Cape Town – Having developed Striata from a garage start-up to a respected South African tech company, Striata CEO Mike Wright said they focused on culture rather than network in their expansion around the world.
Wright joined Fin24 on Skype to share his insights after Striata’s journey from a Kensington, Johannesburg garage in 1999 to a global business operation in 2016.
“All good start-ups should start in a garage because that’s the good luck story,” Wright, speaking from his London home, explained.
Specialising in digital message design, generation, delivery and storage, Striata now has operations in New York, London, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Sydney and partners in North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific.
WATCH: Striata CEO Mike Wright on choosing culture over networks
How Striata founds it groove
Wright said that in 1999, while everyone was focused on the web, Striata was focused on electronic communication.
“People were going to websites and we were saying, ‘what about just sending (the website in) an email instead of making them come to you.’ We took that concept and applied it to customer communications, the frontrunner being bank statements by email.
“We were able to convince them it could save them money from a postage (perspective) and improve customer experience,” he said. “We figured if it works in the South African market, why wouldn’t it work around the world. We sent out our pioneers and we’ve grown from there.”
Choosing culture over network
Wright’s advice for companies wanting to expand overseas is to choose between culture and network.
“We chose culture,” he said. “We chose to send South Africans that we knew and trusted and understood our culture to each of these jurisdictions, but they landed there without a network.
“It took time for them to build a network to then grow the business and to develop the relationships required to be successful.
“The other alternative is to employ someone in the local environment, who already has a network, but then you are not 100% certain about the culture.
“Are they going to understand how you work, why you make decisions? When they make a call, are they going to make the same call you would make?”
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