Do your homework.

Whether they were seeking a hedge against local business cycles or simply out to market their native expertise in foreign lands, these CEOs agree that preparation is the best, well, preparation for going global.

M. Farooq Kathwari Chairman, president, and chief executive Ethan Allen, Danbury, CT Home furnishings and retail manufacturer

COMMIT THE RESOURCES...

If you are going overseas, you have to go with strength. For instance, we have looked at Europe many times and decided against going there, because with the European Union we would have to develop a multi-national program. Instead, we've gone into single-market countries like Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, where we don't have to work across many countries at the same time, and where we could establish the right kind of logistics and retail network and commit the funds needed to build our brand.

When someone opens a store in their own market, they try to have the right location, get the right management to run it and then help with the resources of advertising and logistics. But sometimes when people go overseas, they don't do the same things - they somehow assume it is going to run by itself. It in fact requires more resources to go overseas, and if you aren't ready to commit those resources, the chances are it's not going to work, or it's going to work marginally.

For us, part of going in with strength is finding the right partner. We don't just sell product; we are in a service business, helping consumers in their home decorating needs. Overseas, we have sometimes taken the shortcut of not getting a licensee who shares our vision of service and of how to conduct and run the business. And when we haven't gone with the right partners, we have not done well.

Erick J. Laine Chairman, president, and chief executive Alcas Corp., Olean, NY Cutlery products

CHOOSE YOUR MARKETS STRATEGICALLY...

We've found that our best shot at going international is to use the basic sales and marketing approach that works here in the States. I know that's contrary to the experience of some other companies, but when we depart from that basic approach, it's a lot tougher. We have varied it in Korea, for example, and we now have a successful approach there, but it wasn't easy to come by, and I don't think we want to repeat it. So we've decided to focus on countries where we can go to market basically the same way we do in the U.S., and to be sure to do enough homework on what the culture would dictate to make sure that we don't make a big error.

We have different rationales for going into different markets. In addition to places like Germany and Canada, we've gone into Costa Rica. It's a small country, but it was easy to enter, it's stable, it has a high literacy rate, and it has a high average income for the region. It's also a good place to learn. It's giving us a chance to develop more Spanish-speaking managers, and we think it will act as a stepping stone to the rest of Latin America. We're also in Mauritius, another small market, for similar reasons. It turns out that the country in general and our partner there are very active in pursuing the Indian Ocean rim, so we see that as a potential vehicle for entering places like India, the Gulf states, and perhaps even Africa.

Stephen B. Siegel Chairman, president, and chief executive Insignia/ESG, New York, NY Real estate services

DON'T EXPORT YOUR CULTURE...

Going international is critical to us from several perspectives. One is client control and our ability to deliver service, wherever, for our clients who are going global, which will enable us to perpetuate those relationships. It also enhances our ability to do business domestically through that same client control. And it gives us a hedge against local business cycles.

We have discovered that in order to build a strong global company, you really need to have very strong local operations. It's not a question of picking one method of doing business and exporting it worldwide. It's really important to allow the local culture that built the business that you are acquiring, in whatever country you happen to be acquiring it, to remain in place. What you do is bring your process and support to enhance that operation. We don't tell a subsidiary in another country how to operate the business, how to approach their clients, how to compensate their personnel, etc. If you try to export your culture, you are probably, at least in our business, doomed to failure. We found early on that this philosophy is true even domestically, going from city to city - it certainly holds true when you go country to country.

William R. Berkley Founder, chairman, and chief executive W.R. Berkley Corp., Greenwich, CT Property and casualty insurance holding company

LOOK FOR THE MAXIMUM CULTURAL FIT...

We don't think the smaller company has to serve a big global customer to go overseas. We have the same kinds of customers elsewhere that we have in America - middle-sized, primarily local companies that need our expertise. For example, in one business, we insure grain elevators in the U.S. In another, we insure grain elevators in Argentina. It requires a lot of the same expertise and the same knowledge. So we take our technical expertise and we use it in Spanish in Argentina and in Tagalog in the Philippines and in English in the U.S. Our goal is to have diversified economic risks and diversified economic cyclicality. In addition, we want to be sure we are in touch with every place where we can gain knowledge as to what's happening with our customers and the technology in our business. Companies that are going global spend a lot of time looking at numbers. The real issue you need to address is understanding the culture of the country you are operating in, and how you blend your cultural values with those overseas. So we haven't sought out the maximum short-term returns; we've looked for the maximum cultural fit, and worked from there to find a way to do things.

Joseph E. Griesedieck Chief executive Spencer Stuart, San Francisco, CA Executive search services

MAINTAIN SEAMLESS SERVICE - AND STANDARDS... Increasingly, our major global clients are asking us to help them in multiple countries. We have to make sure that the service we deliver is seamless; you don't want them to get terrific service in one part of the world and mediocre service in another. That means that we have to tie those local operations together with a set of professional practices, and that's the difference between just being international with lots of offices, and being truly global.

Our operations are for the most part manned by local nationals, because we know that there are significant cultural differences between say, Singapore and Johannesburg. What brings everything together is a common set of values and professional practices. We have what we call the "red book," which covers the professional side of things and even things like conflict of interest, behavior outside the firm, and personal conduct. So even though a more established office in London is going to be operating at a different speed from a new office in Beijing, the people in both places will subscribe to the same set of values and practices. It really gets down to an issue of setting standards, and that's something that just has to be managed every day.