Get the inside stories of how the world’s fastest growing companies scale globally and the unique career journeys of the internationally-minded business leaders who run these Global Class companies. International is the new agile and best-in-class companies are adapting to build products, operational models and company cultures that resonate with a worldwide audience. The Global Class Podcast explores best practices for effective international expansion and offers practical advice for anyone who aspires to build global companies and careers in international business.
Think You Know What Leaders Need Most to Build Successful Global Organizations? Think Again | Xavier Mufraggi, CEO of SVN International Corporation
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Xavier Mufraggi, Chief Executive Officer of SVN International Corporation and Partner at Eloquem Consulting. Prior to his role at SVN, Xavier was the CEO at YPO where he achieved a new record of 34,000 members in 150 countries. He was also previously the President and CEO of Club Med Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
In this conversation, we talk about why speaking the same language as locals can increase your ability to develop an understanding of the culture that’s required to build a successful expansion strategy in that market, the power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success, why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead), and the power of stories in better communication and reinforcing organizational vision.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
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SHOW NOTES:
1:10 - Video starts
2:42 - Xavier’s formative experience that started his interpreneurial career. His father was an executive at a big American company, so Xavier was able to travel around the world at a young age. For example, he lived in Africa as an 11-year old
7:54 - How he learned that understanding culture and people is a very important skill early on
13:54 - They key in turning around Club Med in North America (During his time as the CEO, the company achieved historical records every year from 2011 to 2019)
20:15 - Building trust and ensuring organizational alignment in YPO, the world's most influential global leadership community
21:45 - What Xavier, who was then the CEO of Club Med North America, learned from going undercover as in the CBS Series, “Undercover Boss”
29: 00 - How organizations and business leaders could impact millions of lives in a positive way
40:16 - Why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead)
47:37 - The power of stories in effective communication and reinforcing organizational vision
49:19 - The power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success
7 Jun 2023
From 0 to 90M Downloads - Strategies for Growing an Audience in Global Markets | Omar Zenhom, Co-Founder of WebinarNinja and host of the $100 MBA Show
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Omar Zenhom, the Co-Founder and host of the award-winning $100 MBA Show, a top business podcast with over 90 million downloads. He’s also the Co-Founder & CEO of WebinarNinja, named one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in 2018. Omar is a former educator and university manager-turned-entrepreneur. Today, he applies his passion for teaching and learning to the business world.
Here, we talk about Omar’s strategies for entering new markets and reaching customers, tips for giving timely and culturally sensitive feedback, examples of effective localized marketing campaigns, and why there's no such thing as "over-communication" in a remote workplace.
For more information, go to: https://globalclasscompany.com/podcast/episode32-omar-zenhom
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185
16 May 2023
How Rentbrella is making it rain $$$ in global markets | Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella, the world’s largest and most successful umbrella-sharing company. Today, Rentbrella has 800 stations with hubs present in the biggest urban centers of the world such as Sao Paolo, New York, and London.
Freddy began his career as Finance Director and Consultant, then as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Before he launched Rentbrella in 2018, he lead the operations and developed business strategy as the Chief Operating Officer of Ezconet.
Here, we discuss why it’s important to start with a global mindset from day one, how to build feedback loops and two-way innovation across teams, tips for building a successful career in international business, and strategies for localizing the business to fit the local market while staying true to company principles.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast (https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast%C2%A0%C2%A0%C2%A0)
Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling Book, Global Class (https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1RVOVHBTS89TG&keywords=global+class+international+business&qid=1658421774&sprefix=global+class+international+business%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-4), a playbook on how to build a successful global business.
SHOW NOTES:
01:55 - The start of Freddy’s career, beginning with his education
4:21 - How Freddy’s Lebanese father has inspired him to become an entrepreneur
8:45 - Rentbrella’s founding story
24:11 - Why Rentbrella had to hire and hire the New York team several times until they found the right culture and people
32: 46 - How Freddy thinks about localizing for new markets through the lens of government regulation and culture
37:00 - The “people” culture of Rentbrella and why they hire English teachers to make English the main language in their Brazil HQ
47:11 - Building and managing distributed teams
47:44 - Why effective communication and two-way feedback loops between local teams and HQ are important
54:14 - Rentbrella’s approach to hiring and how they find, hire and manage interpreneurial talent
1:00:57 - Freddy’s thoughts on closing the gap between company knowledge and local knowledge which are important in getting traction in new markets
1:03:26 - Freddy’s answer to the “3 pieces of advice” section: Advice to someone interested in building a career around an international business, to an executive expanding a business to new markets, and to his younger self
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