GLOBAL BUSINESS CONSULTING

GLOBAL BUSINESS EXPANSION

There aren't many entities that don't have a product or service that isn't valuable to some degree internationally. In fact, the international marketplace could value it on an entirely new level.....taking your company to the next level as well. Lombard Global provides a very pragmatic, results-based approach to global expansion and export/import. Our delivery is flexible enough to allow you to participate in separate modules and structured enough so that you can participate in the entire end to end solution. Typically, a solution might consist of:

1) RESEARCH:  We start by researching and analyzing your business, it's products and services.  Your requirements at this phase may be for a more comprehensive primary and secondary research package or could be much more basic.  Our expertise allows you to gather information on the ground in a certain area if necessary.  Our research team and suppliers adhere to CASRO, ESOMAR or national professional standards.

2) STRATEGY: For newer players to globalization, we decide together which regions or countries to expand to. We work with you and/or our attorney and financial partners to decide if you need an employee-based direct sales force, sales agents or distributor relationships, technology transfer or sale/purchase, joint venture and/or direct investment involving real estate or business acquisition. Within this decision, sophisticated choices may need to be made involving the tax structure of the entity as well as import/export regulations. Our most senior attorneys have over 60 years of international experience between them and are not subject to the pricing constraints and overhead of larger firms.  We think you'll find this alone to be of very high value. 

For firms already involved in globalization, we will look at  three types of successful global strategies - adaptation, aggregation and arbitrage (AAA) – as well as a framework for implementing them. This process was developed by world renowned global strategist, Pancaj Ghemawat from the IESE Business School.

Adaptation – adjusting to differences by maximizing a firm’s local relevance through a national focus, and thus boosting revenues and market share

Aggregation – overcoming differences by standardizing products or services and grouping together development and production processes, and thus achieving scale and scope economies

Arbitrage – exploiting differences between national or regional markets to achieve absolute economies through international specialization

SEE BRITISH TELECOM'S WWW.BIGGERTHINKING.COM  

In some cases, we use global risk methodology by employing the Opacity Index, a tool developed by Joel Kurtzman, former Editor-In-Chief of The Harvard Business Review and Global Lead Partner with Price Waterhouse Coopers.  The tool grades countries on how they perform according to the CLEAR framework: Corruption, Legal system efficiency, Enforcement efficiency, Accounting framework and Regulatory efficiency.  The methodology and analysis surrounding it has been been proven particularly effective for professional services firms such as law firms, financial firms and others contemplating global expansion.  In other words, by using methodology behind the Opacity Index, firms have been more successful by expanding to other cities besides the often recommended London or other EU capitols.   

3) EXECUTION: Of course strategy is worthless without successful execution of that strategy.  This is the fun part. Initiation of strategic meetings are established with a diverse group of potential partners, competitors and business and government experts so that we are well-educated and prepared (or not prepared) to take the next level or execution. We have an established international business network and have the training and years of experience conducting and closing business at the highest levels of business and government. We're senior level rainmakers. That's one key differentiator.  The other is our ability to grow a business rapidly.  We have an established track record at focusing on top line growth and acquiring key human capital simultaneously. This will translate into results for you.

The execution phase will be more intensive as we work towards results. It could result in something as simple as the identification and establishment of sales agents and distributors and/or be as complex as choosing between a branch office entity, foreign subsidiary, joint venture or a combination thereof. If necessary, Lombard Global senior and experienced talent in international real estate, international law and international business consulting will continue working with you to produce measurable top line and bottom line results that go well beyond the establishment of the entity overseas. 

Although we strive for early results, as with everything in business, a diligent follow up strategy will produce the clearest long term results. Our business model is geared towards long-term results. Quite simply, we can't hit our top-line targets if you don't hit yours.  The key, however, in global business is flexibility.  We may even have to modify or change that strategy somewhat or altogether. Regardless of the size of the enterprise, global expansion is an entrepreneurial exercise after all.  Finally and most importantly: we are direct and honest to a fault.  Good, bad or ugly, we will give you our honest assessment.

You may have very little or no current international sales.  If you're already in Latin America, let's say, you may be ready to look at China.  If you're already global, you're always looking to do things more cost effectively.  For instance, it may make sense to move further inland in China or shift some of your strategy to Vietnam or Indonesia.  Maybe you want to look at a place like Montenegro or Tanzania. Maybe you need to consider making a change or two with personnel. Whatever it is that you need, we are here to help on a daily, weekly, monthly or longer-term basis. 

Case Study:One of our Italian clients is now moving forward with a comprehensive global business development strategy. We traveled to East Asia with them, visited several trade fairs, concluded several large purchases for their stores in Europe and the USA and concluded intense negotiations with their chosen joint venture manufacturing partner.  The result will be a complete shift in their operations, adding over 30% to their immediate bottom line.  It will take at least one to two years for competition to respond, creating a business advantage that could be measured in exponential terms. 

We are working with them to open selective retail sites worldwide. 

CEO FOR HIRE

When a firm relocates to a different political, cultural and economic environment, the learning curve and associated costs can be daunting.  The USA market, for example, is a very challenging start-up environment, despite global media portrayals to the contrary. Lombard Global provides an executive or team of executives with strong leadership and diverse business backgrounds who can project a new operation towards stability and subsequent growth in a relatively short period of time.  What would take us three months to accomplish could take the foreign national or firm in transition years, untold lost dollars or complete failure.   

Case Study:  An East Asian firm decides to expand internationally by establishing offices in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.  The client "exports" home country managers, employees and even sales trainers.  As so often happens with other firms who employ this strategy across the world, even Global Multinationals, the operation starts to unravel and is on the brink of imploding.  Lombard Global employs a strategy of 1) immediately correcting glaring issues 2) providing a period of stability and 3) preparing the company for growth.  Because Lombard Global is a generalist, it eventually replaces itself with senior industry experts who are in a better position to take the operation and firm to the next level.  The client redeploys all manufacturing and distribution to another country provider of cost effective labor and is in the process of establishing offices in Berlin, Dubai and Shanghai. 

On a micros basis, some of the major tasks accomplished were: the establishment of a true global banking and point of sale relationship, the establishment of  a local advertising and public relations agency with global, business relevant clients, the hiring of a global corporate structure and tax attorney team (USA and home country expertise), the establishment of a local warehouse and global supply chain service provider. The client then relocated home country senior management to Dallas.   Lombard Global handled all residential real estate services and transactions.

EXECUTIVE VP FOR HIRE

One of our senior staff will run departments in Sales and Marketing, International Sales and Marketing, Operations, or Finance. Lombard Global will make an immediate impact to your goals and/or top and bottom lines.  We promise that.  

INTERNATIONAL INTERACTIVE AND WEB DEVELOPMENT SERVICES 

We pay very close attention to language translation and localization.  To generate customer loyalty and repeat visits, however, we consider going beyond web localization and translation to the new frontier of cultural customization.  For instance, www.amazon.com is an example of a website that is highly localized, i.e., language translation, time date, zip code, currency translations.This is better than most efforts at international customization, but our customers are looking for even more specificity as global competition truly heats up. We use the 5 widely accepted cultural dimensions (based on the established work of  well known scholars, Hofstede and Hall) that explain cultural diversity in the world: –Individualism-Collectivism –Uncertainty Avoidance –Power Distance –Masculinity-Femininity –High and Low Context. The kind of attention to cultural detail really shows your commitment to the market and translates into exponential gains in market share and with your top-line globally.

INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (ISEM) 

The Internet is forecast to become the #2 paid advertising medium by 2012, behind only television. Already, greater than 90% of people use Internet search to find and research products and services. Our search engine marketing services can get your products and services on the first page of Google’s organic (free) listings, usually within 24 hours. This is not pay per click or search engine optimization, though we offer those services as well. We use a proprietary search engine tool that was created specifically for the purpose of getting high Google ranking, fast. Because Google ranks differently in every country, we customize our efforts for your targeted country.  Contact us now for a free demonstration of how we can get your products and services to page one.

GLOBAL SALES AND DEPARTMENTAL DEVELOPMENT

Sales staff and infrastructure are different all over the world.  Smart global players learn local customs and laws, hire as many local people as possible and integrate locally.  No longer should firms try to jam their corporate and home country cultures and ideals into the expanded region. Depending on the country or region, however, exporting home country talent and culture might be ideal.

Case Study:  A medium-sized European furniture store is opening its first USA store and hired its first and most important Sales staff.  Lombard Global’s strategy was:

Define U.S. Sales organization 
Define compensation model
Define and establish legal, compliance, and employment policy requirements
Establish effective hiring practices and help select candidates
Define on boarding and training requirements.

Execute all of the above. 

PROCESS AND PROCEDURAL DEVELOPMENT

McDonald’s intrinsic value is in its manual of processes and procedures.  These give details on things like how to fry a hamburger ideally and how to manage rush hour…in excruciating detail.  Of course, not every firm needs the depth that McDonald’s does but… position contracts, standards, benchmarks and impact reports create an infrastructure that is crucial for any sized business.

STRATEGY

Strategy is, in its most basic form, is about winning in the marketplace-attracting, winning and retaining customers, and outperforming competitors. To do so requires that the organization create or leverage change in the environment by continually adapting its product offerings and by modifying and enhancing how it competes.  It must anticipate changes in competitive conditions---the entry of new types of competitors, the introduction of new products and services, technology developments, and changes in customer tastes.

Global strategy takes on several new dimensions.  Culture, transportation and logistics, labor cost and talent are a few things that need to be considered.  Do I enter or upgrade in the marketplace through a joint venture, distribution, sales agency, direct sales or direct investment model or a combination of some or all of these?  A strategic study will serve as infrastructure for you to build your growing global business.  

SOURCING

As Tom Friedman tells us, the world is truly flat. Today's marketplace demands an increased accelerated pace of development to keep up with the competition. Firms must now rely on their organizations and processes to access specialized talent and expertise in multiple locations and on a global basis simultaneously.  The key to juggle these demands is the ability to access technology and business process resources seamlessly on a global basis to decrease cost and improve delivery capabilities.

Lombard Global implements a BestShore methodology and approach to efficiently transfer this type of work to an offshore development location or to temporarily transition global resources to the client site for project work. This can be in India, China, Costa Rica or Nebraska. A key component of our organization is the ability to provide offshore technical and business process services that help you leverage significant cost savings.

Through our BestShore Delivery solution, we combine global capabilities and industry experience with a strong alliance portfolio to help you:

Address IT and business process budget constraints.
Gain seamless access to experienced, competitively priced global resources.
Increase IT and BPO delivery capabilities.
Improve quality and mitigate risks for software development, maintenance and operations.
Assess and estimate ROI for globalizing IT applications.
Provide road map for selection, transition, and delivery of IT applications.  

IT STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Whether you need a complete ecommerce website, source and purchase hardware and software or create processes and procedures for your internal IT group, we can help.  Firms that use IT as a strategic enabler can leapfrog their competition.  Lombard possesses years of experience in the IT realm.  Lombard's differentiator is that we understand that the days of purchasing IT because a certain product or service is cool, are gone.  We understand the business first and make IT recommendations later.  IT does indeed matter, but only if, like everything else in business, it creates, saves or makes money. 

VENDOR SELECTION SERVICES

Today’s decisions are complex, combining hard facts with experts’ intuition. Rapid business decision-making often requires collaboration across time zones, organizations and cultural norms. ombard Global's process and/or software partners bring the power of proven collaborative decision-making processes and technology to your internal and external teams. With Lombard Global you will save time, make better decisions and improve your bottom line results.

We also provide the following business consulting services in addition to or separate from modules described above:

• Cultural Immersion and Training  
• Organizational and Cultural Alignment
• Merger/Acquisition Integration
• Global Team Building 
• Multicultural Workforce Development
• Executive Coaching and Development
• Relocation services including real estate sourcing and transacation closure

 Also Visit: Global Residential Real Estate