Cathy Thorpe, CEO of home care provider Nurse Next Door, is planning to expand the Vancouver-based business to Europe. Every market has a unique set of expectations, she says: 'You can’t just say, ‘that works in Canada, so we’re going to do it here.’ 'Vancouver-based home care provider Nurse Next Door boasts franchise locations across Canada, the U.S., Australia and the U.K.
While the need for companionship, physical support and emotional well-being is universal, Ms. Thorpe says every market has a unique set of expectations, needs and approaches to aging based on its cultural and political frameworks. “You can’t just say, ‘that works in Canada, so we’re going to do it here,’” she says. “We’ve had to really adapt our operations in each country.”
Finding the right balance between adapting to a new market’s unique features while maintaining brand consistency is a common challenge for businesses that expand globally, says Anthony Goerzen, a professor of international business at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. “The key issue for the brand is to enable local adaptation to the extent that the firm’s key core resources and capabilities can support it and create value; and, at the same time, do so without hurting the brand identity in its established markets,” he says.
“You need to know that the factors that made you successful here in Canada will also hold true where you’re looking to export,” adds Karen Greve Young, CEO of Futurpreneur, a national non-profit that provides loans and mentorship to young entrepreneurs. She explains that businesses looking to expand abroad need to evaluate the specific factors that led to their success at home and consider whether they remain applicable elsewhere.
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