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Global Class Podcast

Global Class Podcast

By Aaron McDaniel and Klaus Wehage

Get the inside stories of how the world’s fastest growing companies scale globally and the unique career journeys of the internationally-minded business leaders who run these Global Class companies. International is the new agile and best-in-class companies are adapting to build products, operational models and company cultures that resonate with a worldwide audience. The Global Class Podcast explores best practices for effective international expansion and offers practical advice for anyone who aspires to build global companies and careers in international business.
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How Coco, the digital monkey, sparks serendipitous moments and increases engagement within a distributed team | Gabriel Engel | Founder & CEO, Rocket.Chat

Global Class PodcastNov 05, 2021

00:00
58:26
Think You Know What Leaders Need Most to Build Successful Global Organizations? Think Again | Xavier Mufraggi, CEO of SVN International Corporation

Think You Know What Leaders Need Most to Build Successful Global Organizations? Think Again | Xavier Mufraggi, CEO of SVN International Corporation

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Xavier Mufraggi, Chief Executive Officer of SVN International Corporation and Partner at Eloquem Consulting. Prior to his role at SVN, Xavier was the CEO at YPO where he achieved a new record of 34,000 members in 150 countries. He was also previously the President and CEO of Club Med Europe, Middle East, and Africa. In this conversation, we talk about why speaking the same language as locals can increase your ability to develop an understanding of the culture that’s required to build a successful expansion strategy in that market, the power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success, why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead), and the power of stories in better communication and reinforcing organizational vision. This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at ⁠https://www.zedra.com ⁠ Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business⁠. ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185


=== SHOW NOTES: 1:10 - Video starts 2:42 - Xavier’s formative experience that started his interpreneurial career. His father was an executive at a big American company, so Xavier was able to travel around the world at a young age. For example, he lived in Africa as an 11-year old 7:54 - How he learned that understanding culture and people is a very important skill early on 13:54 - They key in turning around Club Med in North America (During his time as the CEO, the company achieved historical records every year from 2011 to 2019) 20:15 - Building trust and ensuring organizational alignment in YPO, the world's most influential global leadership community 21:45 - What Xavier, who was then the CEO of Club Med North America, learned from going undercover as in the CBS Series, “Undercover Boss” 29: 00 - How organizations and business leaders could impact millions of lives in a positive way 40:16 - Why skills are overrated in building teams (and what is the more valuable metric to look for instead) 47:37 - The power of stories in effective communication and reinforcing organizational vision 49:19 - The power of the authentic self as an integral part of personal and professional success

Jun 28, 202301:01:42
From 0 to 90M Downloads - Strategies for Growing an Audience in Global Markets | Omar Zenhom, Co-Founder of WebinarNinja and host of the $100 MBA Show

From 0 to 90M Downloads - Strategies for Growing an Audience in Global Markets | Omar Zenhom, Co-Founder of WebinarNinja and host of the $100 MBA Show

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Omar Zenhom, the Co-Founder and host of the award-winning $100 MBA Show, a top business podcast with over 90 million downloads. He’s also the Co-Founder & CEO of WebinarNinja, named one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in 2018. Omar is a former educator and university manager-turned-entrepreneur. Today, he applies his passion for teaching and learning to the business world. Here, we talk about Omar’s strategies for entering new markets and reaching customers, tips for giving timely and culturally sensitive feedback, examples of effective localized marketing campaigns, and why there's no such thing as "over-communication" in a remote workplace.

For more information, go to: https://globalclasscompany.com/podcast/episode32-omar-zenhom This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at ⁠https://www.zedra.com ⁠ Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business⁠. ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185

Jun 07, 202343:36
How Rentbrella is making it rain $$$ in global markets | Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella

How Rentbrella is making it rain $$$ in global markets | Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella, the world’s largest and most successful umbrella-sharing company. Today, Rentbrella has 800 stations with hubs present in the biggest urban centers of the world such as Sao Paolo, New York, and London.
Freddy began his career as Finance Director and Consultant, then as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Before he launched Rentbrella in 2018, he lead the operations and developed business strategy as the Chief Operating Officer of Ezconet.
Here, we discuss why it’s important to start with a global mindset from day one, how to build feedback loops and two-way innovation across teams, tips for building a successful career in international business, and strategies for localizing the business to fit the local market while staying true to company principles.

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com

Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast 

Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling Book, Global Class, a playbook on how to build a successful global business.
SHOW NOTES:
01:55 - The start of Freddy’s career, beginning with his education
4:21 - How Freddy’s Lebanese father has inspired him to become an entrepreneur
8:45 - Rentbrella’s founding story
24:11 - Why Rentbrella had to hire and hire the New York team several times until they found the right culture and people
32: 46 - How Freddy thinks about localizing for new markets through the lens of government regulation and culture
37:00 - The “people” culture of Rentbrella and why they hire English teachers to make English the main language in their Brazil HQ
47:11 - Building and managing distributed teams
47:44 - Why effective communication and two-way feedback loops between local teams and HQ are important
54:14 - Rentbrella’s approach to hiring and how they find, hire and manage interpreneurial talent
1:00:57 - Freddy’s thoughts on closing the gap between company knowledge and local knowledge which are important in getting traction in new markets
1:03:26 - Freddy’s answer to the “3 pieces of advice” section: Advice to someone interested in building a career around an international business, to an executive expanding a business to new markets, and to his younger self


May 16, 202301:07:36
Lessons Learned from Executive Who Helped Expand 4 Unicorns to Global Markets | Troy Malone, Co-Founder of Relevant

Lessons Learned from Executive Who Helped Expand 4 Unicorns to Global Markets | Troy Malone, Co-Founder of Relevant

Apr 24, 202358:58
The Benefits Of Workplace Diversity You’re Likely To Miss | Jack Mardack, Co-Founder of Oyster
Mar 30, 202341:27
You're destined to fail if you don't do this 1 thing when building international teams with Sébastien Marotte, President of Box (EMEA)

You're destined to fail if you don't do this 1 thing when building international teams with Sébastien Marotte, President of Box (EMEA)

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Sébastien Marotte, the President of Box Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Box is a Cloud Content Management company that empowers more than 87,000 businesses globally by revolutionizing how they work.     

In Sébastien’s 30+ year career, he has held executive roles at high-profile software companies like Google, Hyperion, and Oracle. He led Google Cloud's EMEA Channels as Vice President, having also served as Vice President of Google Cloud EMEA for almost a decade. As an early leader at Google Cloud, Sebastien was responsible for much of the foundational growth and development across EMEA, including the launch of G Suite (now Google Workspace).    

In our conversation, Sébastien talks about the importance of diversity in building international teams, strategies in balancing corporate strategy and localization, why customer engagement is everything in business, how digitalization changed the way we innovate, work, and hire and why there are more opportunities for global businesses now more than ever.    

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com   

Get your copy of our Wall Street Journal Bestselling book, GLOBAL CLASS, a playbook on how to build a successful global business. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Class-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Globally/dp/1637742185    

Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast

Mar 16, 202350:49
From a prominent Law Attorney to a U.S. Ambassador in Australia, to leading legal for global expansion with Jeffrey Bleich, Chief Legal Officer at Cruise
Feb 27, 202341:41
From aerospace engineer to building Google's first international presence to cross-border investing, Antoine Colaço | Managing Partner, Valor Capital Group
Jan 16, 202346:58
How Uber reached global scale by empowering localization | Emil Michael, Former Chief Business Officer, Uber
Dec 17, 202201:00:51
How experiencing 9/11 and the Fukushima disaster fueled Uber and WeWork's growth in Japan | Masami Takahashi, President of Scrum Studio & CEO of Japan at Miles
Nov 10, 202201:04:13
How, for companies like LinkedIn and Firework, finding opportunities early on can be cornerstones for finding the right markets and reaching global scale | Jerry Luk, Co-Founder/President Firework
Oct 18, 202255:51
Why Yahoo!'s strategy to give local teams near full autonomy cost them the global search market - Marvin Liao | Partner, Diaspora Ventures
Sep 29, 202258:53
How a combination of decentralized localization, playbooks and building a community of trust can lead to global success | Joanna Harries, Sr. Vice President Global Expansion, Endeavor
Sep 07, 202258:19
From working on a family farm to driving growth for the world's fastest growing food-tech company | Nick Halla, former Senior Vice President of International for Impossible Foods

From working on a family farm to driving growth for the world's fastest growing food-tech company | Nick Halla, former Senior Vice President of International for Impossible Foods

In this episode we are excited to welcome Nick Halla, former Senior Vice President of International for Impossible Foods, a company transforming the global food system through animal free meat and dairy foods. As one of the company’s early employees Nick served in a number of other roles including as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior, Nick worked at Cogenra Solar and as an R&D Engineer for General Mills.

In our conversation, Nick shares his story that took him from working on a farm to the boardroom, giving insights into Impossible Foods’ localization journey in different global markets, how to craft systems that can be deployed globally but modified locally with scalability in mind, how to leverage community cultures to gain traction in new markets and why you shouldn't think of the launch of a new market as just a moment in time.

Jul 29, 202245:08
How building for 2 markets accelerated BlaBlaCar’s international growth | Frederic Mazzella | Founder, Chairman & Fmr CEO, BlaBlaCar
Jul 08, 202254:56
Why trust in your organization is the backbone for global success | Bianca Martinelli | Partner, Alexia Ventures

Why trust in your organization is the backbone for global success | Bianca Martinelli | Partner, Alexia Ventures

In this episode we are excited to welcome Bianca Martinelli, Partner at Brazilian venture capital firm Alexia Ventures, Co-Founder of International Mastermind, a global network of professionals focused on international expansion. Previously, Bianca was the Senior Vice President of Global Operations at global entrepreneurial community Endeavor and Vice President of International Expansion for digital marketing and CRM platform company RD Station.

In our conversation, Bianca talks about the importance of having strong company values that can be universalized to have global appeal, how HQ can be an enabler of global growth and trust building instead of a command-and-control mechanism, how it is crucial to create internal systems for unifying knowledge and facilitating strong communication, why iterating and embracing failure are key in succeeding with global expansion and how to architect your company to go global when you are ready, among other topics.

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets @ https://www.zedra.com

Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/

Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book

Jun 08, 202254:59
When an internship in Israel can create the mindset to build a Brazilian unicorn company | Alessio Alionco | Founder & CEO, Pipefy

When an internship in Israel can create the mindset to build a Brazilian unicorn company | Alessio Alionco | Founder & CEO, Pipefy

In this episode, we are excited to welcome Alessio Alionco, Founder and CEO of Pipefy, a work management platform that allows companies to streamline and automate business processes. Prior, Alessio was the Founder & CEO of Acessozero, a local commerce marketplace, and CEO of JR Consultoria.

In our conversation, Alessio talks about: the importance of thinking global from the beginning instead of just on the initial market, the importance of prioritizing people first and building a diverse team with unique perspectives, the role of agile when localizing a business, and much more. 

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com

Find our entire podcast episode library at https://www.globalclassbook.com/podcast and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth at https://www.globalclassbook.com/

Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book

May 25, 202251:29
How a small Danish startup took on the wine industry and scaled to 50M users worldwide | Heini Zachariassen | Founder & Fmr CEO, Vivino
May 10, 202245:10
Why companies aren’t successful when strategy isn’t localized | Claudia Makadristo | Head of Africa Expansion, Metamap

Why companies aren’t successful when strategy isn’t localized | Claudia Makadristo | Head of Africa Expansion, Metamap

Apr 19, 202256:39
Why the path to global growth isn’t linear | Marcello Schermer | Head of Int’l Expansion, Yoco
Apr 04, 202252:57
Why it’s crucial for leaders to “get out on the floor” to experience global markets | Jivko Bojinov | Co-Founder, Shipbob
Mar 08, 202251:23
The difference between being an “international” vs. “global” business and how to develop the right mindset to succeed | Tiffany Stevenson | Chief People Officer, Patreon

The difference between being an “international” vs. “global” business and how to develop the right mindset to succeed | Tiffany Stevenson | Chief People Officer, Patreon

Feb 08, 202255:18
How a Bangladeshi startup took on Uber and became a market leader | Elius Hussain | Co-Founder & Fmr CEO, Pathao
Jan 24, 202250:21
Why leaning into small scale is key for successful international expansion | Kathryn Hymes | Fmr Head of Int’l Product, Slack

Why leaning into small scale is key for successful international expansion | Kathryn Hymes | Fmr Head of Int’l Product, Slack

Dec 22, 202152:37
Why a Silicon Valley startup chose Rwanda as an initial market and how they used it as a foundation for scale | Israel Bimpe | Director Africa GTM, Zipline
Dec 07, 202159:33
Why culturally conscious management gives you an edge in running a global business | Jennifer Cornelius | Chief People Officer, Ritual
Nov 22, 202157:42
How Coco, the digital monkey, sparks serendipitous moments and increases engagement within a distributed team | Gabriel Engel | Founder & CEO, Rocket.Chat
Nov 05, 202158:26
Why arbitrary uniqueness is the poison to any global growth initiative | Jan van Casteren | VP Europe, Flexport
Oct 19, 202150:34
The two forms of localization to master to achieve global scale | Chang Wen Lai | CEO & Co-Founder, Ninja Van

The two forms of localization to master to achieve global scale | Chang Wen Lai | CEO & Co-Founder, Ninja Van

In this episode, we welcome Chang Wen Lai, Co-Founder and CEO of Ninja Van, Southeast Asia's largest tech-enabled express delivery service as we discuss how to balance a strong direction from headquarters (like choosing the right mountain to scale) along with proper localization strategies, why it's better to "train the trainers" and the importance of building scalability within your business.

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets @ https://www.zedra.com/

Interested in learning more about our book Global Class? Be the first to get a copy (coming out August 23, 2022), and get a ton of valuable free bonuses for pre-ordering. Learn more here: https://www.globalclassbook.com/pre-order-book

Oct 05, 202153:50
From trading Pokemon cards in a Colombian village to leading a startup alleviating poverty through digital education | Freddy Vega | CEO & Co-Founder, Platzi
Sep 24, 202157:57
Why entrepreneurs from small countries have advantages over startups from Silicon Valley (and large markets) | Imre Hild | Managing Partner, Global Traction
Sep 02, 202150:36
Why community culture (tribes) can be your catalyst for successful scale | Jennifer Yuen | Fmr Head of Americas Marketing, Airbnb
Aug 10, 202101:12:60
From teaching English in a tiny Japanese fishing village to leading growth at a $32B unicorn | Abe Smith | Head of International, Zoom
Jul 13, 202155:56
Introducing The Global Class Podcast with Aaron McDaniel & Klaus Wehage

Introducing The Global Class Podcast with Aaron McDaniel & Klaus Wehage

Calling all those interested in international business... Get the inside stories of how the world’s fastest growing companies scale globally and the unique career journeys of the internationally-minded business leaders who run these Global Class companies. International is the new agile and best-in-class companies are adapting to build products, operational models and company cultures that resonate with a worldwide audience. The Global Class Podcast explores best practices for effective international expansion and offers practical advice for anyone who aspires to build global companies and careers in international business.

Jun 25, 202102:17