Pipefy. In running this venture, Alessio intentionally lives and breathes the Global Class Mindset. Because he as a leader changed, the organization he is building changed to, from being locally minded to being globally minded.

In the current era, the idea of starting a business without an online presence is considered absurd. Similarly, the notion of whether a Global Class Company should "go global" is a foregone conclusion, as almost all businesses will operate in multiple countries. This mindset of thinking globally from the outset, previously held by entrepreneurs from smaller markets, is becoming increasingly common even among companies established in the largest markets worldwide.

Examples of companies that adopted a global outlook from the outset are numerous including: Uber, Slack (a Canadian company with early presence in Vancouver, Dublin, San Francisco, and New York), and Zendesk, which expanded beyond Denmark in its early stages. Other companies like Roku may have taken some time to perfect their product before executing their expansion plans, but they had a global vision from the start, approaching international growth with a long-term perspective. Even companies from larger markets are choosing other markets to launch in that have a larger need for their solutions like Silicon Valley-based company Zipline did when it focused on first launching in Africa.

As we will explore in a case study at the end of the module, companies who have global aspirations shouldn’t “hard code” their business for their initial market. In doing so, companies make it exponentially harder to adapt the business for new markets, let alone 5 or 10 international locations. As companies begin to expand to new markets they often bring baggage with them, and often the bigger you are, the more complex it can be. For some companies it’s using products with legacy DNA, like a code-base that is over a decade old, but it is often the legacy mindset manifested in processes, systems and how decisions are made. Through mindset and distinct operational modules and playbook for growth, Global Class Companies build with more than one market in mind, and thereby are able to more easily launch a global presence that is effectively localized to find traction and growth in many local markets.

Global Class Company Vision

Being a Global Class company starts with the right framing - for how to operate a company in a single market and how to scale that company globally. By definition, a Global Class Company is an organization that strives for, and achieves, global scale by balancing localization and complexity, building a culturally conscious agile team, establishing the structures and management model to support a distributed organization, and balancing company and local cultures.

Global Class Companies cultivate a clear vision, recognizing that they need to be selective in choosing what they will focus on and what they will not. They acknowledge that resources can be limited, so they concentrate their efforts and avoid distractions. With scarce resources, these companies understand that they cannot immediately reach a worldwide audience. They construct their business in a strategic manner to gain momentum when entering new markets, with a thorough understanding of the impact they will make and the best approach to achieve traction and scale.

Most importantly, Global Class Companies realize that what makes them successful in their initial market may not be the right formula for success in international markets. In some capacity, all companies formulate the “Company Way” of doing things. Depending on the diversity of the company, this Company Way can also be closely aligned with the way business is done in its country of origin - layering in the “Japanese Way” or the “Brazilian Way” - this can lead to the Legacy Mindset, as company leadership believes that the “Company Way” is the key to global success - it rarely is. 

In years past, companies could get by on the mystic of having a product from an international market - in the 80’s, consumers in many countries wanted the well-engineered products from Japan, and having American products was desirable for many markets over the years - the tide has changed. People across the world don’t want solutions to American or Japanese problems, they want customized solutions that consider their local context and adapt to their local culture, regulations, and nuances.

Walmart is a well known brand across the globe, built on the success the company has had becoming the largest retailer in the United States. Starting in tiny Bentonville, Arkansas, the company expanded to every corner of the US, revolutionizing retail in the process. The natural next step would be to take this wildly successful model and implement it in new markets in every corner of the world. As one of its first forays into global growth, company leaders set their sites on the German market.

Walmart’s expansion into Germany offers a window into the risks of prioritizing the “Company Way” - when the company entered the German market, by acquiring nearly 100 locations through its purchase of Wertkauf hypermarkets and Interspar, it began a process of implementing the “Walmart Way” in the country. With the grocery segment in particular, the American company missed the mark. In the US, Walmart’s main value proposition is its low prices.

Germany already had some of the lowest grocery prices in all of Europe. It began selling its prepackaged meats - Germans like to see meat being cut and the experience of a local butcher. Germans didn’t trust the Walmart brands imported from the US that had no recognition locally. Finally, Germans are used to shopping on their own, only engaging staff when they need help. The Walmart Way is to have a friendly greeter to welcome everyone to the store, to have proactive staff and very talkative cashiers at check-out - this friendliness freaked Germans out, leaving them uncomfortable with this importing of good ol’ American customer service. In the end, 8 years later the company sold off its German holding, losing over $1B in the process.

NOTE: Don't miss out on the next episode! If you want to continue learning about global expansion strategies and dive deeper into the course material, simply click here to access Module 2, Episode 3 of the Global Growth Master Class