Mind The Gap

10Strategy in a Strange Land: How to Launch and Build and How Not To

Companies have dozens of ways to enter new markets, but most strategies fall into a few core patterns. These approaches range from direct launches to joint ventures, acquisitions, and distribution partnerships—each with its own opportunities and risks. This chapter examines the four most common market-entry strategies, drawn from real cases of success and failure across the world.

Direct Launch

Launching directly means entering a market without the help of a local partner. It is the purest, riskiest, and most revealing form of expansion. A company can either do it remotely—from another country—or establish a team on the ground. Both paths can work, but only one allows real visibility into what’s happening in the market.

The Downsides of Launching Remotely

A remote launch is often the first idea that comes to mind in today’s digital age. Founders and executives assume that because their product is online, their expansion can be, too. In practice, few purely remote launches succeed for long. Without being physically present, it’s almost impossible to see or feel the market—to understand customer behavior, distribution gaps, or cultural friction.

Yet the urge to go remote persists, backed by the reasoning that everything is global these days. The logic sounds convincing: people from another country can visit my website, so why can’t I reach them from my website to their country? The trouble is, you can’t ...