Global ambitions
I am a successful European IT company with ambition. To secure the continued success of my business in a globalised world I need to develop long-term relationships with strategic partners who can help me to grow, innovate and gain access to emerging markets.
Markets for IT products and services in Western European countries - and around the world – are being reshaped by the globalisation phenomena. With high speed communications facilities available everywhere and (for all practical purposes) free, new business communities with a global reach are emerging all over the place. The new possibilities created by the internet attract the most energetic, imaginative and entrepreneurial minds on the planet.
This development represents an opportunity as well as a threat – you never know who your next competitor will be or where they come from. Either way, the good news is there is opportunity out there. In our “weightless economy”, companies don’t have to big to be global. All it takes is some ambition and a little help from the right people.
Cross-shoring
IT is high-tech, but IT is also labour intensive. To grow means to put more people to work. As demand from customers grows, IT businesses have little choice: they have to grow their teams in order to meet the demand. Not growing means failing to meet demand, at the risk of losing customers for ever. But taking on more people is expensive and risky, assuming even that you can find them….
Outsourcing can be the solution: move work to places where talented people with the right skillsets and attitudes are available in sufficient numbers and at affordable costs. This is nothing new, for big companies, but how do you get started when you are smaller? Global Circles’ consultants and project managers can help. We have the experience and the relationships, and, as we are entrepreneurs ourselves, we are willing to share in the risk. Because we know: a risk shared is a risk reduced!
Outsourcing deals tend to be one-dimensional, “flat”, but Global Circles’ approach is different. We will help you create true partnerships with first-class IT companies in areas of the world which are low-cost, but high-growth and therefore opportunity-rich. Companies which don’t just focus on selling cheap labour, but which are also well-established in their local markets as sellers, implementers and supporters of IT products. So, if you are willing to go to the trouble of establishing a business relationship with an offshore supplier, why not make sure that relationship works for you both ways and your supplier becomes a customer and a reseller as well! This way you take advantage of all the good things that traditional outsourcing brings, plus you get a foot in the door of the world’s fastest growing economies.
But it doesn’t stop even there, as we work to create more value. Consider that these partner relationships can become one of the most valuable and strategic assets of your company. Provided that you take the right approach and make the right choices from the beginning! The key word is “innovation”: in technology, in marketing, in ways to deliver value to your customers, in finding new customers, in everything you do as a company. We find that innovation thrives on diversity, feeds on new and different points of view. From people who are creative, fearless and not bothered by “the way we’ve always done it”. In the longer term (which, by the way, is getting shorter and shorter) your company’s ability, not only to adapt, but to innovate, will drive its success. Provided you take the right decisions now, the partnerships you create will ultimately make that difference.