Making a Case for Global Expansion
"If you are serious about entering a new market, put down those research reports and spend two weeks in that region. Immerse yourself in that market," according to Sid Jawahar, managing partner for Swiftarc Capital during the 2015 Consumer Goods Emerging Markets Forum.
With a vast background and experience in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and most recently Africa, Jawahar set the stage for attendees looking for growth and profitability in what he calls the 'first quartile of investment-worthy countries.' Jawahar left the audience with four key takeaways during his opening keynote session including:
1. Innovation in all its capacity is localized.
2. Let's be the consumer (whatever the good is that you're selling).
3. It has all been done before. We just have to look deeper and wider.
4. Fail often and fail fast is not the norm. Certain pitfalls can be avoided.
Clorox International Company's Director for International Sales, Dan Mudd, took the stage next to explain the company's very measured approach to investing in new regions. "We manage our countries with a targeted strategic approach based on their current and future market dynamics," says Mudd, further explaining that the company is careful not to overextend itself with making investments.
"Ensure innovation is a focus area and source of competitive advantage," says Fabian Urquijo, former marketing director (laundry business/fabric care) in Latin America, for Procter & Gamble (P&G), as the conversation then shifted to innovating to meet the needs of a specific region. Urquijo delivered a case study focused on the launch of P&G's Ariel brand liquid laundry detergent in Latin America where powered soaps saturated the market. He included his lessons learned entering into this new geography with a new product, as well as the marketing strategies behind the launch.
Switching gears to harmonizing across emerging markets, former Sr. Director, International Business Data & Analytics at PepsiCo, Bart Sarver, talked about the need to cleanse data. Although basic in theory, "data cleansing is under-rated," Sarver says. He also included insights such as harmonization as a team sport and defining dimensions of data collaboratively. "Sixty to 80 percent of what you harmonize will stick. Who's going to govern that long term?"
Closing day one of the forum, CGT presented a panel powerhouse moderated by Cheryl Perkins, founder & CEO of InnovationEdge. Perkins was joined by Richard McDonald, VP, International Supply Chain for The Clorox Company; Rolando Ortiz, VP & CIO for Grupo Bimbo; Albe Zakes, Global VP, Communications for TerraCycle Inc.; and Ryan Ziegelmann, VP, Finance and Strategic Pricing, Channel Development for Starbucks Coffee Company. With such diverse backgrounds, experiences and company sizes, this lively session revealed many insights for the consumer goods community looking to expand globally including:
-Recognize the talent that is already there [in emerging markets].
-Partner and lean on Universities for market research.
-People are the most important asset. The people strategy is the number strategy.
-It's all hands on deck all the time.
-When it comes to business functions and collaboration, try a matrix system with a level of autonomy.
On day two of the forum, attendees learned that technology can be quite entertaining starting off the morning with a video that showed how localization is imperative when expanding into a global market. On a more serious note, there were many takeaways from the panel of technology experts. Gaurav Pant, SVP, Research for EKN hosted a panel of executives deep in the trenches of emerging markets from Sequoya, StayinFront, Tata Consultancy Services and Ernst & Young. How do you start when it comes to choosing technology for global expansion? Simplification, localization and compliance are key. Panelists also revealed that in order to keep costs down, pick a technology with a global backbone that can be configured locally. The consensus was that mobile technologies are driving much better data back into the analytics machines in emerging markets, while globally it was stated that almost 80 percent of all promotions fail.
Following the panel, CIO for Liberty Hardware Manufacturing Corporation, A Masco Corporation, Robert Oh, had a candid discussion with CGT Publisher, Albert Guffanti, as well as audience members on establishing new business in China, Korea and Japan. Specifically, Oh talked about alternative ways to go to market in these regions considering the differences across all three regions.
Rounding out the live meeting, Jose Maria Huguet, Finance VP, Americas Region for Danone shared his philosophy on collaboration within an organization to drive success in emerging markets. "We don't need Hero's, we need Teams," Huguet closed.
Click here for more information on the Forum, and click here for more thought leadership on emerging markets content from the attendees of the event.
With a vast background and experience in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and most recently Africa, Jawahar set the stage for attendees looking for growth and profitability in what he calls the 'first quartile of investment-worthy countries.' Jawahar left the audience with four key takeaways during his opening keynote session including:
1. Innovation in all its capacity is localized.
2. Let's be the consumer (whatever the good is that you're selling).
3. It has all been done before. We just have to look deeper and wider.
4. Fail often and fail fast is not the norm. Certain pitfalls can be avoided.
Clorox International Company's Director for International Sales, Dan Mudd, took the stage next to explain the company's very measured approach to investing in new regions. "We manage our countries with a targeted strategic approach based on their current and future market dynamics," says Mudd, further explaining that the company is careful not to overextend itself with making investments.
"Ensure innovation is a focus area and source of competitive advantage," says Fabian Urquijo, former marketing director (laundry business/fabric care) in Latin America, for Procter & Gamble (P&G), as the conversation then shifted to innovating to meet the needs of a specific region. Urquijo delivered a case study focused on the launch of P&G's Ariel brand liquid laundry detergent in Latin America where powered soaps saturated the market. He included his lessons learned entering into this new geography with a new product, as well as the marketing strategies behind the launch.
Switching gears to harmonizing across emerging markets, former Sr. Director, International Business Data & Analytics at PepsiCo, Bart Sarver, talked about the need to cleanse data. Although basic in theory, "data cleansing is under-rated," Sarver says. He also included insights such as harmonization as a team sport and defining dimensions of data collaboratively. "Sixty to 80 percent of what you harmonize will stick. Who's going to govern that long term?"
Closing day one of the forum, CGT presented a panel powerhouse moderated by Cheryl Perkins, founder & CEO of InnovationEdge. Perkins was joined by Richard McDonald, VP, International Supply Chain for The Clorox Company; Rolando Ortiz, VP & CIO for Grupo Bimbo; Albe Zakes, Global VP, Communications for TerraCycle Inc.; and Ryan Ziegelmann, VP, Finance and Strategic Pricing, Channel Development for Starbucks Coffee Company. With such diverse backgrounds, experiences and company sizes, this lively session revealed many insights for the consumer goods community looking to expand globally including:
-Recognize the talent that is already there [in emerging markets].
-Partner and lean on Universities for market research.
-People are the most important asset. The people strategy is the number strategy.
-It's all hands on deck all the time.
-When it comes to business functions and collaboration, try a matrix system with a level of autonomy.
On day two of the forum, attendees learned that technology can be quite entertaining starting off the morning with a video that showed how localization is imperative when expanding into a global market. On a more serious note, there were many takeaways from the panel of technology experts. Gaurav Pant, SVP, Research for EKN hosted a panel of executives deep in the trenches of emerging markets from Sequoya, StayinFront, Tata Consultancy Services and Ernst & Young. How do you start when it comes to choosing technology for global expansion? Simplification, localization and compliance are key. Panelists also revealed that in order to keep costs down, pick a technology with a global backbone that can be configured locally. The consensus was that mobile technologies are driving much better data back into the analytics machines in emerging markets, while globally it was stated that almost 80 percent of all promotions fail.
Following the panel, CIO for Liberty Hardware Manufacturing Corporation, A Masco Corporation, Robert Oh, had a candid discussion with CGT Publisher, Albert Guffanti, as well as audience members on establishing new business in China, Korea and Japan. Specifically, Oh talked about alternative ways to go to market in these regions considering the differences across all three regions.
Rounding out the live meeting, Jose Maria Huguet, Finance VP, Americas Region for Danone shared his philosophy on collaboration within an organization to drive success in emerging markets. "We don't need Hero's, we need Teams," Huguet closed.
Click here for more information on the Forum, and click here for more thought leadership on emerging markets content from the attendees of the event.