In this episode, we are excited to welcome Xavier Mufraggi, Chief Executive Officer of SVN International Corporation and Partner at Eloquem Consulting. Prior to his role at SVN, Xavier was the CEO at YPO where he achieved a new record of 34,000 members in 150 countries. He was also previously the President and CEO of Club Med Europe, Middle East, and Africa. In this conversation, we talk about why speaking the same language as locals can increase your ability to develop an understanding of the culture that’s required to build a successful expansion strategy in that market, the power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success, why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead), and the power of stories in better communication and reinforcing organizational vision. This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
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SHOW NOTES:
1:10 - Video starts
2:42 - Xavier’s formative experience that started his interpreneurial career. His father was an executive at a big American company, so Xavier was able to travel around the world at a young age. For example, he lived in Africa as an 11-year old
7:54 - How he learned that understanding culture and people is a very important skill early on
13:54 - They key in turning around Club Med in North America (During his time as the CEO, the company achieved historical records every year from 2011 to 2019)
20:15 - Building trust and ensuring organizational alignment in YPO, the world's most influential global leadership community
21:45 - What Xavier, who was then the CEO of Club Med North America, learned from going undercover as in the CBS Series, “Undercover Boss”
29: 00 - How organizations and business leaders could impact millions of lives in a positive way
40:16 - Why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead)
47:37 - The power of stories in effective communication and reinforcing organizational vision
49:19 - The power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Omar Zenhom, the Co-Founder and host of the award-winning $100 MBA Show, a top business podcast with over 90 million downloads. He’s also the Co-Founder & CEO of WebinarNinja, named one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in 2018. Omar is a former educator and university manager-turned-entrepreneur. Today, he applies his passion for teaching and learning to the business world. Here, we talk about Omar’s strategies for entering new markets and reaching customers, tips for giving timely and culturally sensitive feedback, examples of effective localized marketing campaigns, and why there's no such thing as "over-communication" in a remote workplace.
For more information, go to: https://globalclasscompany.com/podcast/episode32-omar-zenhom This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella, the world’s largest and most successful umbrella-sharing company. Today, Rentbrella has 800 stations with hubs present in the biggest urban centers of the world such as Sao Paolo, New York, and London.
Freddy began his career as Finance Director and Consultant, then as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Before he launched Rentbrella in 2018, he lead the operations and developed business strategy as the Chief Operating Officer of Ezconet.
Here, we discuss why it’s important to start with a global mindset from day one, how to build feedback loops and two-way innovation across teams, tips for building a successful career in international business, and strategies for localizing the business to fit the local market while staying true to company principles.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling Book, Global Class, a playbook on how to build a successful global business.
SHOW NOTES:
01:55 - The start of Freddy’s career, beginning with his education
4:21 - How Freddy’s Lebanese father has inspired him to become an entrepreneur
8:45 - Rentbrella’s founding story
24:11 - Why Rentbrella had to hire and hire the New York team several times until they found the right culture and people
32: 46 - How Freddy thinks about localizing for new markets through the lens of government regulation and culture
37:00 - The “people” culture of Rentbrella and why they hire English teachers to make English the main language in their Brazil HQ
47:11 - Building and managing distributed teams
47:44 - Why effective communication and two-way feedback loops between local teams and HQ are important
54:14 - Rentbrella’s approach to hiring and how they find, hire and manage interpreneurial talent
1:00:57 - Freddy’s thoughts on closing the gap between company knowledge and local knowledge which are important in getting traction in new markets
1:03:26 - Freddy’s answer to the “3 pieces of advice” section: Advice to someone interested in building a career around an international business, to an executive expanding a business to new markets, and to his younger self
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Troy Malone, the Co-Founder of Relevant, a company that helps SaaS startup founders successfully enter new markets. In this role, he supports founders in unlocking an unfair competitive advantage in new markets through a uniquely profitable marketing system. Throughout his 15-year career as a growth and scale-up business leader, Troy has helped companies like Evernote, Weebly, All-Turtles, mmhmm and Drata to scale internationally. He loves the challenge of building teams for hyper-growth. Troy also embodies the global mindset and cultural empathy of a true “interpreneur,” as proven by his successful expansion efforts to Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Here, we discuss how to hire the right people who will lead your global growth initiatives, the importance of going on “Localization Discovery Tours” to truly understand a market, and examples of unusual marketing and promotions campaigns Troy came up with that drove results in new markets. Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185 This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Jack Mardack, Co-Founder of Oyster. Oyster is a global employment platform that empowers companies to hire, pay, and take care of their employees anywhere in the world. In Jack's career as a data-driven marketing and growth leader, he has helped broaden the global footprint of companies like Vonage, Chartcube, and Prezi. In this discussion, we talked about why embracing diversity is the most important lesson when building a global company, how trust is a lynchpin for distributed organizations, and WHY aligning company strategy with core values enables growth for companies like Oyster. This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Sébastien Marotte, the President of Box Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Box is a Cloud Content Management company that empowers more than 87,000 businesses globally by revolutionizing how they work.
In Sébastien’s 30+ year career, he has held executive roles at high-profile software companies like Google, Hyperion, and Oracle. He led Google Cloud's EMEA Channels as Vice President, having also served as Vice President of Google Cloud EMEA for almost a decade. As an early leader at Google Cloud, Sebastien was responsible for much of the foundational growth and development across EMEA, including the launch of G Suite (now Google Workspace).
In our conversation, Sébastien talks about the importance of diversity in building international teams, strategies in balancing corporate strategy and localization, why customer engagement is everything in business, how digitalization changed the way we innovate, work, and hire and why there are more opportunities for global businesses now more than ever.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Jeffrey Bleich, Chief Legal Officer at Cruise, a self-driving tech company. Jeff is a prominent attorney, and a former partner at both Munger, Tolles & Olson and Dentons. In his remarkable career, he has also served as special counsel to former President Barack Obama and as a U.S. ambassador to Australia. In addition to this, he was a former board chair at PG&E.
In our conversation, Jeffs shares the story of his time serving as U.S. Ambassador to Australia, the importance of trust-building in international relations, why over-indexing on English is a common mistake when expanding to other countries, why thinking long-term is key to a successful global expansion strategy, and considerations to take before hiring local counsel.
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Antoine Colaço, Managing Partner of Valor Capital Group, a cross border venture investment firm. Antoine was an early employee at Google and helped build one of the company's early international offices, then going on to global leadership roles overseeing Latin America, Asia and global business development. Prior Antoine had roles at Yahoo! and Goldman Sachs.
In our conversation, Antoine shares the story of Google's early expansion building teams in India, about the importance of relationships and internal alignment in expansion success, how international cannot be a side project but must be core to the whole company, and how the walls are crumbling that prevented company leaders from seeing global opportunity.
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
For our 25th episode, we are excited to welcome Emil Michael. Emil is the former Chief Business Officer of Uber, and played a huge role in the company's global expansion. Prior, Emil was the Chief Operating Officer of Klout, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Senior Vice President at TellMe Networks, and has been a strategic advisor for many companies who have IPO'd or been acquired.
In our conversation, Emil shares many key insights around how Uber successfully reached global scale and empowered a distributed team including: the importance of thinking "glocally," why it's crucial to hire locally, how to map out your expansion plans, and much more.
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Masami Takahashi. Masami is the President of Scrum Studio CEO of Japan at Miles, an applications that offers rewards for traveling, allowing anyone with a smartphone to earn miles and rewards whether your commute is by car, rideshare, plane, train, subway, bus, bicycle or on foot. Prior, Masami led expansion for WeWork & Uber and he's a perfect example of an Interpreneur as we have coined in our book.
In our conversation, Masami shares how to become a bridge between HQ and local teams when working on an international market (AND why it's the job of the local team to make HQ fall in love with that local market), how to build trust and strong relationships within a distributed organization, and how he helped scale companies like Uber and WeWork in the Japanese market. Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business.
https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Jerry Luk. Jerry is the co-founder and president of Firework, which empowers businesses to better engage with customers through video. Prior, Jerry was one of the Head of Mobile Business Strategy at Edmodo, Co-Founder and CTO of Presdo and was an early LinkedIn employee and creator of LinkedIn Mobile.
In our conversation, Jerry offers insights into LinkedIn's global success, looking back on the growth of mobile technology, explains why in business today the opportunity is outside of the US, why it's best to think of the progression of an expansion on a spectrum for testing new products and expanding instead of making leaps between vastly different markets and the importance of building a diverse team but while fostering common beliefs and universal core values.
Get your copy of our WSJ/National Bestselling book, Global Class, a playbook on how to build a successful global business, along with free pre-order bonuses at https://www.globalclassbook.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Marvin Liao. Marvin is a partner at Diaspora Ventures and GAMEGROOVE Capital and previously was a partner at 500 Startups, where in total he has invested in over 400 companies. Prior, Marvin played a major role in the international expansion efforts (in APAC and EMEA) at Yahoo!
In our conversation, Marvin shares why it's crucial to build an internal network and trust to be successful in new markets, the pitfalls of too much localization and autonomy, the importance of 2 way innovation, why bad economic times are great opportunities to expand in international markets and viewpoints on how investing in fast growing companies is getting more global.
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling Book, Global Class, a playbook on how to build a successful global business.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Joanna Harries, Senior Vice President of Global Expansion at Endeavor, the world's leading organization working with high impact entrepreneurs. Prior, Joanna held other growth executive roles at the organization and was a brand manager at Unilever.
In our conversation, Joanna offers great insights about taking a decentralized approach to localizing for new markets, but having the playbooks and structures, how to foster an owner's mentality and create a community of trust, how to develop local-to-local knowledge sharing (not always requiring HQ) and building a global mindset within your family.
Get your copy of our #2 Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, Global Class, a playbook on how to build a successful global business at https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast
In this episode we are excited to welcome Nick Halla, former Senior Vice President of International for Impossible Foods, a company transforming the global food system through animal free meat and dairy foods. As one of the company’s early employees Nick served in a number of other roles including as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior, Nick worked at Cogenra Solar and as an R&D Engineer for General Mills.
In our conversation, Nick shares his story that took him from working on a farm to the boardroom, giving insights into Impossible Foods’ localization journey in different global markets, how to craft systems that can be deployed globally but modified locally with scalability in mind, how to leverage community cultures to gain traction in new markets and why you shouldn't think of the launch of a new market as just a moment in time.
In this episode we are excited to welcome Frédéric Mazzella, Founder, Chairman and Former CEO of BlaBlaCar, the world's largest carpooling platform. Frédéric is also an active investor, startup board member and Co-President Entrepreneur of France Digitale.
In our conversation, Frédéric speaks to us about how to think big but act small at the beginning of global expansion initiatives, how to create a business name with global appeal, building a community of trust within an organization, successful strategies like how to "build for 2 markets," and how to hire a talented, internationally-minded local team who connect with your company culture and how to listen to them and leverage their local market expertise.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
In this episode we are excited to welcome Bianca Martinelli, Partner at Brazilian venture capital firm Alexia Ventures, Co-Founder of International Mastermind, a global network of professionals focused on international expansion. Previously, Bianca was the Senior Vice President of Global Operations at global entrepreneurial community Endeavor and Vice President of International Expansion for digital marketing and CRM platform company RD Station.
In our conversation, Bianca talks about the importance of having strong company values that can be universalized to have global appeal, how HQ can be an enabler of global growth and trust building instead of a command-and-control mechanism, how it is crucial to create internal systems for unifying knowledge and facilitating strong communication, why iterating and embracing failure are key in succeeding with global expansion and how to architect your company to go global when you are ready, among other topics.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets @ https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Alessio Alionco, Founder and CEO of Pipefy, a work management platform that allows companies to streamline and automate business processes. Prior, Alessio was the Founder & CEO of Acessozero, a local commerce marketplace, and CEO of JR Consultoria.
In our conversation, Alessio talks about: the importance of thinking global from the beginning instead of just on the initial market, the importance of prioritizing people first and building a diverse team with unique perspectives, the role of agile when localizing a business, and much more.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Heini Zachariassen, Founder and Former CEO of Vivino, the world's largest wine app. Prior, Heini was the CEO of BullGuard, and a board member of NORRIQ and Faroese Telecom. He is also the founder and host of Raw Startup.
In our conversation, Heini talks about a number of topics including the importance of hiring a strong team and how the roles and expertise of the team need to change as an organization grows in new markets, building a decentralized organization, the tradeoffs of localization in markets and when to make changes to your business model and when not to, the future of global business, as well as the benefits of coming from a small country.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Claudia Makadristo, Head of Africa Expansion for MetaMap, a fast-growing digital trust and reputation infrastructure layer that enables other service providers. Prior, Claudia was Head of Partnerships and Regional Manager for Seedstars.
In our conversation, Claudia talks about the importance of building relationships in emerging markets to understand local dynamics - especially with government regulators, introducing your company the right way, why you don't want to underestimate local competitors who fully understand the local market well, the importance of having a solid local team to navigate local nuances in a market and why it's crucial to understand the sensitivities and differences within a market, leading with empathy so you can effectively interpret your product or service for the new market.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
In this episode we are excited to welcome Marcello Schermer, Head of International Expansion at Yoco, a South Africa-based fintech startup helping SMEs accept payments and get data-driven insights. Prior, Marcello was Managing Director of Seedstars and strategy consultant at Detecon Inc.
In our conversation, Marcello talks about the importance of immersing yourself in a new market to understand how trust is built, why it's crucial to build a cross-cultural team from early on within the whole company and not just within the expansion team, as well as the growing opportunities across the continent of Africa with it's fast growing population and how Africa should be thought of as a source of innovation and not just an opportunity for market entry.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book
