The Four Companies That Could
4 Companies That Conquered America
Accounting for almost 30% of world GDP, the United States is the world’s largest and most demanding market for almost everything from oil to microprocessors to premium coffee. Companies around the world aspire to do business in the U.S., or at least with U.S. companies in their home markets. By doing so, they learn much about the latest management practices, they can be closer to the cutting edge of innovation, and they can boost their reputations by supplying well-known U.S. firms.
So how do you penetrate the U.S. market? The annals of business are littered with foreign companies that have never quite succeeded in the USA. But here are four companies that have. Each carries a special lesson.
1. Royal Bank of Scotland. This company built up a strong retail market share in the U.S., not under the RBS brand, but through a series of acquisitions of regional (not national) banks. RBS is adding value for its shareholders by letting these banks retain their individual brand identities, by focusing on improving back office efficiencies, and by having the highly respected CEO of one of the acquired entities lead the combined U.S. organization.
2. IKEA. IKEA offers a furniture retailing value proposition and experience unparalleled in the U.S. market. There are no national furniture retail chains, making market penetration easier. IKEA’s location selection expertise and their established global supply chains enable them to offer exceptional category-killer prices that are further keys to success.
3. ING. The Dutch bank converted its weakness (no retail branches in the U.S.) into a strength. Following a successful Canadian market test, ING gave its entrepreneurial general manager the green light to offer retail banking services to U.S. consumers but exclusively on an online basis. Taking advantage of its low no-bricks-and-mortar cost structure, ING was able to offer generous rates on certificates of deposit.
4. Dyson. The British home appliance maker earned a break when it managed to get a Best Buy buyer to take one of its vacuum cleaners home to test. The buyer was impressed. Fortunately for Dyson, Best Buy became the first U.S. retailer to stock Dyson vacuum cleaners. Electronics retailing in the U.S. is concentrated (10 chains control 60% of the market) and tough to penetrate. But Dyson could not have succeeded had its products not been superior to other vacuum cleaners already in U.S. stores.
