Scaling Your Business in Emerging Markets 

What do Taxify, Truecaller and Silvertree Holdings have in common?

A copy and paste, one-size-fits-all business model will not work when scaling a business into emerging markets. This was one of the key takeaways from a panel discussion at SCALE18, the conference for growth marketing innovators supported by marketers DCMN, that was recently held in Berlin. 

Some important Takeaways:

• Your business model in one country will not necessarily work in another country;
• having a management team that is not native is a big mistake;
• and you can only figure out if your product will fill a demand once you’re actually on the ground.
• No one-size-fits-all solution will work. Create relevant offerings for the market you want to penetrate.
• Find a common problem you can solve. Listen to customers – after nine years Truecaller still talks customers directly to get feedback.
• Understand the pulse of the market and the changes happening there
• Don’t just blast and start scaling. Do your market research properly (local legislation, safety regulations, potential customers, local dynamics), otherwise you can end up scaling your problems instead of your business.
• Do mini experiments and test it in a vacuum.