No branch should be an island

A story of discovering why cohesive corporate identity matters

Walk through the doors of any branch in the world of a major retail or restaurant chain, and, within a few moments, you may forget which country you’re in. They really are all the same. Those sorts of big multinationals have spent millions on brand identity. They’ve established what works for them – possibly from initial good luck, possibly via a painful journey – and replicate it wherever they go.

Not so the offices and factories of other types of business, the ones that don’t have to have a public persona. Yes, the sign over the door and the posters in reception may be the same, but very often, that’s where it stops.

Is that important? I think it is. Every business with international operations should invest a little time and money in establishing the corporate identity that works for it and that it wants to project, and work to ensure that all its branches, wherever they may be in the world, embrace that common style and philosophy. Yes, we must all celebrate the diversity that we enjoy by having people of different races, languages and cultures working with us in our overseas operations, but surely we want all of them to want to embrace us and the quality of our business too.

This podcast is a solo by me, Oliver Dowson. I'm telling a story from my early international business life and how I first experienced the “missed trick” of a failure to adopt a common corporate identity, not only in the company I then worked for but in others that I visited. I think you'll find it enjoyable - it’s an entertaining story with a moral.

Listen to Grow through International Expansion podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitchr, Podbean, Acast and all major channels - or find it here with more information and an accompanying article: https://growinternational.org/e24