Economy today means speed, agility and efficiency. Customers are globally spreaded, mobile and difficult to retain. The size of the company does not matter. It is worth less than before. Your speed of transformation and your ability to pivot are more significant than ever.
“The fast eat the slow.”
If you have admitted that your business is changing and that these upheavals are impacting your sustainability, you are aware of the need to rethink your international strategy.
If you feel that you are not yet organized to deal with it, try to think about setting up an export department adapted to your corporate values, your needs and your capacities. But above all, build an effective team to move fast.
Changing your mindset
Companies must give the following components an essential place in their international development strategy.
- Integrate speed as an operating model,
- Perform in the art of digital marketing,
- Focus teams on technological and commercial innovation,
- Train people to excel without borders.
“Kleine Geschäfte, großer Export”
Small companies, big export.
Germany is performing well. The country’s entire competitiveness is built on a solid base of small and medium exporting enterprises. We must integrate deep changes in our businesses and new commercial techniques to catch up.
Give birth to new ideas, new projects, new reflexes and write your own story.
4 successful keys for exporting SME
- Being able to compete in the open markets of the global digital economy.
- Dealing with unpredictable technologies and business volumes.
- Accelerating production cycles in response to the growing “throwaway” world consumption.
- Attracting best employees with international skills and competences.
The SME in its strategic thinking must take into account these 4 dimensions to:
- Plan and control its international development. Export is a major item for corporate growth.
- Understand the offer of its competitors on international markets, segment them and adapt its products or services.
- Know the technological developments of its own industry, master them completely and adapt its portfolio.
- Put the company in a state of “technology watch“. Innovation is key. SME must follow the micro and macro-economic developments that will impact them.
- Recognize the importance of disrupting communication strategies. Growth marketing is collaborative, participative, interactive. Do not make the mistake of believing that these developments do not concern you or just a little. Knowledge of social networks must be part of the corporate culture. Integrate it into your approach and master the art of circulating information in an aesthetic and effective way. Develop on-line dedicated supports, products and services.
- Your “business know-how” is no longer sufficient and must be extended to skills specific to international trade. It is not enough to translate brochures to succeed. An effort to transpose technical data in simple terms, the adaptation of products, the organization of after-sales service, the multicultural approach… This is essential.
- Export employees are no longer and do not need to be in the office. This implies effective mobility tools and a new and different remote management model.
- International development changes the very nature of business. Export brings new problems, in particular those of communication, distribution, supply-chain and customer support. The company will redefine its positioning and will be better adapted to the turbulence of its environment.
- Reorganize the company to obtain daily information, KPI, on the overall effectiveness of its actions in order to be able to decide and react fast globally.
“Start small and dream big.” Robert Kiyosaki.
Happy CEO 