The Export Imperative: Business Survey on Foreign Expansion

Companies are concerned about ‘place’ and ‘people’ when contemplating foreign expansion. Foreign workspace has to be flexible with only very short-term commitments. Opinion is divided over whether foreign operations should be overseen by local managers or whether a boss should be shipped in from the home country. This decision probably rests on the level of direct customer interaction that the firm envisages in the foreign market.

The report concludes that the more companies expand and diversify outside their domestic markets, the more productive they are likely to be, making a significant contribution to the vibrancy and stability of the global economy.

Over 12,000 business respondents from the Regus global contacts database spanning 85 countries were interviewed during August 2011. The Regus global contacts database of over 1 million business-people worldwide is highly representative of business owners and senior managers across the globe.