International Business Development

Whether it’s developing and implementing an international business development strategy from scratch or ramping up a specific piece of an existing programme, I can help drive better outcomes faster.

Activities include
● International market research and analysis
● Market selection exercises
● Identifying the optimal market entry strategies for new target markets
● Identifying and pitching to prospective local partners and customers
● Designing sales and marketing campaigns for new overseas markets
● Advice on establishing local presence – location, legal entity options, regulatory and compliance issues

Resources that I bring to the table include:
● Decades of hands-on practical experience of driving international business development for IT solutions and services businesses across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia & New Zealand and North America
● Access to top quality, granular ICT market data covering more than 30 major national markets around the world
● Well developed personal networks in government, finance and business circles in many countries

Strategic Consultancy Services

“Evolve or die” has been a mantra spouted by business people for many years. But evolution is a slow process – way too slow to be a viable response to the dynamic shifts that are constantly occurring in contemporary marketplaces. Today, business leaders are far more likely to talk about “pivoting” rather than “evolving”: in other words, responding to rapidly emerging new threats and opportunities with a radical shift of strategy in a very short timeframe.

But pivoting a business is high risk (although not pivoting is usually higher risk when the landscape in which you operate is changing radically at a fast pace). It needs to be evidence-led rather than based on gut instinct - and the evidence needs to be gathered quickly.

It’s also hard to do. It involves thinking outside the box, gaining an in-depth knowledge of new ways of doing things (and new technologies), and often requires you to identify and build a whole new eco-system of partners. The new positioning – together with the new products and services – needs to be articulated with precision and clarity. Achievable, carefully thought through tactical plans need to be developed and executed to drive the pivot. And all of this needs to happen fast. Very fast.

To further compound the problem, very few SME management teams have the capacity to do this without help – they are too busy managing critical operational imperatives on a day to day basis. They need a trusted adviser to immerse themselves in the process and work fast to

● Do the market research
● Figure out and present the best strategic options
● Identify the critical success factors to underpin the pivot (technologies, partners, new skill sets etc.)
● Articulate the new positioning and value propositions
● Work out the necessary critical path and develop actionable, tactical plans to drive the change

All of which is what I offer to my clients. In recent times I have been the trusted advisor / enabler of a number of pivots including:

● From “old school” system integrator to cloud-centric MSP
● From low level sales of B2C innovative tech products to B2B high value licensing of the underlying tech
● From high cost, slow (and rare) sales of a “Rolls Royce” product to very large enterprises, to high volume sales of a stripped down version to SMEs
● From niche implementation partner of a high end digital transformation platform vendor to provider of end-to-end digital transformation services directly into the SME sector

Partnering Dealmaking Creating Value

Particularly in the Tech sector, identifying synergies and creative partnering and deal making can transform a company’s fortunes more quickly than pretty much anything they might be able to achieve through their own efforts. But it can be something of an “art form” – particularly when it comes to more complex kinds of deals such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions.

Engineering creative and complex deals is a speciality of mine as I am able to bring an unusual blend of experience and specialist know how to the table:

● Several years’ experience as an international corporate lawyer in the IT industry focused on structuring and negotiating complex deals in numerous countries
● Many years of experience in sales and international business development in the Tech sector
● A CEO perspective as a result of personal experience of running several Tech businesses
● A practical understanding of how different types of Tech businesses (and markets) really work as a result of many years working as a senior business consultant across the sector

Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving

As a business leader and management consultant in the IT sector I have frequently had to take on complex, novel challenges and find innovative solutions. I offer the benefit of that experience – and capability – to my clients.

For example, I am currently working with a client who has successfully run a pure play consulting business for many years, and who wanted to explore the possibility of somehow digitising the smarts” inherent in their consulting capability and bring this to market as a SaaS offering. But they were struggling to figure out how to go about this – and how to qualify up front whether it really was a potential goer.

They recognised that an external advisor with a fresh pair of eyes, no baggage, an ability to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions based on intellectually rigorous analysis could be the key.

That project is now well advanced. I have worked with the client to convert a hazy vision into a structured design concept, qualified the market opportunity through research and leveraged my extensive personal network of senior contacts across the industry to identify and bring to the table prospective specialist partners to work with them in making the vision a reality.

That is the kind of challenge I love and thrive on!