Personal Insights
Managing a Modern Global Business Leading a global business is like devoting yourself to winning an Olympic gold medal in multiple categories. By Bev Hendry
You’re trying to excel in different fields that require varying types of preparation, use unique scoring systems, and attract particular audiences. All this, and you only have so much time and so many resources to allocate to the effort. With global businesses, you have to stay consistent with your global philosophy and process even as you adapt to local needs. Each country differs in nearly every facet, including who the core customers are, how well the brand is known, and what the core product demands are.
The view from Aberdeen One of the challenges of managing a global business such as Aberdeen Asset Management is balancing how you do business in one country with how you do business in another. This balancing act isn’t always easy because regional needs can vary significantly. At the same time, you need to maintain a unified global voice and brand. To offer some perspective, Aberdeen has 33 offices in 24 countries—each with its own set of unique business needs and challenges. As a global investment management group, we’re still learning how to meet the demands of our U.S. clients, which aren’t the same as those of our European and Asian customers, who have historically been our larger customer markets. One of the most common differences among countries—and the most overlooked—is the regulatory environment. What is widely accepted in one country might not be remotely acceptable in another. There are also different industry practices, making it vital to tailor products
and marketing to meet these regional needs. The global business model must have a lot of flexibility in it to accommodate these important regional demands. They have a significant impact on how you can do business in that particular territory. We pay substantial attention to U.S. regulations, which have increased in detail since the financial crisis. Because we’re relatively new in America, and the United States is a competitive market with multiple financial centers, we often have to do more to build brand recognition in this market than we do in Europe and Asia, where we are larger and better known. Although we started our U.S. business in 1995, we recognize that we still have work to do to grow our brand awareness here.
One of the ways we do this is through corporate sponsorship of events. We find that it works well for us. We don’t have as big a budget as some other investment firms, so we aim to be as resourceful as possible in how we spend. An example of an event we sponsor is the Scottish Open golf tournament, which is shown on NBC. Outside of the British Open, it’s the only European event that is shown live in America on a major network. Essentially, we are maintaining our presence in Europe while growing our brand awareness in the United States on the same budget.
Acquisitions key to global reach Another challenge we face in trying to AMA QUARTERLY I Summer 2015 I 3