John Yunker is a well-known pioneer in the field of web and software globalization, and, by now, one of the perennial contributors to this podcast. I've featured him on three previous episodes: #059, #182 and, most recently, #221. He is the Co-Founder & President of Byte Level Research, an agency that specializes in researching, promoting, and advising on best practices in website globalization.
Based in Ashland, Oregon, John has been helping companies improve their global content, websites, and software since 2000. He has worked with many of the world’s biggest multinational corporations, providing them with web-globalization training, specialized reports, and benchmark services. His Web Globalization Report Cards have become required reading for global brand leaders everywhere; these annual reports provide an up-to-date evaluation of how major global companies are performing relative to each other and to current industry best practices.
Besides his client work, John writes the popular blog "Global by Design", and has authored several books, including "Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies", the first book devoted to the emerging field of web globalization, and more recently, "Think Outside the Country: A Guide to Going Global and Succeeding in the Translation Economy".
Here, John returns to the show to talk about his "2022 Web Globalization Report Card", which he published earlier this year.
Tune in to the conversation, and learn about how the top global websites make sure that international visitors have the best experience possible.
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Andy Klump is a renewable energy executive with nearly two decades of experience living and working in Asia. He is the founder, owner, and CEO of Clean Energy Associates (CEA), a solar energy and storage advisory firm that specializes in technical due diligence and engineering services. Established in 2008, CEAnow employs over 175 professionals around the world, and has completed solar energy and storage projects in more than 65 countries so far.
Originally from the U.S., Andy has a background in Economics and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He relocated from Atlanta to Shanghai in 2002 and has been based in Asia ever since. Prior to founding his own company, he served as the Vice President of Business Development for Trina Solar, where he headed the company’s international expansion plans covering supply chain, international business development, capital raising, and corporate development. Over a two-year period, he and his Trina Solarmanagement team successfully raised nearly $500 million in capital during the company’s IPO and follow-on offerings on the New York Stock Exchange.
In addition to his role as the head of CEA, Andy is a current board member of a couple of renewable energy startups, ion Ventures and Solar Inventions, and he has served as a board member of the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). He is also a co-founder and board member of the health-care focused non-profit organizations iDefine.org and KIDSIQProject.org.
In this interview, Andy shares his personal career journey of relocating to China from the U.S., adapting to the local business culture, and eventually launching and scaling his own global company. He explains what the core purpose behind CEA is, and how he manages his growing international team. And he talks about some global and regional trends he's seeing in solar energy, and his perspective on the solar supply chain going forward.
Tune in for Andy's valuable insights!
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Kathleen MacLean is the Head of Growth at ev.energy, a London-based Cleantech startup that empowers electric vehicle owners to charge their EV in a simpler, cheaper, and greener way. Launched in 2018, ev.energy’s innovative app keeps track of when energy is least expensive and carbon-intensive, and balances user demand on the energy grid at peak times. As a Certified B Corporation, ev.energy is part of a global community of over 5,000 companies (and counting) that are reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit.
In early 2022, ev.energy extended its Series A funding to $12.8 Million, enabling it to pursue rapid growth in North America and around the world. In addition to its U.K. headquarters, ev.energy has now has an office Palo Alto, California, and employs a world-class team of over 60 people across Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
Originally from Scotland, Kathleen has been based in London since 2012. She has over a decade of experience in marketing and brand management, and has worked both on the agency and on the client side for a variety of industries. She joined ev.energy at the beginning of 2021, and is now on a mission to help drive the decarbonization of transport. Besides her role at ev.energy, she is also a passionate TEDx'er and has volunteered as the Co-Licensee & Curator for TEDx Covent Garden Women in London.
In this interview, Kathleen talks about the challenges and benefits of having a globally dispersed team, how she approaches international marketing strategy on a startup budget, and how she has adapted the ev.energy app’s value proposition for each of the company’s three core markets so far: the U.K., Germany, and California.
Tune in for Kathleen’s great insights!
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María González-Calvo de Miguel is the Global Lead for Marketing and Communications at Sonnedix, a multi-national Independent Power Producer (IPP) that develops, finances, builds, owns, and operates solar power plants around the globe. Founded in 2009, the company's purpose is to harness the power of the sun to build a bright future. Today, Sonnedix has 400 photovoltaic power plants in operation, construction or under development around the world, with a total production capacity of more than six GW of power. The company has over 400 employees across a dozen global offices, including in the U.K., Italy, France, Spain, Poland, the U.S., Chile, and Japan.
Based in Madrid, María has over a decade of experience in branding, marketing, communications, PR, and media relations. She began her career in her native Spain in 2008, and then took the opportunity to live and work in the Philippines, in the Netherlands, and in the U.K. She joined Sonnedix in early 2020, when she took on her current role, and is now leading the company's international brand development – from market research and conceptualization, to the implementation of Sonnedix's communications plan and marketing campaigns.
In this interview, María describes how Sonnedix is building a successful global brand through community engagement and innovative content strategies. She talks about the importance storytelling and adapting communications for different kinds of audiences around the world. And she explains why Sonnedix has started investing in the creation of educational content for the next generation of solar energy stakeholders.
Tune in for María’s fascinating insights!
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This episode is a special cross-post. As the producer & host of The Worldly Marketer Podcast, Kathrin Bussmann is usually the one asking the questions. But in early 2022, she was invited to be a guest on The International Business Podcast, and found herself on other side of the interview process.
In conversation with Audrey Wagner, one of the podcast’s co-hosts, Kathrin talks about her definition of ‘branding’, the importance of having a global brand strategy in today's digital economy, how localization contributes to global business success, and why she chose to focus her consulting practice on the Cleantech sector.
With kind permission from Audrey and her colleagues, Leonardo Marra and Stefano Santelmo, Kathrin is re-sharing the interview here, for the benefit of her Worldly Marketer Podcast listeners. She also encourages everyone to check out The International Business Podcast for many more interesting episodes on a wide variety of global business topics.
Happy listening!
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This week, instead of bringing you a podcast interview, I’d like to share something a bit more personal. I’d like tell you about my father, Prof. Dr. Max G. Krell. In so many ways, he’s the reason I’m the person I am today.
My father was a nuclear physicist. He was born in 1935 in Lower Silesia, a region that was part of Germany before the Second World War and is now part of Poland. He studied Physics at the university of Erlangen, in Bavaria, which is where he met my mother. As newlyweds, they moved to Karlsruhe, another German university town, so that my father could pursue his doctorate. They then relocated to Geneva, where my father worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) for several years.
Eventually, my father accepted a tenure-track position in the department of Physics at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec. Leaving behind all their family and friends, my parents immigrated to Canada. My mother was almost eight months pregnant at the time, and I was born about a month after they had settled into their small apartment near the university campus.
My father had a three-decades long career as a science professor in Sherbrooke. He finally retired in 1999, and happily devoted himself to his 100-acre hobby farm. He had bought the property, a ten-minute drive from the university, when I was two years old. It was a perfectly square, partially forested piece of land, with an old “saltbox” style farmhouse, a barn, and a couple of ponds. This was the backdrop of my childhood. To my father, that farm was his very own piece of Paradise, something he could have never afforded if he had stayed in Germany.
He often told me about his own childhood, vividly remembering the years around World War II. At the end of the war, he and his family had had to flee their village and head west to safety, with basically just the clothes on their backs and whatever they could carry on foot. The years right after the war, his formative years, were especially difficult. His family had to start all over in a new town, mourning loved ones lost in the war, rebuilding their lives from scratch, and food was in short supply. I suppose that’s why my father was obsessed with the idea of having his own land and being as food self-sufficient as possible. My mother, whose family had also had to flee westward at the end of the war, was on the same page.
Thinking back now, I realize what a wonderfully idyllic childhood I had, growing up in the beautiful countryside of the Eastern Townships – though I often dreamed of city life, especially as a teenager. We had a huge vegetable garden, fruit trees, berry shrubs, beehives, a small herd of sheep, rabbits, ducks, geese, and more. I was immersed in the natural world, seeing things grow around me, planting things, harvesting things, witnessing the cycle of life, and knowing exactly where most of my food came from.
For my father, the proximity to nature combined with his training as a scientist, also led to environmental activism. In my teens, I remember several citizen-led, pro-environmental initiatives that my father helped launch and organize, which were driven by the prospect of local authorities making potentially disastrous decisions.
All through my youth, I witnessed my father fight stubbornly, unflinchingly for what he believed was right, even when it meant opposing the powers-that-be. He taught me some very important lessons about stepping up when it matters and fighting for the greater good. He shaped the core values that I carry with me as an adult: a belief in science, in justice, in personal integrity, and in social responsibility.
On April 16th, 2002, exactly three years into his retirement, my father died unexpectedly of a massive stroke.
He never got to meet his only grandchild, who was born the year after his death. But I know he would have been so incredibly proud. He also never got to see me launch my own business. But I know he would have been extremely supportive and interested, especially with regards to my new focus on Cleantech. No doubt whatsoever, he would have had a lot to say about the inherent risks of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.
I wish he was still with us.
This Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, marks the 20th anniversary of my father’s passing. On the one hand, I can’t believe it’s already been 20 years. On the other hand, so much has happened in those years – many things that would absolutely amaze and thrill him, and other things that would completely outrage and dismay him. I’m pretty sure that if he were still alive, at the age of 87, he’d be as involved as ever in his local community of environmental activists.
My father was a man of strong principles, deep moral convictions, and a level of personal integrity that seems all too rare these days. He believed in fairness, honesty, and accountability. And he wasn’t afraid to say unpopular things if he felt that truth and justice were at stake.
I’m incredibly proud to be his daughter. In so many ways, his legacy is what drives me now.
So this Easter long weekend, I will celebrate my father’s life, and I will remember all the things that made him a such wonderful dad and a truly great human being.
Whether you’re celebrating Easter, Passover, Ramadan, or Songkran, I hope that you’re able to spend it with family or friends, sharing memories of loved ones who have passed, and cherishing your time together.
Kathrin
Simon Kemp is a global authority on how people use the Internet. As Founder & CEO at Kepios, a strategy consultancy, he helps organizations all over the world to make sense of what people are really doing online, to identify changes in digital behaviour, and to understand how these trends will impact their success.
Originally from Scotland, Simon has been based in Singapore since 2007. In parallel to his work at Kepios, he is also the Chief Analyst at DataReportal, an online reference library of up-to-date reports that explore people's digital behaviours globally, regionally, and by country. These free reports, which he produces in collaboration with Hootsuite and We Are Social, provide current information on everything from Internet penetration rates to online activities such as mobile usage, social-media habits, e-commerce adoption, and much more.
Simon has been featured on eight previous episodes of this podcast, most recently about a year ago, on episode #213. You could say that he has become a perennial guest of the show, and he's always a pleasure to catch up with. In this interview, he returns to the show to talk about his Digital 2022 Global Overview Report and Local Country Reports, and he shares his analysis of some of the more remarkable data points.
As always, the numbers tell an interesting story of what people around the world are actually doing online. And once again, Simon's findings will likely present a challenge to many marketers' assumptions. Tune in and prepare to be surprised!
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Michelle Carvill is a strategic marketer and entrepreneur, as well as a successful speaker, podcaster, and author. Her latest book, published in 2021, is called Sustainable Marketing – How to Drive Profits with Purpose.
In parallel to the book, which she co-authored with Gemma Butler and Geraint Evans, she has developed training programs for the Chartered Institute of Marketing to ensure that sustainability is firmly on the marketing education agenda. Michelle has also developed a certified "Carbon Literacy Training for Marketers", and she is creating conversations around sustainable marketing through the podcast she co-hosts called Can Marketing Save the Planet?
Based in the U.K., Michelle began her career in marketing over three decades ago. Today, she has numerous awards and recognitions to her name, and is leading her very own digital agency, Carvill Creative, which she founded in 2002. As an agency owner, Michelle’s focus is on helping organizations to develop a strong digital presence through robust and highly human digital and social-media marketing strategies. She also leads a social enterprise called The Preventative Healthcare Service, and she's a Co-Founder & Partner at The Online Digital Academy.
Through her body of work and her Sustainable Marketer Manifesto, which is a sort of Hippocratic oath for responsible marketing, Michelle is at the vanguard of the movement to make marketing a force for good. She believes that the need to focus on sustainability has never been more urgent for businesses and marketers. In her view, there’s no one better placed to affect change, align with and influence customers, and drive hope for a better, more sustainable future, than an ‘educated and aware’ responsible marketer.
In this interview, Michelle talks about how consumers’ expectations around sustainability have evolved over the past 30 years, how brands around the world are rising to the challenge, and why marketing professionals have a crucial role to play in creating a more sustainable economy. She also shares some key takeaways from her book, Sustainable Marketing.
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Chris Coulter is the CEO at GlobeScan, an international insights and advisory consultancy that works at the intersection of brand purpose, sustainability, and trust. Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, GlobeScan’s purpose is to co-create a sustainable and equitable future. It partners with leading businesses, NGOs, and governmental organizations to deliver insights that guide decision-making, and to build strategies that contribute to a sustainable and equitable world.
More than three decades into its mission, GlobeScan now has a global network of experts, as well as offices around the world, including in Cape Town, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, Paris, San Francisco, and São Paulo. GlobeScan is a participant of the UN Global Compact, and it is also a Certified B Corp.
Based at GlobeScan’s headquarters in Toronto, Chris has over 15 years of experience in providing evidence-based counsel to leadership organizations at the nexus of reputation, brand, and sustainability. He is a specialist in international relations, and has lived and worked in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Besides his role as CEO at GlobeScan, Chris is the Director of the GlobeScan Foundation, a Board Member at CBSR (Canadian Business for Social Responsibility), a Council Member at SustainAbility (a think tank), and a Board Member at Good World Solutions. Along with David Grayson and Mark Lee, he is also the co-author of The Sustainable Business Handbook: A guide to becoming more innovative, resilient and successful, published in February 2022.
In this interview, Chris talks about how GlobeScan is working with partners around the world to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable global economy, and what trends he’s seeing among big multinationals when it comes to setting and reaching ESG targets. He also shares his insights into why it’s so important for global-minded companies to take a long-term view of growth, and why markets outside their comfort zone may in fact hold the biggest future opportunities. Last but not least, he shares some of the top takeaways from his new book. Tune in!
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This episode was sponsored by The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Bettina Grab has over 15 years of experience in global B2B tech marketing. She is the President at Alder & Co., a leading marketing agency that works exclusively with cleantech and climate-tech companies. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Alder & Co.'s mission is to advance the adoption of climate technologies until they become universal.
Originally from Germany, Bettina has a background in communication sciences, international relations, and journalism. She began her marketing career in 2004, and worked at some large German IT & media enterprises, before relocating to London, U.K., in 2011. There, she had a chance to hone her expertise in global marketing and global brand management at a couple of international outsourcing and offshoring companies.
Then, just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bettina relocated to the U.S., and settled down in the San Francisco Bay area. There, she founded her own marketing consultancy, which focused on serving Cleantech and climate tech companies. She also launched a blog and eco-activism platform called bluegreen.blog. Finally, in 2021, she joined forces with fellow west-coast agency owner Melanie Adamson, when she had the opportunity to take on the role of President & Partner at Alder & Co.
In her role at Alder & Co., Bettina now drives business development for the agency and advises clients on growth marketing strategies. She is also a guest lecturer for cleantech marketing at the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, and serves as Cleantech Open's National Marketing Chair. Along with Melanie Adamson, Bettina is also the co-founder of ToFu, a substack newsletter and membership community for cleantech and climate tech marketing professionals.
In this interview, Bettina talks about why she’s so passionate about her work, how good marketing empowers climate tech companies to make a bigger impact, why B2B marketing strategy may need to differ significantly for the U.S. versus the U.K. or Germany, what current trends she has noticed in the nascent field of cleantech marketing, and how North American scale-ups should approach their expansion into Europe. Tune in!
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This episode was sponsored by the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Dr. Michael E. Smith is an applied cognitive neuroscientist and consumer insights professional, who studies the connection between brain function, human behaviour and the decisions we make as consumers. Based in San Diego, California, he is the Founder and Principal Scientist at Adaptation Research, a boutique consultancy that he launched in 2017. He is also an Advisory Board Member at CloudArmy Neuro, a Vancouver-based software company that provides on online neuro-powered marketing research platform.
Before starting his own firm, Michael served as Vice President of Consumer Neuroscience at Nielsen, the market-leading consumer research firm. Previous roles include that of President at CorTechs Labs Inc, a medical devices company; Program Director in Cognitive Neuroscience at the US National Science Foundation; and Principal Neuroscientist at SAM Technology, where he directed research programs in the field of Neuroergonomics.
I've had the pleasure of featuring Michael on this podcast once before, on episode #095, when we discussed how consumer neuroscience applies to global marketing. In his current work, he is focused on identifying how the latest insights into human behaviour and consumer decision-making can help speed the transition to a more circular economy. And on that topic, he recently published a book called Inspiring Green Consumer Choices: Leverage Neuroscience to Reshape Marketplace Behavior.
In this in interview, Michael discusses the reasons behind the global “intention-action” gap when it comes to sustainable consumer behaviours, why consumer habits are so difficult to change, and how green brands can become more competitive in the marketplace. He also explains why the value proposition of a green brand may need to be adapted for different cultures, why brands should avoid greenwashing at all costs, and how marketers and policy makers can work together to incentivize greener consumer choices.
You won’t want to miss this fascinating conversation!
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This episode was sponsored by the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Emily Rakowski is the Chief Marketing Officer at EcoVadis, the world’s most trusted sustainability ratings provider. Launched in 2007 and headquartered in Paris, EcoVadis helps businesses reduce risk and drive performance & innovation in their supply chain by evaluating their environmental, labor & human rights, sustainable procurement, and fair-trading practices.
The EcoVadis methodology, which is built on international CSR standards, covers over 200 industries across more than 160 countries. The organization now has nine offices around the globe, and it works with over 85,000 companies, including global brands such as Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Subway, Coca Cola, Salesforce, Renault-Nissan, ING Bank, and Nokia.
With a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Emily has over 25 years of experience in sourcing and procurement solutions. She spent many years in global marketing and demand management with both SAP and Ariba, and also worked in leadership roles at Ellucian, Kearney Procurement Solutions, Creative Good, and Kearney Consulting, where she managed marketing functions and consulting engagements for clients in the high technology, banking and energy industries.
Now based in the greater Washington D.C. area, Emily leads a global team of professionals, who cover all aspects of EcoVadis’ B2B marketing, supporting the company's annual revenue growth, and helping to drive the overall business strategy. She was also instrumental in the success of EcoVadis’ $200M funding round back in January 2020.
In this interview, Emily discusses the challenges of building a brand that engages stakeholders around the world and working with a globally dispersed marketing team. She also talks about the evolving language of Sustainability, and the trends she’s seeing in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) conscienciousness among big global brands today. Tune in!
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This episode was sponsored by the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Cynthia Dearin is the Founder & Managing Director at Dearin & Associates, an international business consulting company that helps its clients to access opportunities in fast-growing international markets. I've had the pleasure of featuring her on a previous episode of this podcast, namely episode #174, which came out back in early 2020.
Based in Sydney, Australia, Cynthia launched her consulting firm in 2013, and now works with a variety of manufacturing and tech companies that are looking to succeed in overseas markets. As an extension of her consultancy, she has also launched the International Business Accelerator, which helps SMEs speed up and de-risk their international expansion process, and get their products and services to the world.
From her early career as a diplomat, through her years working as a legal advisor and management consultant, Cynthia has now accumulated two decades of international experience. She has lived in France, the U.K., the U.S., North Africa, and the Middle East, besides her native Australia, and she speaks three different languages.
In addition to her consulting work, Cynthia is a successful keynote speaker, podcaster, and best-selling author. Her most recent book, which was published in 2021, is called Business Beyond Borders: How to Take Your Company Global.
In this interview, I talk with Cynthia about how the pandemic has affected her consultancy and her clients' international business efforts, and we dive into some of the top takeaways from her new book. Tune into our conversation!
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This episode was sponsored by the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Saleem Ahamed is the Chief Marketing Officer at Plastic Bank, an organization that is helping the world to stop ocean plastic, while improving the lives of those who help collect it. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Plastic Bank’s mission is to empower the regenerative society by building ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocessing the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain.
Currently, the company operates in Haiti, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Egypt, and works with over 17,000 collectors. So far, Plastic Bank has stopped over one billion plastic bottles from entering our oceans. That's over 20 million kilograms of plastic waste.
With a background in business and marketing, Saleem began his career over 25 years ago, working for Procter & Gamble in Europe. After more than a decade with Procter & Gamble, he joined Johnson & Johnson, where he eventually became Worldwide Director of Global Strategic Marketing.
In 2012, he decided to launch a business of his own, as Co-Founder and CEO of Silver Health Systems, a valet dental care company. After four years of this entrepreneurial hiatus, he rejoined Johnson & Johnson to take on a series of senior leadership roles – including that of Global CMO – in the company's Diabetes Care division.
In 2019, Saleem transitioned into the Cleantech space, when he took on the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Terramera, a Vancouver-based AgTech company focused on applying AI solutions to agricultural problems. Finally, in early 2020, he joined the team at Plastic Bank in his current position of CMO.
In this interview, Saleem talks about why Plastic Bank set up its operations in the countries where it did, the importance of driving the value proposition through strategic brand management, and how the organization now creates value on multiple levels for different types of stakeholders – from local plastic collectors to multinational corporate partners.
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This epsiode was sponsored by the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).
Laurence (Larry) Minsky is an advertising & marketing consultant with clients throughout the globe. He is also a full-time Associate Professor in the Communication Department at Columbia College Chicago. With a background in psychology, Larry started his career as an advertising copywriter over 35 years ago. He went on the become a creative director and marketing strategist, and eventually launched his own consultancy in 2003.
Over the course of his career, Larry has worked with for many of the world's top brands. He is known for developing effective cross-channel solutions that boost marketing ROI for his clients, and his work has been recognized with more than 125 industry awards. His client experience ranges from the Fortune 500, to startups and non-profits. Some of the global brands he has worked with include Amazon, GE, Kraft, McDonald’s, and Unilever – to name just a few.
Last but not least, Larry is a successful author. His articles have been published by the Harvard Business Review, the European Business Review, and MarketingProfs, among others. He is also the author and co-author of several books on marketing & advertising, most recently Global Brand Management: A guide to developing, building and managing an international brand, which he co-authored with global branding expert Ilan Geva.
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The Worldly Marketer Podcast is a Verbaccino production.
Anna N. Schlegel is the VP of Product, International and Globalization at Procore Technologies, a company that provides cloud-based project-management software for the construction industry. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in California, Procore's mission is to connect everyone in construction on a global platform. With nine offices on three continents, the company now employs 2,500 people globally. Hundreds of thousands of users around the world rely on Procore's collaborative, multilingual suite of tools to manage all types of large-scale construction projects more efficiently and more profitably.
In the world of software globalization, Anna almost needs no introduction. I've had the pleasure of featuring her on this podcast twice previously. She is a recognized expert in Global Product Management and Enterprise Globalization Strategy, and she's one of the most well-known personalities in the Localization industry. She has been blazing a trail in Silicon Valley for over 25 years now, with many impressive achievements and accolades earned along the way. Before joining Procore earlier this year, she spent more than a decade driving global growth at NetApp, the Fortune-500 tech company known for hybrid cloud data services and data management. Previous tech companies that benefitted from her expertise include VMWare, VeriSign, Xerox, and Cisco Systems.
Throughout her distinguished career, Anna has always taken the time to give back to her profession, perhaps most notably as an original Co-Founder and past President of Women in Localization, the leading professional organization for women and their allies in the localization industry (cf. episode #035). She is also involved with a number of economic development initiatives with her native region of Catalonia.
Last but not least, Anna is the author of Truly Global: The Theory and Practice of Bringing Your Company to International Markets. She originally published her book in 2016, and just recently launched a revised edition.
In this interview, Anna explains why Procore Technologies has prioritized international growth as its #1 strategic initiative, how Anna is applying her three decades of experience to help the company achieve its global business objectives, and why she feels so passionate about developing stakeholder management and business savvy as part of true leadership in globalization. She also talks about new learnings that she has included in the recently-updated edition of her book, Truly Global, and she shares some valuable advice for today’s ambitious tech CEOs.
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The Worldly Marketer Podcast is a Verbaccino production.
Andy Andersen drives international growth at Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Tinder was introduced almost ten years ago, on a college campus, and has since evolved into the highest grossing non-gaming app globally. It is now available in 190 countries and over 40 languages, has been downloaded more than 450 million times since its launch, and has led to more than 65 billion matches – including more than 145 million new matches via its ‘More Genders’ feature.
Originally from Louisiana, Andy has a background in business and international studies, and he is fluent in English and Spanish. He has had a very interesting career path. In 2012, while he was still a university student at Louisiana State University (and the same year that Tinder got started), he launched a blog called Backpacking Diplomacy, which was focused on everything global from general travel tips to in-depth cultural immersion.
After a brief stint in Puerto Rico working in the hospitality industry, Andy relocated to Brooklyn in 2014 to take on the role of Linguist Recruiter at a New York-based language services company catering to the legal services industry. His foray on the vendor side of the translation & localization industry lasted the better part of three years. In 2017, Andy transitioned to the client side when he joined Tinder as Localization Program Manager, and he has been at the company ever since. In his current role, he is centred on international growth, and works with a team of 15 in-house specialists.
Besides his role at Tinder, Andy is an International Growth Consultant at AppLocalization.io, a consulting group of working international growth professionals, who help products reach the world through strategically customized localization, product, and user acquisition tactics.
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The Worldly Marketer Podcast is a Verbaccino production.
Sean Duffy is an international brand strategist and the Founder of Duffy Agency, a strategic marketing agency that specializes in international brand development. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Duffy Agencyworks to fill the expertise gap that business typically experience as they set out to compete on an international stage. The agency has worked with clients from over 30 different countries and has collaborated with partner agencies in 50 other cities around the world. As CEO, Sean divides his time between Duffy Agency's main office in Sweden and its U.S. office in Boston, MA.
Born and raised in the U.S., Sean has over 30 years of experience working in strategic marketing. He began his career in Boston as a copywriter with BBDO, the global advertising agency, and later worked as Creative Director for an ad agency in San Francisco. In 1991, he moved to Stockholm, to work as Creative Director at Sweden’s largest ad agency, Lowe Brindfors, which is now part of the Mullen Lowe Group. After 10 years with Lowe working exclusively on international marketing, he decided to launch his own agency.
In addition to his role at Duffy Agency, Sean is a Lecturer & Practitioner in Residence at the Lund University School of Economics & Management and a Mentor in their Masters Program in Entrepreneurship. He is also a frequent speaker on strategic international marketing and online brand management, and he draws on his experience working with dozens of global brands including IKEA, The United Nations, Saab, Volvo, Absolut, VF Corporation, Pfizer, and GSK. Last but not least, Sean is the author of an excellent new book called International Brand Strategy: A Guide to Achieving Global Brand Growth.
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
John Yunker is a well-known pioneer in the field of web and software globalization, and he has been featured on two previous episodes of this podcast: episodes #059 and #182. He is the Co-Founder & President of Byte Level Research, an agency based in Ashland, Oregon, that specializes in researching, promoting and advising on best practices in web globalization.
For over two decades now, John has been helping companies improve their global content, their websites, and their software through specialized reports, consulting, speaking and training sessions. He has worked with many of the world’s largest multinational corporations, providing them with web-globalization training and benchmark services.
In addition to his client work, John writes a well-known blog called Global by Design, and he is the author ofseveral books, including “The Savvy Client's Guide to Translation Agencies, The Art of the Global Gateway”, “Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies”, and most recently, “Think Outside the Country: A Guide to Going Global and Succeeding in the Translation Economy”. But he is perhaps best known for his annual Web Globalization Report Cards, which provide an up-to-date evaluation of how major global companies are performing relative to each other and to current industry best practices.
In this episode, John returns to the show to talk about his 2021 Web Globalization Report Card, which he published earlier this year. Tune in to learn about which global companies are leading the way when it comes to website globalization best practices, what they're doing to attract and retain more international visitors, and what some takeaways are for companies in the earlier stages of international growth.
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
Ramsey Pryor is the Founding Partner at Port of Entry Partners, a consultancy that helps tech companies conquer international markets. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he works with his clients to define their expansion strategy, understand the local market conditions, localize their product offerings, hire world-class talent, build brand awareness, win top accounts, and evolve as a truly global organization.
With a background in Economics, Hispanic Studies, and Marketing, Ramsey has over 20 years of experience working at technology companies large and small. Before launching his own consultancy in 2021, he spent five years leading International Expansion & Sales at Branch Metrics, the third Fastest-Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500 list. During his tenure at Branch, he grew the company's international footprint from zero to over 100 employees and opened 12 global offices across LATAM, EMEA, and APAC.
In addition to his consulting work, Ramsey is a frequent speaker on international expansion, and he is a founding member of International Mastermind, a peer network of global operators from companies including Spotify, Shopify, Squarespace, Asana, HubSpot and other leading tech companies. He also recently launched The International Expansion Podcast, where he talks with industry colleagues about their experiences, learnings, and best practices around taking tech companies global.
Tune in for Ramsey’s valuable insights on how today’s startups are going from zero to international faster than ever, and how they can manage the inherent challenges rapid global growth.
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
Giulia Greco is the Localization Programs Lead at Shopify, the leading global ecommerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Founded in 2006, Shopify is the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business. Its mission is to make commerce better for everyone, everywhere. It now powers over 1.7 million businesses in more than 175 countries, and has over 5,000 employees across the globe. Shopify is trusted by brands such as Allbirds, Gymshark, PepsiCo, Staples, and many more.
Originally from Milan, Italy, Giulia has a background in translation and interpreting. She moved to Canada in 2002, and settled down in Toronto. In 2016, she joined the Shopify team in the role of Content & Localization Manager for Italian, and eventually took on the role of Localization Program Manager. In her current role, she manages the localization operations in the Marketing & Growth team, including video localization, plus several in-country editors, linguists, translators, copywriters and a Language Service Provider.
In this interview, Giulia talks about the role of internationalization and localization in Shopify’s incredible growth; the challenge of working with globally distributed teams; the inherent tension between building the company’s global brand identity and the need for hyper-localized content; what a minimum viable Localization team should look like; and how, in 2020, the “Shopify Effect” was responsible for $307 billion in global economic activity.
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
Kathryn Read is an international sales & marketing consultant and a Partner at Uniconsult-Wick & Partner, which is a business management and export consultancy based in Austria. She has over two decades of experience developing niche products in emerging markets, and helping small and medium-size companies to break through international barriers, thereby creating successful entrepreneurs and a thriving global marketplace.
Originally from the U.K., Kathryn has a background in French and German language studies, and she is extremely well travelled. She began her export career back in 1995, working at a British auto-parts manufacturer in Nottingham. In 2000, Kathryn relocated to Austria to take on a cross-border sales role at Trodat, which is a globally successful consumer goods company, and she has made her home in Austria ever since. In 2001, she joined HiPP, the European organic baby food company, and spent several years leading the brand’s international sales efforts into Central and Eastern Europe as well as Asia, including China.
Kathryn firmly believes that business is done between people, and therefore she focuses on building strong relationships that form a solid foundation for doing business. I've had the pleasure of getting to know her better over the past year or so, and I always appreciate her authenticity, her genuine curiosity about people and cultures, and the kind, thoughtful way she approaches everything she does.
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This epsiode waws sponsored by Vistatec.
Anastasia Leng is the Founder & CEO at CreativeX, a technology company whose mission is to advance creative expression through the clarity of data. Launched in 2015, CreativeX uses analytics tools to help Fortune 500 brands like Unilever, Mondelez, Heineken, ABI, Google, L'Oréal, and Pepsi to measure the efficiency, the consistency, and the impact of their visual marketing content across the globe.
Fluent in three languages, Anastasia has been a nomad all her life. She has lived in Bahrain, Vietnam, Hungary, Russia, France, England, and currently makes her home in New York City. With a background in psychology and sociology, she began her career in marketing in 2005. She joined Google in 2007 as a Product Marketing Manager, and eventually took on the role of New Business Development Manager, EMEA, where she led entrepreneurship efforts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and was responsible for early-stage partnerships for Google Voice, Chrome, and Wallet.
In 2012, Anastasia launched herself into entrepreneurship when she co-founded Hatch.co, an e-commerce company that was selected as one of Time Magazine’s "Top 10 Startups to Watch in New York", one of TimeOut NY's "Best New Shopping Sites of 2013", as well as one of the four most innovative retail companies by the National Retail Federation.
In this interview, Anastasia talks about why it’s so important for global brands to ensure quality and consistency across their creative marketing assets, how CreativeX helps Fortune 500 brands solve specific pain points around their visual content, and how she is successfully managing the international growth of her own company. Catch Anastasia’s valuable insights!
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
Rachel Carruthers is the Head of Internationalisation and Localisation at Canva, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that makes graphic design simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown to become one of the top 20 unicorn companies in the world, with a current valuation of $15 billion dollars USD. Canva now has over 50 million monthly active users across 190 countries and 100 different languages. More than 1,400 team members work together across continents to achieve the company's mission, which is to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.
Originally from California, Rachel spent several years working on the vendor side of the Localization industry, servicing high-profile tech enterprise clients in Silicon Valley. In 2015, she moved to Sydney, Australia, to pursue a Master’s degree at the University of Sydney, and she never left.
After a brief stint at a digital marketing agency, Rachel joined Canva in 2017. In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring that every Canva user has a truly localized experience, be it on the Web App, iOS or Android platform. She and her team also ensure that the company's marketing efforts are localized, that there is a variety of region-specific content for Canva’s design community, and that designs are relevant and fitting for each market around the world.
In this interview, Rachel talks about the major global-growth milestones that Canva has achieved since its founding, the role of internationalization and localization in facilitating that growth, and the importance of international, non-English-speaking user for the company’s bottom line today. She also talks about how Canva’s investment in localization directly reflects of its commitment to accessibility, diverse representation and inclusion – core values that are inherent to the company’s mission. On a variety of levels, Canvarepresents an incredibly valuable case study for SaaS companies everywhere.
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This episode was sponsored by Vistatec.
Mulumba Lwatula is an entrepreneur, a business consultant, and a technologist based in Lusaka, Zambia. He is the Acting Deputy Head of Investments (Mining, Manufacturing & Agribusiness) at IDC (Industrial Development Corporation), a state-owned enterprise whose mandate is to spearhead the Zambian Government's commercial investments agenda aimed at strengthening the country's industrial base and job creation.
With an MBA and a background in Systems Analysis and Design, Mulumba has built a deep expertise in the development and delivery of technology-driven solutions in emerging markets on the African continent. Since beginning his career over 20 years ago, he has gone from as a Developer, to a Webmaster, to an IT company co-founder, to an Independent Consultant for the United Nations, he has founded a number of companies.
Aside from his role at IDC, where he focuses on Mining, Manufacturing, and Agribusiness, Mulumba co-hosts Scale Up Africa, a podcast on building resilient African entrepreneurs and businesses, and he is a co-founder at Soqo, a data analytics and payments startup.
In this interview, Mulumba talks about his work at IDC, how he sees Africa’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, what foreign brands need to know about Zambia’s rapidly changing marketplace, and how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is creating new opportunities for local entrepreneurs. Catch his valuable insights!
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This epsiode was sponsored by Vistatec.