Business Beyond Borders How to Win in the Global Market November 2011 By 2020, 95 percent of the world’s customers will be outside of the U.S. That’s why smart executives need to figure out how to expand their businesses to reach global markets, says Mona Pearl, author of Grow Globally: Opportunities for Your Middle-Market Company Around the World (Wiley, 2011). Here Profit talks to Pearl about the multinational mindset executives need not just to survive, but to thrive in our ever-flattening business world. Profit: Why is global growth something executives should be concerned about right now? Pearl: Because that’s basically the only way their businesses can survive. With the internet, global competition, and so many companies being acquired by foreign companies, they’re playing in a global field no matter what they think. So they might as well figure out the rules—or figure out how to make the rules—and try to make money. It starts with a whole tweaking of the mindset: the U.S. is a huge country, but it’s not self-sufficient anymore. CEOs and other executives in charge of operations and growth need to look at the global market, because that’s the only chance for survival. And instead of feeling panic and fear, they should look at the global market as an opportunity. Profit: What are some of the most common mistakes companies make? Pearl: Many U.S.-based companies focus on tactics. They say, “OK, I’m going to China or I’m going to India, and I’m going to sell,” as opposed to asking questions that help them create a strategy. Where’s the best place in the world they can sell their product or service? Is the market right? Is the price right? I talked to the owner of a company in Chicago a year or two ago who said, “I’m going to go to Germany and see if there’s a potential for our product to go into grocery stores.” I said, “Great. What are you going to look at?” There’s a lot to consider: if they don’t have this product, does that mean they need it? Are they loyal to local products? Do they have regulations that prohibit the materials you use? You really have to understand the culture and the business environment and be aware of what you don’t know, so you can ask the right questions. Profit: Have Enterprise 2.0 tools made it easier to go global? Pearl: Yes, as far as learning about different products, connecting to customers, selling, and even getting feedback. They’ve also changed the whole structure of how a product can be marketed or sold. But if executives think that they can build strong global relationships with these tools, that’s a whole different story. Social networking has created an illusion for many U.S. businesspeople that they have contacts around the world and they have relationships. You may be connected to 2,000 people in 89 countries. So what? This is just the first step. Now, you have to start building these relationships. In the English language, everybody’s our “friend.” People don’t use this word so loosely in other countries. Profit: What are the top lessons you want your readers to learn? Pearl: For many C-levels, it’s to realize that they need to go global, and they need to do it in a structured way. They must know what they understand now and what information they still need, and basically develop a roadmap that’s a little more sophisticated than just saying “OK, I am going to China!” They need to understand that they can’t just follow the crowd, because everything’s moving much faster now.

Mona Pearl:  Directors to Watch in 2011

Enlightened boards are expanding their collective pools of leadership wisdom by drawing upon the richly diverse portfolio of talents and experiences that accomplished individuals like these are bringing to the boardroom.

Mona Pearl, Founder and Chief Operating Officer, BeyondAStrategy Inc.  To Download Mona Pearl: Directors to Watch 2011 in Directors & Boards

Mona Pearl’s experience in international strategic development and global entrepreneurship has beenvital in helping companies design and execute theirglobal strategies. Pearl is known for “out of the box” thinkingand developing creative solutions to tough challenges whichproduce bottom-line results.  Pearl founded and operated three successful businessesand sits on the boards of several organizations. From operations to organization to top-line growth strategies, Pearl initiatesand executes cost-effective and creative opportunitiesfor companies to make money across borders.  These activitieslead companies to growing their business internationally, leveraging their global competitiveness, and addressing operationaland strategic growth trends in international markets.

Projects across industries and across borders include Deutsche Telekom, GM, Rover, Jaguar, Marriott, Hyatt Corp., IMF, Fermilab, The Export Institute, SES GmbH, A.B. Dick, Navistar, Accenture, Michelin, Illinois Department of Commerceand Economic Opportunity, Philip Morris, Bacardi, United Airlines, American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Continental, and many more.

Pearl has lived on three continents and is proficient in sixlanguages.  She was quoted by CNBC, NPR/WBEZ, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Crain’s Chicago, Entrepreneur.com, and interviewed by other media on global issues and strategies.

She is a frequent speaker at global-related conferences and has co-authored two published books.  She is an adjunct professorat DePaul University teaching international business as wellas a guest lecturer in executive MBA programs around theworld.  She authors a column on current global competitiveness issues in Manufacturing Today and Management Today magazines and publishes in other business related magazines.

Multicultural Boards Are the New Diversity: “For many companies a big chunk oftheir revenue comes from outside the United States,yet they have hardly anyone on their board that is eithera non-U.S. member or someone with global experience who can guide them through oreven bring up the relevant points on global expansion strategiesor how to craft successful global actionable decision making. U.S. boards are mostly homogeneous from the pointof view that members are U.S.-homed and honed.

Global and multicultural are the new board skills for a new global worldwhere U.S. companies have to compete.  It is not about being risk averse. It is about knowing how to assess risk in global markets, looking at the right data and making decisions that are well grounded.  Boards need people with a global view, whoare cross-cultural, cosmopolitan and worldly people who can question assumptions through a global lens, since you don’t know what you don’t know.

You cannot predict the future, butyou can position your company to be successful in a changing global business environment.  Positioning the company globally, and having the right lens from which to view new market developments, is very important.”

Global Mona Pearl, Philip Kotler and CK Prahalad’s interview in the Austrian Press (FORMAT Magazine) following the 1st Global Peter Drucker Forum:  The Search For Consumers

Global entrepreneurship & collaboration, everything remains different and social justice: three key thought leadership concepts to redefine the global economy for 2010 and beyond.   

Mona Pearl, the founder & COO of BeyondAStrategy in Chicago looks at global entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration as a driver for future world peace and economic stability. “Many CEO’s just don’t focus on successful global strategies and the need to in-source the expertise for global success”, says Mona Pearl, following a KPMG study highlighting that one out of two US companies trying to go global – fails.

A superb and brilliantly invigorating gathering of the top management minds took place in Vienna, the Austrian capital on November 19 – 20, 2009. They all came to celebrate and commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the birth, in this city, of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management who died in 2005 just short of his 96th birthday. His widow Doris, age 98, has come over from the States to see it all for herself.

Following the conference, the Austrian economic magazine, FORMAT has interviewed three thought leaders on where should the world look for opportunities in this time of crisis? What are the big goals and focal areas for management as we approach 2010 and beyond?

Mona in CNBC on Latin America at the Davos Forum in January 2011:

After decades of boom to bust behavior, economies from Mexico to Brazil are looking dynamic, diverse and durable, helped by a wealth of natural resources and a good measure of fiscal discipline.

“Latin America is among the regions leading the economic recovery,” says Mona Pearl, founder and COO of BeyondAStrategy, a global business development firm. “Latin America’s economic performance is certain to improve even more.”

“I always like to look at events, trends and then connect the dots,” says Mona Pearl. “Since Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, this will have a huge economic impact on the whole region. The opportunities for benefiting from doing business in Latin America are endless.”

The full article can be found at:  Mona Pearl’s View On Latin America

Mona quoted on Microsoft UK:

“Global mergers and acquisitions have been described as “the key strategy to future success and competitiveness in the world market”.  Expansion strategy expert Mona Pearl says the process of becoming global force will present many internal and external challenges, but if executed carefully can lead to significant profit rises and exponential growth.  Committed to this theory, she will address a Florida conference on cross border transactions next month in a bid to encourage more midmarket companies to base their growth strategy around mergers and acquisitions.

Ms Pearl, founder and chief operating officer of BeyondAStrategy, says many firms need “a wake up call” where expansion is concerned.

She comments: “Today is the day to start planning for tomorrow’s growth, and there is still time. However, the old strategies of cost-cutting and down-sizing will not suffice in the decade ahead.”

Ms Pearl explains that only new methods and solutions designed to respond to the modern global market will provide success in the future.

She cites Albert Einstein who famously said that “in the middle of every great difficulty lies opportunity”, claiming that by using creativity, knowledge and actionable plans firms can tap in to this potential.  EWeek Knowledge Centre contributing editor Dave Meizlik recently urged firms acquiring other businesses to ensure they take steps to secure all data stored on technology appliances.”

Mona quoted in Entrepreneur.com:

“This is your wake-up call”, says Mona Pearl, Founder & COO of BeyondAStrategy. “The opportunity to plan for today’s growth strategies passed, and many missed that mark. Fortunately, today is the day to start planning for tomorrow’s growth, and there is still time. However, the old strategies of cost-cutting and down-sizing will not suffice in the decade ahead. Only new methods and new solutions designed to respond to today’s global market will provide future success.”

Mona quoted in Time Magazine:

She comments: “Today is the day to start planning for tomorrow’s growth, and there is still Time. However, the old strategies of cost-cutting and down-sizing will not suffice in the decade ahead.”

Mona in the Romanian Press:

Cine nu-si asuma riscuri nu reuseste

2010-04-13 12:02:24 | Lady4ever.ro

“Din experienta mea, multora le e frica de esec. Dar din esecuri inveti, nu din succese.” Mona Pearl, unul dintre specialistii de marca in dezvoltarea strategica la nivel international, a impartasit participantelor la forumul Leader She filosofia proprie despre antreprenoriatul feminin.

Unele femei mizeaza pe cariera, altele prefera rolul traditional in familie. De aceea nu se poate spune ca exista un raport perfect intre munca si familie. Fiecare caz e diferit”.

Mona Pearl spune ca “a crede in tine insati reprezinta unul dintre secretele succesului”. Iar ea a crezut. Din 1993 incoace a consiliat companii de renume ale businessului mondial in constructia si aplicarea strategiilor globale, printre ele aflandu-se Deutsche Telecom, GM, Rover, Jaguar, Marriott, Michelin, Philip Morris.