INTERNATIONALIZATION

Dare to explore much larger and more buoyant markets

Main benefits of internationalizing your business

• Access new markets with higher volumes and/or margins than the domestic market,
• Create economies of scale and increase your competitiveness,
• Improve the image of the company, within your home market too
• Build on market trends and monitor what the competition is doing, to anticipate new products / services and either expand your own offering, or ensure its significant and continuous improvement,
• Enrich your company’s management style and its activities by exploring what people do elsewhere in the world
• Enhance the attractiveness of your company to talents, and retain them with innovative projects,
• Get closer ties to foreign customers
• Forestall the development of competition, including in your domestic market …

Key points to look for

• TAXATION
  • Customs duties and other import taxes
  • Local taxation
  • Bilateral tax agreements between countries and avoiding double taxation
  • Local and international accounting and fiscal principles, transfer pricing policy etc
• MARKETING
  Adapt yours to particular markets
• R&D
  Potentially needs tailoring to take into account customizations recommended by Marketing Dept.
• COMMERCE
  Different distribution channels and methods
• LOGISTICS
  • Deadlines, costs, conditions of carriage,
  • Customs clearance… etc…
• ADMINISTRATION & LAW
  Host countries, rights and obligations of foreign investors…etc…
• FINANCE
  Accounting and financing rules, quality of the local banking sector and its contacts with France, tools, habits & customs, project financing incl. working capital requirement (WCR)…etc…
• HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
  Recruitment, payroll, loyalty, dismissals …etc…
• CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Main prerequisites for international success

• Be prepared for change, learn to adapt and be flexible,
• Have a team that includes some assets who are ready or have potential for international operations,
• Have a sound financial basis, without dependence on immediate profitability and return on investment,
• Be able to get your ideas across, even in very basic English,
• Make your move neither too early, nor too late…

Main success factors

• Being strong in your domestic market (with allowable exceptions for startups)
• Having some financing capacity, especially as regards your WCR
• Ideally, having the same financial partner in France and abroad,
• Having a written long-term strategic vision for the company and its expansion plans,
• Having the capacity to to free up time for team members most involved in this project, and to allocate them the necessary resources,
• Readiness to create expatriate posts, or hire bicultural staff on both sides,
• Contracts with local bicultural partners to help you understand the market, your rights and obligations and learn good practices,
• Being constantly mindful of the return on investment for each proposed action, seen through the lens of local market conditions, not our domestic frame of reference
• Conducting market research where none is already available
• Learning to adapt your marketing, distribution channels, and products and/or services,
• Benefiting from all the tools, support and funding for which the project is eligible,
• Coaching by an expert who will identify and coordinate all stakeholders, whether in-company or external, in France or abroad,
• In particular, coaching in how to avoid common pitfalls, to save time, and how not to let past experience with clients, your team, suppliers etc. send you off course…

Examples of best practice for international success

• Participate in international trade fairs relevant to your industry, in order to gather intelligence
• Start exporting by selling from France, which will especially help you understand logistics flows and customs procedures
• Forge partnerships with public or private bodies, or other players within your industry, whether they are your size or not.
• Take your first steps in a European market that is buoyant for your products and services, to gain a “quick win” that will let you make a review of your internal organization, with the aim of facilitating your expansion into more distant markets, which will be more different but also more important
• The US market is a good springboard to other markets worldwide. This region is relatively demanding, but homogeneous, with high volume potential, and good for your image,
• Take on a local partner in a joint venture, or start with a non-exclusive distribution agreement,
• Create a 100% owned subsidiary (though this may not be possible in all countries or all sectors)
• Hire bicultural staff in France as well as abroad,

AVETA GLOBAL,OUR TEAM ON YOUR TEAM,

FOR WORLDWIDE SUCCESS!