International Growth

Practical Insights from growing a Global Business

Back in 1995 I was recruited by an international student company to set up a business unit from scratch. This involved contracting hotels globally, setting up booking systems and then selling internally to all the international Directors within the company. I started with a desk and a chair and it grew from 0 to a $10m operation in 5 years with a team of 10.. It was an incredibly steep learning curve!

When I first began contracting hotel rates across Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand I realised that doing business was very different outside of the UK. Having had a sales background I had assumed that buying would be easier than selling. It wasn’t! In fact they are two sides of a negotiation; and negotiating is very different throughout the world.

This experience made me realise that people are at the centre of everything whether that is negotiating or leading a team. When I cofounded my first business, we launched in the UK but expanded to North America and Australia. While negotiating with suppliers was key, building a team was equally important and leading people in different countries means letting go of the idea that one leadership style fits everyone.

What feels like a positive leadership behaviour in London can land very differently in Venice, New York, Amsterdam or Tokyo. Much of our Western leadership training emphasises autonomy, empowerment, and authenticity. Yet 70% of the global workforce comes from collectivist and more hierarchical cultures. It’s no wonder Western-led teams often face disconnects.

Here are the biggest lessons I’ve learned from building international business through real conversations, real misunderstandings, and real successes; and how they align with the research

Negotiation across cultures

In my early days negotiating hotel contracts, I quickly learned that autonomy, initiative, and “getting on with it” meant very different things depending on where you were.

In Italy, it was incredibly easy to get appointments. I assumed this was a buying signal. It wasn’t. They simply enjoyed a conversation with a young English woman over a (very good) coffee. Meetings were pleasant, personal, and friendly, and often ended with, “We don’t need any more business.”

In the Netherlands my experience was the opposite. It was incredibly hard to get appointments which were short and direct with no time for relationship-building. A tough negotiation in Amsterdam may just mean a demonstration of authority.

In Japan, I learned very quickly how important cultural customs are. Presenting your business card incorrectly is considered disrespectful. The structure, the process, and the formality mattered as much as the commercial conversation. Autonomy wasn’t expected; clear guidance and understanding of social rules were.

In India, many negotiations were conducted in a mixture of English and the local language and often switched mid-sentence. I sometimes heard only half the discussion. What mattered more was respect, tone, and relationship, not interrupting to ask for clarity.

These early experiences taught me something simple but powerful about leadership. You can never make generalisations when it comes to people. Some thrive with independence; others feel more secure and effective when expectations are clearly defined. A small but important question helps everywhere: “How do you prefer to be led?”

Psychological safety looks different across cultures

In Western settings, psychological safety often means:

🔷Speaking up freely

🔷Challenging ideas

🔷Expressing disagreements

But in many cultures, this isn’t seen as “safe” at all. Research shows that when leaders expect Western-style debate, people often shut down. To build true psychological safety globally, leaders need to:

🔷Ask open questions (“What are we missing?”)

🔷Normalise uncertainty (“This is complex - what questions do you have?”)

🔷Offer several ways to contribute (privately, in writing, or as a group)

One of the most useful skills I’ve developed is perspective-taking, imagining the situation from the other person’s point of view. Not as “someone from that culture,” but as that individual. It shifts conversations from: “That’s just how the Dutch do business,” or “This is an Italian thing,” to “How is this person seeing the situation?”

Focus the team on a shared challenge.

When expanding internationally, the fastest way to unite teams in the UK, Australia, and the US wasn’t talking about their cultural differences, it was aligning everyone around a clear goal whether that was launching into a new market, signing a partnership, or improving onboarding.

People naturally collaborate when the problem belongs to everyone. Transparency doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. Western leadership often encourages being open, vulnerable, and fully transparent. But this doesn’t always build trust globally.

In many cultures:

🔷Too much honesty feels unsettling

🔷Leaders are expected to remain composed

🔷Indirect communication is respectful

🔷“Saving face” matters

The skill that ties it all together: Cultural Intelligence

Across all these experiences, one skill made the biggest difference: cultural intelligence, the ability to read the situation and flex your style. It doesn’t require knowing every cultural rule. It requires curiosity, awareness, and adaptability. Culturally intelligent leaders adjust how, when, and how much they share, especially when the news is sensitive or uncertain.

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