Yvonne Johnson started off her session by speaking on building a successful business in today’s climate and she highlighted four ideas that are needed to drive success in business to start to think global. She said that the purpose of these global thinking ideas is because there is a need to extend the trajectory of success for businesses that survived the crisis of the pandemic period and ensure that it’s not just luck.

She emphasized that the value lies when we apply each idea and integrate it into our specific use case rather than theorise them.

The business drivers are now global.

Taking into consideration how technology enabled a virtual world during the pandemic and how physical interactions were replaced by the virtual world, she explained saying  “Physical borders are no longer an issue and this has two major impacts on your business; one is that now all the threats are now global as competition is not limited to a fixed radius. Now, marketplaces are now global and are accessible”. She went further to explain that your customer is also seeing foreign competitors, so when you think of them as a threat to your business, you are able to benefit from regulatory arbitrage. Then you start to think about how to mitigate that. 

Successful entrepreneurs re-imagine a new world with possibility thinking and do it with ongoing disruptions, institutionalizing innovation

The talent pool is now global.

She explained how this has implications for businesses as well as corporate professionals, saying that career professionals should start thinking globally, beyond limited borders and that businesses need to think of the impact of a global, highly mobile talent pool on their business. She went further to enumerate how opportunities are also global and need to be exploited. “Start thinking about supplying your products to a global market. So also your job description should not be limited to locally, you should have a global audience.” 

Furthermore, she said “Your talent pool is a source of fresh ideas. you want to upgrade your value proposition to them, institutionalize them and make them a part of your culture.”

“As a business leader/entrepreneur you carry the vision but you need a team to execute it. But the rules of work have changed. Employees are no longer passive stakeholders, in a sense, they are now customers. As a business what is your value proposition to them and how do you ensure that you are constantly delivering value?”.

Customers are Important Stakeholders in Business.

She emphasized the need to rethink/review customer experience by recognizing what customers are actually purchasing. She further explained how expectations have changed, hence the necessity to think about things from a customer’s perspective; “Do not make assumptions about the customer’s needs because those are the opportunities for you to be able to have success. Repurpose your product and services to meet new demands as it could be that your existing product portfolio is now obsolete. You are not just selling a product/service but an experience and it is the person that will speak to that experience that would win that customer.”

How to Institutionalize Innovation.

Finally, she explained how momentum is important in a business as it will direct the business to survival and growth and ensure that it does not get to a place of complacency. She continued by saying that on the path to success while selling to a global audience, it is necessary to make changes in a bid to institutionalize a growth mindset as this momentum is what is going to regulate the business and direct it to survival as well as growth. She said; “When you operate in a global standard, you reimagine yourself outside of a fixed geography, it forces a higher quality output because you’re interacting with more people and places and this makes innovation spreads quicker.”

In conclusion, she went through the interdependence of these four ideas saying “Successful entrepreneurs re-imagine a new world with possibility thinking and do it with ongoing disruptions, institutionalizing innovation. When a growth mindset is part of your culture you achieve success not just at a local level but at a global level”.