Managing and Growing International Business

Purpose of the workshop:
This workshop is for companies who wish to accelerate their international business growth and profits through maximising their full potential in the international arena.

It is focused on companies that have started on an export strategy and may not have made the forecast growth, have grown to a certain level and then appeared to stall, or who wants to accelerate their growth in the international arena.

It is also suitable for those companies who are "born global"; their business is only in the international arena and wish to develop an advanced strategy for growth.

Workshop overview:
The most successful international companies understand the need for congruence in their business and the target markets to ensure that their growth objectives are met.

Unfortunately as companies grow and expand, there are often gaps in the alignment between the most critical factors, which are:

• The long term company goals and strategy
• The expectations and needs of the marketplace
• The internal competencies and focus

This workshop will apply simple methods of assessing and understanding the impact of each factor on long term business growth and develop an integrated strategy that involves the company as a whole, whilst being in line with target markets, which can result in meeting long term strategy more effectively whilst consistently growing the business.

Who should attend:
Company owners and/or managers who are responsible, committed and empowered to make company decisions and who are the champions for international growth within their organisation.

The size of company should be those that have separate departments or Business Units and is focused towards medium sized companies (possibly 25+).

Workshop style and format:
Facilitator led discussion, instruction and debate balanced with round table and individual exercises. Delegates will record gaps and action planning through a series of worksheets to develop a congruent strategic and operational action plan for managing their international business growth.

Workshop duration: One day

Maximum number of delegates: 15

Workshop content:

The workshop is oriented around the interrelationships between three core elements that develop the process of Managing and Growing International Business:

• The long term strategic goals of the company.
• The alignment between the marketplace, culture and the business.
• The internal competencies and focus.

Delegates will:

• Understand the cause and effect relationships of the company goals, strategy, structure, competencies and markets.
• Debate the key reasons that stop companies from growing internationally.
• Understand the impact of the culture of target markets on their business as a whole.
• Evaluate the alignment of the target markets to the company’s long term goals and investigate how both can be balanced.
• Understand how to develop and apply a simple Management Loop to review, plan and manage the business growth, enabling the company and each department to:
• Develop a clear understanding of the requirements of each department to meet the company strategy as a whole
• Understand the flexibility required to meet operational and strategic goals
• Focus and prioritise on making a positive impact
• Determine any gaps in skills and knowledge to ensure that the company can do everything it needs to
• Carry out action planning to ensure that the company structure and skills are congruent with the long term strategy and goals, and aligned to the target market.