The Overlooked Side of Global Growth: Is Headquarters Ready?
When associations consider international growth, much of the attention naturally goes outward. Is there demand in the market? Who are the competitors? What partnerships are available? Will members or customers pay for what we offer?
Those are important questions. But there is another side of international growth that receives far less attention: What will success require from the organization back home?
That question came up during a recent conversation on The Helm (stay tuned!) with Jim Piechowski, CAE, chair of ASAE’s International Associations Advisory Council. “Associations spend a lot of time assessing whether a market is right for them, and not enough time asking if they are ready for that market,” Jim said. That readiness extends well beyond having an international strategy.
Growth changes headquarters, too
International expansion can touch almost every function within an association. Finance may need to navigate foreign currencies, taxes, VAT and new payment methods. Customer service teams may receive questions from people working in different languages and time zones. Education and credentialing programs may encounter different professional practices or regulatory environments.
Governance can change, too. As international participation grows, organizations may need to think differently about who has a voice in decision-making, how meetings are scheduled and how perspectives from outside the United States are incorporated. Even organizations that do not open an international office can quickly discover that serving a global audience creates new expectations for the people and systems at headquarters.
The hidden cost of success
This becomes especially important when international growth begins to work. Imagine that international participation doubled over the next year.
Could your current staff support it?
Could your technology accommodate it?
Could your finance systems handle it?
Could your programs deliver meaningful value across markets?
Could your leadership make decisions quickly enough to respond to local needs?
If the answer to those questions is unclear, the challenge may not be finding international opportunity. It may be building the internal capacity to take advantage of it.
International strategy is also organizational strategy
Global growth should therefore be viewed as more than a market-development initiative – it is an organizational decision. Associations need to consider not only where they want to grow, but what that growth will require from staff, systems, governance and leadership. That does not mean every organization needs significant infrastructure before pursuing an international opportunity. Many associations can start small, test ideas and build capacity over time. But leadership should understand the implications from the beginning. Before asking whether your association is ready for a particular international market, consider turning the question around:
If the market is ready for us, are we ready for what comes next?
Leadership Voices
Featuring Jim Piechowski, CAE
When we asked Jim Piechowski, CAE, chair of the ASAE International Associations Advisory Council, what association leaders may not be paying enough attention to, his answer was organizational readiness.
“If I have to pick one thing leaders may not be paying enough attention to, I’d say organizational readiness. Associations spend a lot of time assessing whether a market is right for them and not enough time asking whether they are ready for that market. Is headquarters really prepared to adapt, listen, share authority, bring in local perspectives, and change how the organization operates?
When organizations I worked with expanded internationally, we underestimated how much it would affect the staff at headquarters. Suddenly teams were working across time zones, communicating across languages and cultures, and responding to needs they hadn’t encountered before. And that reaches almost every function.
Finance may be dealing with taxes, VAT, duties, currencies, and payments in different countries. Governance may change as the board becomes more internationally representative. Meetings may need to move to different locations, or you may have to consider the cost and accessibility of bringing international leaders to the United States.
So the question isn’t only, ‘Is this market ready for us?’ It’s also, ‘Are we really ready for this market, and have we thought through what that means for the whole organization?’”
This newsletter is intended for general informational purposes only. The ideas and examples shared are illustrative and not specific recommendations for any one organization or individual. Because success in international markets looks different for every organization, we work with each client to identify solutions tailored to their goals and opportunities.
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