Born Global Firms: A Sign of Our Business Future

More firms than ever go global right from the start each year. Is this a phenomenon or is this a new paradigm for business? Neal Gandhi, author of ‘Born Global’ and CEO of Quick Start Global, says this is part of our business future. Gandhi joins ‘The Art of Making Business Happen’ to share insights he has learned along the way.

Gandhi says that ‘Born Global’ firms are efficient. By efficient, he means use of resources is optimized. Firms place their legal headquarters, teams of talent, and capital around the globe where it makes the most sense. That means a company’s legal headquarters could be in Mauritius, its development team in India, its artistic team in the United States, and sales and marketing teams spread across the globe.

This sounds an awful like multinational firms, but they aren’t. These are firms often with less than 25 people in their first few years. Another term for these firms might be micro-multinationals.

Born Global firms do differ from traditional multinationals in that they do not consider borders per se in their strategy. Gandhi indicates that since regulations like taxation vary from country to country and the concept of borders is still very strong as to how governments regulate business, the environment for business for a Born Global is quite complex without the resources of a multinational to address it. But Gandhi points out that a ‘Born Global’ entrepreneur takes challenges like this in stride.

Gandhi says the one key factor for a ‘Born Global’ firm is the right people. ‘Born Global’ firms need people that are passionate, trustworthy, buy into the vision, and can execute in the local context.