Internationalisation

Last week, I was honoured to be asked to speak at a dinner held by the Entrepreneurial Exchange in Aberdeen. The topic was International Sales and Marketing, and we all enjoyed an evening of discussion around the subject, with a fair amount of banter thrown in!

As I sat down to prepare however, I was able to reflect on the many years that I have spent travelling, firstly in satellite television then telecoms, and then energy. I was able to count nearly 30 countries where I had actually been involved in business, including many where I had started, ran or shut down companies. Obviously anyone working in the energy sector has had to take an international outlook, but I believe that the experience of working internationally has had a profound impact on my business vision. Some of the lessons I have learnt will be topics for future blogs, however today I read about the increasing internationalisation of the FTSE 100 in the FT, and it struck a chord.

http://bit.ly/cHgy21

International businesses are now storming into the FTSE, and this is perhaps the closest signal so far of the shift in the world economy. Companies in the Far East don't think of their home market as the extent of their planning horizon, they think of the world. We have got to get the same mindset into our planning. Scottish businesses have some key advantages; firstly - the world likes us and "Scotland the brand" continues to open doors; secondly - there is a history of entrepreneurship and innovation that continues today; third - there is a heap of information available and a number of exceedingly good programmes that companies can benefit from; lastly - Scotland has always had to punch above its weight, and if we can harness this belief to a vision of an international marketplace then the world is our oyster!

I am not saying it is easy, and undoubtedly there will be failures along the way but I really believe that we have got to rise to the challenge and internationalise our plans to avoid being left behind in the new world order.