NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS BREAKFAST TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS BREAKFAST: Internationalising your B
CONTINUED FROM THE BACK Holbrook said he felt
the US was “still scared” of internationalisation. “When you start speaking multilingual, they freak a little bit,” he said. Ruairidh Roberts, industry
head for travel at Google, likened the internet to a Pangea, or supercontinent, with no borders. “You can access any
information at any time, anywhere in the world,” he said. “That’s what Alibaba’s Jack Ma
caught on to, and his mission was to set up the company not with the Chinese market in mind, but the global market.Right from the off, they had eBay in their sights as a target. Borders make no sense to them.” Roberts added: “What looks
like the greatest opportunity might also have the greatest auction intensity, and you might find other markets make more sense at a different time.” Olly Brendon, chief executive
of ATD Travel Services, said that to successfully internationalise, a business must also look internally. He asked: “Can your systems handle international growth and do you understand the things you are going to be exposed to? “With the new markets that
we’ve gone into, there has been some competition. But we would always back ourselves anyway. “The internal research, especially around the scalability of your systems, as well as understanding the other players, is absolutely critical.” Brendon said potential for
growth within the UK remained. “In some respects, I look at
our tech and web development resources and sometimes wish they could all be focused on the UK because there is so much opportunity to continue to optimise,” he said. Roberts added: “Quite often, businesses haven’t wrung the towel dry in a lot of the markets they are already present in.”
Be proactive and ‘go large’ when expanding overseas
Companies should “be big and go large” when looking to internationalise, but retain a clear vision.
Momondo Group chief executive Hugo Burge said that while it was important to have a solid strategy for internationalising, companies must adopt a proactive attitude and avoid “getting gobbled up by the big players”. “You need to go large,” he said.
“In travel search, we believe that to be successful, you have to have scale, the best product, the best marketing techniques, and have a really strong brand and economies of scale. And you must compete with other players and not get gobbled up by them.” Burge said Momondo brand
Cheapflights entered the US in 2001 with a “test and learn guerrilla approach”, despite being advised by the board to raise £5 million first. “We launched there with a light
site and didn’t announce it until we thought we had the critical mass of advertisers on the site and product that made sense,”
An overseas office ‘isn’t essential’ for internationalisation
The two panellists with direct experience of internationalisation insisted that an overseas office was not essential for the process. Hugo Burge, chief executive of Momondo Group, said: “We started with a country manager in every market, but we found that incredibly difficult to manage. “We ended up centralising it so we have someone who’s in charge of
78
travelweekly.co.uk 5 November 2015 HUGO BURGE: ‘In travel search, to be successful, you have to have scale’ He added: “Our app is accessed
“Many fall into the mistake of being passive about internationalisation”
he said. “We grew out of cashflow.” Oban Digital founding director
Greig Holbrook added: “Many fall into the mistake of being passive about internationalisation. You have to be active.” Burge said sometimes a market “comes to you”.
that market, from that market, but in the main office, where the cultural values, systems and analyses are coordinated, so we can work together as a team. We found that’s much stronger than having people in individual markets. But if you want to do well in some markets, there comes a tipping point where you probably do need an office.” Olly Brendon, chief executive
of ATD Travel Services, which has launched in Ireland, Germany and Brazil, agreed with Burge. He said: “Not only is it quite exciting for the office to hear all the different language speakers, it’s good for
every day by somebody from every market in the world. You put something out there, you start to market it, and you begin to see adoption from countries you wouldn’t have thought of. “We’re lighter on research and
stronger on testing and learning once we’re in a market.” But Ruairidh Roberts, industry
head for travel at Google, said: “If internationalisation is a new foray, you need to do lots of research before committing. It is critical from a marketing point of view.”
OLLY BRENDON: ‘Exciting to hear speakers of different languages’
them to see how we do things. The people who manage our international brands know the markets and manage everything.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80