Entrepreneur

Oct. 9, 2012
How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur Across Borders

KEY IDEAS
* If you are an entrepreneur it makes a lot of sense to think of the world in terms of:
Opportunities and resources* International Expansion Matrix

* The U.S is a very important market for high tech industry, eventually you have to establish there you should not avoid it.
* What do Entrepreneurs Do?Pursue opportunities without paying too much attention to the resources they require to pursue those opportunities. Opportunity-driven behavior.
* Knowledge (intangible asset) more important thanhard assets.
* Drivers of Cross-border Entrepreneurship:
* Decreasing cost of crossing borders.
* Desire to preserving strong first-mover advantages (Facebook, eBay)
* Desire to gainaccess to unique resources capabilities.
* Entrepreneurial energy of start-up firms
* But: inexperience of start- up firms
* People that have lived in a certain country are more exposedand tend to do a business in that country more than the ones that have only been there as a tourist.
* Steps recommended: (Opportunities) local, cross-border regional, cross-border worldwide.(Resources) local, cross border regional
* Born global: companies that start from the beginning globally. Not very recommended.
* It might be a good global idea business but you should startlocally.
* Nevertheless sometimes first move advantage incentives you to do it quickly (Google).
* Questions you must ask yourself:
* Why do we want to expand abroad: to gain access toopportunities or to gain access to resources?
* Resources: capital, labor, product knowledge,
* Opportunities: new markets, new costumers.
* Do we have clearly defined business model?
*Have we gained traction (Sales? Cash flow?) in our home market?
* Do we have team members with international experience?
* Much better to focus on a few large markets than in many markets....