Borderless Business: The 2020 B2B Business Model

In the mid 1970s, my father decided to set up a trading business after spending about a decade in sales. He traveled to countries like Nigeria, Iran and Indonesia to make business contacts and made his first trading deal. Based on a line of credit and a knack for commodity sales, he made a small profit off selling his first stock. And then he did it again. Bought low, sold a little higher. That was the beginning of his Borderless Business. Over the next 30 years he ran a largely successful import-export business that spanned 4 continents.

What used to be called “Trade” is now “Business to Business.” I have spent the last 20 years of my career as a B2B marketing and sales professional with two of the most well respected global brands, IBM and Linkedin. Over the last few months, Katharyn White, a brilliant ex colleague and peer Marketing Academy Fellow, and I have been studying how B2B is evolving in a digital world, not just marketing but other functions like sales, product, business development and even HR. We realized that, while many B2B companies, especially those in IT hardware, software and services, have been selling digital transformation to other industries for years, they have neglected to transform themselves at the same pace. Sure, they have modernized their technology stack but the people in their organizations continue to create, hire, market, sell and service in much the same way as their predecessors did 20 years ago. A handful, like Microsoft, have looked outside its traditional peer group, for inspiration and best practices. It is no surprise that Microsoft is now a $1 Trillion company posting 25%+ growth.

In the coming months, we will be releasing a series of posts with insights, frameworks and examples of how to build and execute an integrated Go to Market Plan for B2B businesses operating in a global context. If you a B2B leader, looking to transform your traditional B2B business to a Borderless Business or upskill, please follow my #borderlessbusiness hashtag on Linkedin and reach out to either Katharyn or I if you need more in depth expertise through in person workshops.

The rise of Borderless Business: The 2020 B2B Model

Over the last two decades, B2B has been transformed because of internet and mobile technologies, both in a good and bad way. It is arguably harder to make a profit because information is more democratized so you can’t rely too long on arbitrage as a way to make an extra buck. With that said, the internet has made it easier for B2B businesses to become “Borderless” and access new markets and buyers.

Borderless Businesses are global from inception and scale through digital. They have no (relevant) headquarters and a workforce made up of global, ethnically and culturally agnostic citizens. They deliver services directly to their buyers' homes and offices. What holds them together is culture and networks and not office postal addresses.

Netflix is a good example of a Borderless Business because "instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it’s aiming to sell international ideas to a global audience." It’s subscription vs. advertising based monetization model incentivizes it to broaden a subscribers' interests vs. narrow them down (Source: Farhad Manjoo, NYTimes Oped). B2B businesses can learn a lot from Netflix on how to become a successful Borderless Business, particularly how it makes investment decisions and ultimately how it makes money. 

Borderless Businesses have to have growth or value creation agenda. They also need the right talent to serve the enlightened B2B buying committee. Finally, they need to bring the customer into the business. We will discuss these aspects in future posts. Till then, would love your ideas and thoughts!