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Cape Town – Develop your niche in South Africa before taking your business overseas, so that you have a highly efficient machine and a cost advantage in your sector, says Striata CEO Mike Wright.
Having developed Striata from a Johannesburg-based garage start-up to a global tech company, Striata CEO Mike Wright’s knows the journey all too well.
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.
Wright shared two main lessons for South African companies wanting to strike it lucky on the global playing field.
WATCH: Mike Wright's lessons for going global
Lesson #1: Learn lessons in rands
“Learn your lessons in rands,” Wright told Fin24. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s going to be a lot more cost effective to hone your products, to understand your unique selling propositions, to refine your marketing in the South African market.
“When you go overseas, … you (will) have everything well honed,” he said. “You don’t want to go overseas and start learning home lessons and paying for that in hard currencies, dollars and pounds.
“That’s an expensive process. When you go overseas you (should) have a highly efficient machine and therefore you (will) have a cost advantage in whatever you’re doing.”
Lesson #2: Start small and find your niche
His other advice is to start small in order to establish and develop a niche.
“Try not to do everything initially all up front with every cent that you have,” he said. “It’s a long game.
“Start small, learn, partner, understand the market, figure out where you can establish your niche. Then grow from the niche; own that niche and expand from that.
“Going overseas, start in one base, establish your credentials and then grow from that perspective. Don’t spread yourself too thin, too early, because it’s expensive when converting rands.”
