Born Global

I was reading the June/July 2007 edition of the IET Engineering Management Journal and was struck by a piece of research that’s been done in Finland by a Siv Karlson around companies that don’t bother to develop their national markets first; they just hit the global market.

Her blueprint for success includes:

1. The company’s products are unique, ingenious and inovative.
2. The company’s founder (or other key person) has wide experience and an extensive contact network from previous work in similar industries – does LinkedIn count I wonder.
3. The company has strong relationships with key personnel from large, successful organisations.
4. The company has good relationships with influential figures in the industry.
5. All the personnel in the company are very involved and eager for it to success.

I guess what’s interesting to me is that all (or at least) most of these characteristics are important for any company to be successful in the ‘global’ economy.