How do brands with global reach integrate themselves into new markets with local appeal? While the potential promise of millions of new customers is reason enough to explore opportunities internationally, finding a sweet spot in those markets can be a real challenge.
While some companies find their business model happens to be fortuitously timed with an emerging economy, others have to identify clever ways to introduce themselves as a brand with a feel for the culture. In this post, we’ll look at three brands that have discovered profitable ways to introduce themselves to international customers.
Global scalability and speed-to-market have never been as crucial as they are today. In our hyper-connected global marketplace, copycats are replicating proven concepts and taking them to emerging markets at record speed. So how can your startup edge out the competition in the race to global?
Whether online or in the mall, ‘tis the season for retail profits. If you’re someone who laments the commercialization of Christmas, stop reading now. In the United States, retailers can expect up to 50% of their annual sales to occur around the holidays. Forecasts are positive for this year’s holiday sales and look to be significantly higher than in the last ten, according to the National Retail Federation. But what about markets that aren’t closely linked to Christmas, such as China or Japan? Will Santa bring similar profits to eCommerce retailers in Asia? Today's post answers that question.
Is your tech startup ready to go see the world? In the past, travel was a leisurely luxury. Those of means (both financial and temporal) used to take a Grand Tour or ride the Orient Express through Europe; today it’s jets and five capitals in five days. Get ready to move quickly.
Planning ahead is key to get make the most of your global entry. Knowing the latest social working sites and mobile trends are a definite must. Read on for four tips when your startup is setting off to see the world in style.
ELearning has transformed employee training across the globe, helping companies standardize their message and ensure that their employees at all levels are receiving the same information. A solid learning management system coupled with eLearning tools and platforms like Articulate have already changed the way companies large and small are doing business.
Gearing up to design your own Articulate course for your employees? Read on for a few simple ways to effectively create globally friendly eLearning courses.
Is the open source enterprise education revolution almost upon us?
If you’re wrestling with the best way to keep your international teams up to speed on organizational intelligence and training, you may want to keep your eye on MOOC.org, a partnership which aspires to create a new global portal for eLearning.
Never heard of MOOCs? Join us for an overview of the MOOC.org partnership, the way Massive Open Online Courses are redefining access to education, and where all of this may fit in your company’s global eLearning strategy.
The PGA Tour continues this week with The Barclays tournament returning to Jersey City, NJ. Golf for some might be a good walk spoiled, but for many it’s the perfect way to unwind through 18 holes. Whether you’re an aficionado or budding amateur, these three golf-inspired lessons can get you to the international green on time and on par.
If you had to mark ground zero on a map for the world’s most explosive eLearning market, where would you place your pin? Your mind might naturally drift to established economies where network connectivity and computing power are ubiquitous.
The truth is Africa is home to countries with the most aggressive growth rate in self-paced eLearning. Eleven of the sixteen leaders in eLearning sector growth have rates above 15.2%, with countries such as Senegal above 30% and Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya well above the 24% mark, according to the research firm Ambient Insight.
African nations are eager to retool and reshape themselves for the knowledge-based economies of the 21st century. In this article we’ll look at some of the trends in eLearning and see what that means for knowledge management and training for companies in Africa.
Falling out of fashion is the old startup approach to going global: Get established in the U.S. and then begin branching out slowly overseas. Tech entrepreneurs are quickly learning how internationalizing early can save money and fuel unparalleled growth.
If you’ve got the next big startup in bootstrap mode, you’ll do well to learn why adopting a global mindset sooner rather than later could be the key to reaching funding stages. From culture to code, overseas growth could make the difference.
In this article we’ll talk about the benefits of internationalization and localization for startups and take a look at major startup success stories internationally.
If you are deploying eLearning to an international workforce, you probably already know that there are several styles to choose from, each with a unique set of pros and cons. This feature post highlights the various models in the eLearning space and delves into the translation and localization considerations for each. Are you ready for a crash course in global eLearning?
Seemingly everybody has been talking about China’s economic growth and potential as a marketplace for Western brands over the past decade. And with an expected growth rate of over 8 percent in 2013 alone, it’s not difficult to see why. But what about the other players in Asia? East Asia, for example, is poised for a 5.7 percent increase, lead by up-and-coming countries like Indonesia. Mobile adoption is on the rise, eCommerce is rapidly growing, and social media is key to reaching customers.
Looking for a roadmap to these burgeoning Asian markets? Read on for our guide to reaching the billions of customers waiting for you in China and Indonesia.
The most common misconception surrounding global business expansion? Translation is all it takes. The truth is, the process is more complex and can quickly chew up budgets and delay international launches, bogging down teams and racking up serious losses in terms of competitive advantage in foreign markets (and the profits that come with millions of new potential customers).
Those pitfalls can be avoided with a better understanding of the inherent complexities in extending a brand into a non-English market. In this post we’ll help you get a grasp on the fundamentals of translation and localization, as well as a few key tips for successfully managing a major localization project. We’ll take a brief look at terminology you’ll need to know, a bit about the process and the technology and behind the process, and tips to kick-off your first project.
Thinking of expanding into Japan? You’ve got a lot going for you. Japan is the third largest global economy and has a well-established consumer base. Certain aspects of American culture are very well-received with Japanese consumers; however, there are some things to keep in mind to ensure that you position yourself well. Our blog post and newsletter article give you some tips to consider.
One of the pleasures of working on complex, interesting website translation and localization projects is watching firsthand how our team adapts and collaborates to meet the challenges of our clients.
It’s gratifying to say that Fitbit’s Japanese launch pushed us to do some of our finest work, and as president, I wanted to publicly thank everyone at Fitbit for the opportunity to help bring their innovative connected fitness products to Japan. The project was a team effort with substantial challenges.
Japanese translation is one of Acclaro’s specialties, and we’re excited to watch Fitbit’s growth in this new market.
To ensure a successful global website launch, it’s good to consider some issues early on in the process, such as your own content management system’s (CMS) infrastructure and capabilities for handling multilingual content, the relevancy of your content for your global users, and the general tone and style you want to impart in translation. If you’re preparing to launch your site internationally, today’s post gives you some good starting points, and links to our more detailed newsletter article on the same topic.
Building business alliances in Japan requires a nuanced approach. What plays in America’s full-contact football brand of capitalism doesn’t necessarily cut it on the quieter golf greens of the Japanese version. If you want the executive-level internal support you need to close deals and expand your share of Japan’s stable economy, you simply must understand how to “play it as it lies” rather than call the play. Steve Pollock, CEO of Turnstone Ventures, explains more.
Work cultures can have different meanings around the world. In America, we talk about having a 9-to-5, 40 hour a week job, According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) rankings in 2011, the top three countries in terms of hours worked, based on a combination of paid and unpaid hours, were Portugal, Japan, and Mexico. Strikingly for Japan's 9 hours of work, almost 3 of those are unpaid, whereas in Mexico, the work day is closer to 10 hours with a little over 4 of those unpaid.
In some countries, it's not just the length of the workday that matters, but how those hours are spent, and the all important work/life balance. Read on for some other considerations for businesses around the globe.
Targeting “simship”, or simultaneous shipment, can be a complex juggling act for businesses trying to build a solid global presence. Transforming simship from an improbable afterthought to a do-able, desirable and ultimately profitable process requires a clearly defined enterprise-level globalization strategy bolstered by a solid commitment to internationalization. Aiming for simship will have an impact on decisions from code and UI development to QA and testing, and entails certain costs. Those costs, however, which may include slower release times in domestic markets, can translate into long term profits.
eLearning has some great things going for it: it's cost-effective, accessible for those with limited schedules, and can allow you to customize content easily for a variety of purposes. Taking your eLearning course global can make a lot of sense; however, there are some additional things to consider to make it really successful. Our eLearning guru, Rob Campbell, explains more in today's post.
When you’re writing the business plan for your tech startup, global strategy might not be the first thing on your mind. The traditional path of the startup has been to achieve success at home first, then look to expand overseas. But in our hyper-connected world, everything is more visible, including trends, innovations and even business strategies. If you’re not thinking global when you start up a company, you might find that someone else in another market has taken your idea and run with it before you have time to enter the race. That’s why VCs and investors now look for fast global scalability when they evaluate potential investments. So what can you do to make your new startup global ready from the get-go?
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