Embrace Your Foreignness to Yield Unforeseen Competitive Advantages

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Expanding into international markets presents numerous challenges for companies, particularly due to their “foreignness.”

Many global companies tend to overcome those challenges by minimizing their foreignness and assimilating into the local environments. However, maintaining and embracing foreignness can yield unforeseen advantages. 

Whether capitalizing on outsider status to tap into local labor markets, establishing potent associations to build credibility, or forging strategic partnerships to foster mutual international growth, your foreignness can indeed become your competitive edge. By embracing a nuanced approach that acknowledges and leverages foreignness, companies can not only navigate but thrive in unfamiliar territories.

The complete article by Lele Sang at Harvard Business Review can be found here.