How to Navigate Your Transnational Strategy for Global Success

Understanding Transnational Strategy

A transnational strategy in the context of brand expansion allows for businesses like yours to capitalize on the efficiency and savings that localization and internationalization can provide. Allowing room for this element of strategy in your expansion plan can only stand to benefit you, offering twofold perks: the ability to remain responsive and adaptive to changing cultural norms, and the profitability that can come with that. 

Below, we’re discussing the range of benefits you can get from a comprehensive transnational strategy, helping you to determine when and how would be best to implement this area of global growth steps. We’ll also be covering the considerations you should make if you plan to adopt a transnational strategy in your growth process, keeping your experience as efficient and streamlined as possible. 

Benefits of a Transnational Strategy

There are several benefits your brand can gain from adopting a transnational strategy. Understanding the full range of these perks can help you to determine the best possible way to proceed with your growth steps depending on your current stage of business. 

We’ve summarized the most common benefits below: 

• • Your brand can maintain a competitive advantage by adopting a transnational strategy. With a proper strategy in place, you can: 

• Balance global efficiency with local relevance. Culture can change quickly. The benefit of a transnational strategy used in tandem with your localization efforts is that your brand can quickly adapt to these changes in a cost-efficient way. You’ll be able to remain relevant and on-point, as well as culturally impactful in how you present your offer and mission. 

• Differentiating the company from competitors in multiple markets. It’s important to keep in mind that there can be multiple sub-markets within a broader, regional market. Acknowledging this in your strategy and continuing to evolve your brand presence across these areas can establish you as the ideal alternative to your competitors. 

• • You’ll enjoy greater flexibility and adaptability with a transnational strategy. Besides the perks mentioned above, your brand will also be able to: 

• Navigate diverse market conditions and evolving customer demands. This is no easy feat! Rather than spend your time catching up to the trends, you can instead remain on the cutting edge—which is where you want to be, as it can save you effort, time and cost spent. 

• Adjust strategies and operations to local contexts while maintaining global cohesion. This is where adaptability can come into play.

• • Your brand will be able to facilitate learning and knowledge transfer around the world. 

• Leverage global insights and capabilities across markets. This can be difficult to do, especially if you find yourself in a phase of rapid growth. A relevant transnational strategy can keep the entire global team moving at its highest level of efficiency. 
• Accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency through shared knowledge. This is a natural result of a strong transnational strategy and can be fostered by strong, supportive internal processes—such as organizational hierarchy and SOPs. 

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Considerations for Implementation

Now that we’ve covered some of the benefits that you can expect to see with a transnational strategy, it’s time to go over considerations you should make to have your implementation process be as successful as possible. We’ve summarized key areas of focus below, helping you to get the most out of your transnational strategy. 

Cultural and Managerial Complexities

Much of business expansion into the realm of international business is considered to be the “soft” work of managing cultural nuance and creating systems that support brand values and local autonomy. It doesn’t rely on quantitative figures so much as it does leadership and cultural sensitivity, which is why this balance is so essential to strike. 

Understanding exactly what your brand needs to be coordinated, impactful and locally autonomous allows you to have the adaptability and resilience you need to withstand market shifts or changes. 

As a result of this process, you’ll get the added benefit of effective communication at all levels of your corporate structure—a skill that’s been refined as your team carries out the global strategy, keeping local responsiveness in mind. 

Organizational Structure and Coordination

Economies of scale can only be built when there is an optimized organizational structure in place. Making governance mechanism creation the first priority is one of the best ways to secure a strong presence in your local markets, informing international strategy and shaping your brand’s approach to international business management. It can also be a helpful skeletal structure to pull from as you expand your multi-domestic strategy, focusing on global integration in a way that is impactful and relevant to global markets in different countries (and their subsequent managerial heads). 

This area of business strategy should be understood in your new market groups, empowering local customers to feel as if they are a part of something more. Presentation of the information should be given in alignment with local preferences, just as we see with many transnational companies. Brands are transparent with ownership and roles, allowing customers to have a “chain of command” to report needs and questions to—similarly to what we see with brands like Unilever, Netflix or other global companies. The same is said for any subsidiaries of said brand. Despite different branding, there is still a clear path to ownership, highlighting the localization and transnational strategy associated with the parent brand. 

We do want to note: Creating an organizational structure that works is not an easy task. Collaboration with the team and within the current hierarchy, (as well as with native team members) will be needed to make your expansion a success.  

Talent Management and Skill Development 

A multinational or transnational strategy should also consider talent management and skill development at all levels, from the head office to the first-line customer support representatives. While ongoing education and certification has been tied to higher wages, your team members will offer a tenfold dividend—enhancing your brand’s marketing strategy, promoting lower costs  and building your brand to be a successful transnational business. 

It’s never a bad decision to pour back into the team that makes your company work. 

If you haven’t yet, consider implementing the pricing for this area of business into your transnational strategy—and consider placing emphasis on expanding this initiative to local branches in international markets. 

Placing a focus on ongoing education that crosses international borders can help brands to secure talent that has a global growth mindset, which can cause exponential brand growth within the scope of a pre-existing transnational business strategy. They’ll also bring the benefit of cross-cultural competencies to the table, keeping you as strong and competitive as possible in a dynamic business landscape. 

Brands can also see similar growth rates when they invest in training programs that appeal to the nuances and cultural differences that we can see within foreign markets. Global brands and  multinational corporations, such as McDonalds, do this—creating an internal drive for self-betterment that can have a powerful ripple effect for the parent company. 

The key for a successful program? Make it matter to those that live in the areas that you’re expanding to. As you build your global scale effort in this area, you can consider:

• Lowering barriers to participation. This can be as simple as choosing education providers that are simple to reference and leverage in the foreign markets that you serve. 

• Collaborating with your team. Edits to this process give you new opportunities to share in the decision-making process, which can encourage adaptation and brand loyalty from inside the team that can fuel your growth. 

• Integrate topics with your international business strategy. Though your team should be the primary people benefitting from the education program, your brand or parent company can arrange to educate on topics that align well with your business model and target market expansion needs. Topics like this might often include macroeconomics, entrepreneurship or business management. 

OneSky is a Must for Your Transnational Strategy

International companies in the e-commerce space can enhance their potential for growth by using a transnational strategy that accounts for all critical elements: such as high global integration, alignment from local subsidiaries of the parent brand while allowing for differentiation and ongoing education.

Localization, internationalization and translation are critical moving parts to a successful transnational strategy. OneSky’s done-for-you translation management platform is here to streamline your process. For more information and to get started today, please connect with us online. We look forward to serving you.