The 10 Best Global Class Podcasts That Will Help You Accelerate Your Global Growth Initiatives
Global Class
Helping leadership grow company valuation/market cap from $1B to $100+ through global expansion initiatives
We’ve made it to 2023! We hope that it will be a year of growth, learning, and success for you. In this first edition of our LinkedIn newsletter, we are sharing the most popular episodes of The Global Class Podcast. These conversations by hosts Klaus B?rme Wehage ???? and Aaron McDaniel give listeners a rare opportunity to listen in on how internationally-minded business leaders scale the world’s fastest-growing companies.
Whether you want to be a better leader, hire high-performing teams, or learn how to localize your business for global markets, Klaus, Aaron, and their guests can help you succeed.
These are our top 10 most popular episodes from The Global Class Podcast that will help you achieve success when scaling internationally.
1. Episode #4 with Freddy Vega
“Writing is such a key element of working remotely that I think it’s the main reason for managers to reject remote work… Being able to convey what you want to say through writing in the shortest possible way is the fastest growth hack any company can execute.”
Freddy Vega is the CEO and co-founder of Platzi , an online learning platform that has given people the opportunity to build careers in the tech industry. In this episode, Freddy discusses the growing pool of talent in Latin America, cultural similarities in the distributed work setting, language as a cultural bridge, and the type of people to hire to scale a business globally (or as we call them, Interpreneurs?). Freddy also talks about his own journey from poverty to success and his belief that Platzi has the potential to turn Latin America into a tech superpower.
2. Episode #5 with Chang Wen Lai
“Localizing comes in two forms: First, how do you localize to win over local demand? Second, how do you craft your operational strategy in a way that makes sense on a local level?”
Chang Wen Lai is the CEO and co-founder of Ninja Van , an express delivery service headquartered in Singapore that has rapidly expanded throughout Southeast Asia. In this episode, he talks about the growth of e-commerce in the region and how to manage distributed international teams. He also explains how Singapore tends to favor multinational companies, and how Ninja Van localized the business to adapt to the local market.
3. Episode #10 with Kathryn Hymes
“International expansion is one of those moments where there is a lot of ‘bureaucratic creep’ that becomes a weight on your organization… When you are introducing a new process you can be diluting clarity… Lean into small scale with the right number of people who are empowered to make decisions and take action.”
Kathryn Hymes is the former Head of International Product expansion for Slack . In this episode, she talks about her career journey and how her experiences have shaped her as a business leader. She explained her passion for language and described her internship at Baidu, which gave her a better understanding of the working culture in China. Kathryn also discussed the importance of understanding the needs of the local market when localizing a product. She stressed the importance of field research and partnerships to create a cohesive product that meets the world's needs.
4.? Episode #2 with Jennifer Yuen
“There’s no place that is global (hard for people to get their hands around)… bring it back to people and humanity. Make data real, bring it to life.”
Jennifer Yuen is the fmr Head of Americas Marketing at Airbnb . With successful stints in IHG, Airbnb, and Facebook , Jennifer has mastered branding, marketing, and business development. In this podcast, she shares her insights on how companies like Airbnb have adapted and pivoted. She also talks about the importance of localization discovery tours, like the one she organized in Korea for the Airbnb executive team, which helped them to understand the size and potential of the market.
5. Episode #22 with Marvin Liao
“Doing international business makes you humble. The first 10 or so market launches don’t work… You learn from pain. Then you get better about asking the right questions… You only learn by doing (and doing badly).”
Marvin Liao is a Partner at Diaspora Ventures and Game Groove Capital and previously was a Partner at 500 Global . He has invested in over 400 companies and shares his story of international expansion to Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas while working at 雅虎 . He emphasizes the importance of building trust and an internal network, the pitfalls of giving local teams too much localization and autonomy, how two-way innovation works, and why rough economic times are great opportunities for international expansion. He also talks about the importance of resource alignment, communication and clarity, and global agility for successful global growth.
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6. Episode #13 with Marcello Schermer
“We often think that development is a linear thing… It’s actually not like that. Countries develop on different paths at different speeds in different ways… a lot of businesses started solving problems that people in other parts of the world didn’t know existed.”
Marcello Schermer is the Head of International Expansion at Yoco , a South Africa-based fintech startup helping SMEs accept payments and get data-driven insights. In this episode, he shares his story of moving from Europe to South Africa and the experiences that have prepared him for a career in international expansion. He also discusses the African startup revolution, the misconception that Africa needs to catch up with the Western world, and how African entrepreneurs are creating global businesses to solve local problems that the rest of the world didn't even know existed.
7. Episode #25 with Emil Michael
“One of our core principles was to hire the sons and daughters of your country to run Uber in your country… We hired a lot of people locally… That was the secret sauce… it makes a difference, giving right back to that community.”
In this episode, Emil Michael, the former Chief Business Officer of Uber , shares many key insights into how Uber successfully reached global scale and empowered a distributed team. He also talked about the importance of “thinking globally," why it's crucial to hire locally, how to map out expansion plans, and much more.
8. Episode #19 with Frédéric Mazzella
领英推荐
“It’s good to have a vision but it’s better to have a path… Force yourself to think big, but act small at the beginning… You will learn along the way, it’s hard to aim right from day one.”
Frédéric Mazzella is the Founder, Chairman, and former CEO of BlaBlaCar , the world's largest carpooling platform. In this episode, Frederick shares his experience in transitioning from research to the operational side and the inspiration behind BlaBlaCar, and how the company has been able to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.6 million tons per year.
He talks about how to “think big but act small” at the beginning of global expansion initiatives, how to build a community of trust within an organization, strategies like how to build for two markets, and how to hire a talented, internationally-minded local team who connect with the company's culture. He also talks about the Global Class mindset of thinking globally day one.
9. Episode #6 with Jan van Casteren ?
“The most important thing to avoid is arbitrary uniqueness, being unique, just because you can. Only try to be unique when your clients or the local structure demand it.”
This podcast episode explores the international expansion story of the freight forwarding company, Flexport . Jan van Casteren lead the European operations and talked about the challenges of setting up a business in a new market. This includes setting up legal entities and bank accounts, recruiting the right team, and also finding the right product-market fit for each local market. He also shares how the company bridged the gap between company knowledge and local knowledge by sending new hires to San Francisco and building teams with a mix of Flexport veterans and local market experts.
“The team that wins is the most diverse team but the team who does the worst is also the most diverse team. The difference is that you need to have something in common to tie the team together. For us, it’s our core values.”
Jerry Luk is the Co-founder and President of Firework , a company that empowers businesses to better engage with customers through video. Jerry first narrates his experience of working at LinkedIn , and how mobile technology was just starting to take off back then. He also explains how Presto, his next venture, merges offline and online relationships. Jerry then talks about Firework, a B2B version of TikTok where users can review products and do live streaming on their own websites or apps. Firework has seen more transactions outside the US than in the U.S. due to a higher ratio of mobile devices to desktop devices in countries like Asia. This highlights the importance of using custom metrics to assess the potential of different markets.
BONUS EPISODES:
1. Masami Takahashi on how experiencing 9/11 and the Fukushima disaster fueled Uber and WeWork 's growth in Japan (#24) — Link
2. Joanna Harries on how a combination of decentralized localization, playbooks, and building a community of trust can lead to global success (#21) — Link
3. From working on a family farm to driving growth for the world's fastest-growing food-tech company with Nick Halla (#20) — Link
4. Bianca Martinelli on why trust in your organization is the backbone for global success (#18) — Link
5. When an internship in Israel can create the mindset to build a Brazilian unicorn company with Alessio Alionco (#17) — Link
6. Heini Zachariassen on how a small Danish startup took on the wine industry and scaled to 50M users worldwide (#16) — Link
7. Claudia Makadristo on why companies aren’t successful when strategy isn’t localized (#15) — Link
8. Jivko Bojinov on why the path to global growth isn’t linear (#15) — Link
9. The difference between being an “international” vs. “global” business and how to develop the right mindset to succeed with Tiffany Stevenson ? (#12) — Link
10.? How a Bangladeshi startup took on Uber and became a market leader with Hussain Elius (#11) — Link
11. Why a Silicon Valley startup chose Rwanda as an initial market and how they used it as a foundation for scale with Israel Bimpe (#9) — Link
12. Jenn Cornelius on why culturally conscious management gives you an edge in running a global business (#8) — Link
13. Gabriel Engel on How Coco, the digital monkey, sparks serendipitous moments and increases engagement within a distributed team (#7) — Link
14.? Imre Hild on why entrepreneurs from small countries have advantages over startups from Silicon Valley (and large markets) (#3) — Link
15. From teaching English in a tiny Japanese fishing village to leading growth at a $32B unicorn with Abe Smith (#1) — Link
16. From aerospace engineer to building Google's first international presence to cross-border investing with Antoine Colaco (#26) - Link
PS - Wondering how you can take advantage of Global Class? Here are a few ways:
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2 年Loved listening to this Tiffany Stevenson ??????