A professional services firm sets a path for successful expansion in the Americas

Our client’s need

A professional services organization experienced significant domestic stagnation following the 2008/2009 economic downturn. A stagnate growth rate, recent loss of key expansion opportunities, and bleak prospects drove them to consider two emerging markets as their next potential growth frontier—Central and South America. They also saw this as an imperative for the longevity of the business as it would reduce their dependence on a current set of narrow markets.

Their challenge was that they had limited knowledge about these markets related to their products and services and had no team members equipped or available to support the effort. And while the organization had some prior experience in international markets, they had no prior proven approach as their expansion into foreign markets had always been organic and highly opportunistic. They now were looking for a partner that would help them develop a roadmap to orient growth in new markets moving forward.

Baker Tilly solution

Our turnkey global market specialists were engaged by the client to develop a market expansion strategy and associated expansion program roadmap focused on results and with minimal demand on the organization’s team. Using our market- and business-specific knowledge, extensive network of contacts in the targeted regions, and by employing our advisors who are fluent in Portuguese and Spanish we conducted comprehensive market research to identify the most potential-filled markets. We then used the information to prioritize the order of which markets to pursue first. We provided a thought-through methodology, an expansion roadmap, and a market priority so the client would have enough information regarding execution to determine where and when to launch its market expansion. We were also able to supply predictable investment numbers to help the organization account for expansion in their upcoming budget and fiscal year projections. 

Results achieved

As a Valued Business Advisor to the organization we recommended that a larger number of markets be assessed for their upside potential (in addition to two countries that the company originally contemplated). The research indicated that the overall market was much broader than the client originally anticipated—by a factor of 100 percent. The final four countries that were identified were prioritized according to a set of client-specific criteria and an expansion roadmap was accordingly customized. The end result of this effort was an expansion strategy and roadmap, that upfront, provided the specific steps, anticipated resources, risk mitigation recommendations, estimated timing, and investment projections needed for the client to successfully deploy a market expansion into two new markets simultaneously.

For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly global market development specialists can help, contact our team.