The think tank for global entrepreneurs
Archive for the ‘Market Entry’ Category.
When entering China, businesses can’t rely on approaches that worked in their home markets. Leaders must consider the diversity of the country, as well as its social norms, changing regulatory environment, and uneven infrastructure. Executives who take a “helicopter view” and consider the context of their surroundings will be more likely to thrive in the Chinese marketplace.
Boston Consulting Group identified 100 large and particularly successful companies that are based in rapidly developing economies and going global fast. Incumbent multinational companies will soon encounter them—if they haven’t already—as formidable competitors in markets around the world, but also as potential suppliers, customers, and partners. The authors outline these companies’ performance, analyze their motivations and strategies, and set forth key implications for incumbents.
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Are You Ready to ”Go Global?”
Strategic motives must drive the decisions to conduct business globally.
- But what is your action plan?
- Where do you begin?
- How do you begin?
- Which markets should be entered first?
- What would be the optimal mode of entry?
- How rapidly should you expand globally?
Discussion About Your Marketing and Sales Controls
After working on your marketing and sales strategy, it is important to establish measurements that focus on key controllable variables that reflect performance results in your marketing and sales efforts. Continue reading ‘What are marketing and sales controls?’ »
Introducing the Catalysis Sales Approach
Many entrepreneurs proceed by looking at a hundred different opportunities and ideas for their product, with the belief that their success will come in numbers. But only the most experienced entrepreneurs know there is just no way to go after all of them. As David Packard of Hewlett-Packard stated, “Many companies die from indigestion of opportunities rather than starvation.” Continue reading ‘What is the catalysis sales approach?’ »
Discussions About Your Sales Tactics
Since it is the least-discussed buying situation in literature and academic circles, and the most important for new business venturing, from this point on we shall direct our discussion to the entrepreneurs choosing their sales tactics for facilitating a new-task buying situation. Continue reading ‘What are your sales tactics?’ »
Discussions About Establishing Your Barriers to Entry
As you prepare your value map, consider how you can create an antibiotic against harmful organisms. Antibiotics have long existed in the biological world before Alexander Fleming’s work on penicillin in 1928. They are chemicals produced by one microorganism in order to prevent another organism from competing against it. Continue reading ‘What are barriers to entry?’ »
Preparing Your Value Map
Today’s venture capitalists look to market traction, or “referenceability,” as the single most important element before investing in a new business venture. Brooke Seawell, general partner of Palo Alto-based Technology Crossover Partners, which invests primarily in expansion and late-stage start-ups, says, “The most important thing is, can I go to four or five referenceable customers who can tell me why they like this company over competitors.” Continue reading ‘What is a value map?’ »
Steven Case created America Online from scratch into the world’s largest online service by making the power of the Internet available to the average consumer. He describes his source of pain. “In 1982, I bought my first computer and wanted to hook it up and be part of this online world, and I went to great lengths to make it happen. Continue reading ‘Case In Point: Steve Case and America Online’ »
In 1984, as a 19-year-old freshman, and going against one of the largest companies in the world, IBM, Michael Dell launched his company in his dorm room with $1,000. He had a vision that he could build computers made-to-order and sell them directly to consumers. His idea for a direct-sales business model came from observing the discontinuity in the way PCs were being sold at that time. Continue reading ‘Case In Point: Michael Dell & Direct-From-Dell Business Model’ »
Discussions of Your Revenue Model
Put simply, no business can exist without top line revenues from sales, no matter how well the other functions are handled. Your business plan must detail how you plan to price and sell your product, and how much money you plan to make. The basics should cover three broad aspects: your selling tactics, your revenue model, and your sales cycle. Continue reading ‘What is a revenue model?’ »
Marketing Through a Sales Crusader
There are many great marketing, sales, advertising, and branding books and courses out there. They all say the same thing, that you need to create a marketing strategy that goes out looking for the customer. Unfortunately, all this literature and great in-class discussion accomplishes little for the emerging venture. Continue reading ‘What is a sale crusader? Do we need sales reps?’ »
Discussions About Setting Marketing And Sales Objectives
The first objective of any business venture is to figure out how to gain paying customers. A great product without customers is not a business, though it may be a little more than a science project. Marketing involves increasing customer awareness, delivering a well-thought-out message about your product or service, and identifying customer prospects. Sales involves various efforts to convince those potential customers to buy your product. Continue reading ‘What are marketing and sales objectives?’ »
Discussions About Getting Sales Traction
Today’s venture capitalists look to market traction, or “referenceability,” as the single most important element before investing in a new business venture. Brooke Seawell, general partner of Palo Alto-based Technology Crossover Partners, which invests primarily in expansion and late-stage start-ups, says, “The most important thing is, can I go to four or five referenceable customers who can tell me why they like this company over competitors.” Continue reading ‘What is sales traction?’ »
Discussions About New Product Development Issues
New product development is the set of activities that begins with the perception and analysis of a market opportunity, and ends in the production, sale, and delivery of a new product. Risk and uncertainty accompany new product development, and there are many challenges to “integrating the fuzzy front-end of new product development.” The best way to manage the front-end process is to use a systematic approach to integrating your business strategy and technology strategy. Continue reading ‘How do we get our started on our first product?’ »
Discussions About Lead Users
Dawn Lepore, former CIO for Charles Schwab, told us that everything—from defining your space to defining and analyzing your market, to creating the perfect product or new service—starts with a focus on the customer. Continue reading ‘What are lead users?’ »
Discussions of Industry Dynamics and Risk Analysis
Understanding the environment of the industry is most important when planting the seeds of a new business venture. The environment is defined as all elements outside the boundary of an organization including the industry, government, customers, suppliers, the financial community, and other business ventures. Continue reading ‘How do we analyze the industy and risks?’ »
Benefits to Going Global
There are many benefits for entrepreneurs participating in global business activities. We group them in three categories: strategic, financial, and production related. Continue reading ‘What are the benefits to going global?’ »
Discussions About Market Entry Strategies
Daniel Spulber’s book The Market Makers: How Leading Companies Create and Win Markets helped us understand the importance of this subject. To quote him: Entry strategies take advantage of the company’s ability to create and manage markets. Continue reading ‘What are market entry strategies?’ »
Discussions About The Value Chain
Some influential business thinkers, most notably Michael Porter at Harvard Business School, have introduced the concepts of value chains that we discuss here. Continue reading ‘What is the value chain concept?’ »