252. Go from Local Player to Global Tech Leader

Phil Knight spotted better running shoes in Japan — and turned that insight into Nike, one of the world’s biggest brands.

In this episode, you'll learn how thinking internationally sparks breakthrough ideas — and how to build a global edge into your career and business.

This episode is for you if you:

• Want to lead innovation, not just follow trends

• Are building products or businesses with global ambition

• Know you need a global perspective but aren't sure where to start

Timestamps

00:00 The essence of global leadership
06:07 Learning from Global Innovations
11:50 How to get an International Perspective
18:04 Action steps you can take now

Growth Through Innovation

If your organisation wants to drive revenue through innovation, book a call with us here.

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Transcript

Sophia Matveeva (00:00.462)
True leadership, global leadership, basically being super successful means that you need to combine local strength with global insights. So you actually look at the top top leaders of all the big institutions, they have to combine their local expertise with an international supply chain or basically a global expertise as well.

Sophia Matveeva (00:28.846)
Welcome to the Tech for an Antiquity podcast. I'm your host, tech entrepreneur, executive coach at Chicago Booth MBA, Sophia Matheva. My aim here is to help you have a great career in the digital age. In a time when even your coffee shop has an app, you simply have to speak tech. On this podcast, I share core technology concepts, help you relate them to business outcomes, and most importantly,

Share practical advice on what you can do to become a digital leader today. If you want to a great career in the digital age, this podcast is for you. Hello, smart people. How are you today? If we haven't met before, I am Sophia Matveva and I'm the founder of Tech for Non-Techies. I teach business leaders how to innovate and lead in the digital economy without learning to code.

And I've lectured at the University of Chicago, London Business School, Oxford University, advised major accelerators like tech stars and helped governments and global firms like White and Case upskill their leadership teams. So if you want to get tech and AI fluency and you want to turn that into a competitive advantage, you're in the right place. And today we are talking about why having a global international perspective

will make you a better tech innovator and a stronger leader. So I think also it's kind of useful when we're thinking about maybe our summer vacations. So, you you could go somewhere, you could have a fabulous holiday, but also maybe you could learn something that could be useful for your career. So you could have a double whammy. Anyway, I have just got home to London. So here I am. I haven't been here for a while because I have been

in Bahrain, then I was in the UAE, so was in Dubai and then in Abu Dhabi, and then I was in Saudi Arabia. And so we were working on a major upskilling program with the Bahrain government, and I also taught an executive education class at Watchin' Case. Anyway, because I have been traveling, I have been seeing new technologies and also how, say, Western technologies are being adapted in the Gulf.

Sophia Matveeva (02:51.479)
and how local competitors are coming up. And this I found really interesting. And there's a lot of opportunity for learning and a lot of opportunity to create new things and to fund new things. And as many of you might know, I am Russian. So I have lived in the UK, in the US, France, various other countries. But anyway, the point is when you are in a large country, so most of the audience for Tecfano Tec is in the US, US very large country.

currently the biggest economy. So when you are in a really large country, it's very kind of tempting to look inward and to just focus on the homegrown innovations. And growing where you're planted is important, but true leadership, global leadership, basically being super successful means that you need to combine local strength

with global insights. If you actually look at the top, top leaders of all the big institutions, whether it is going to be the PIF in Saudi Arabia, or it's going to be Tim Cook and the head of Apple, they have to combine their local expertise with an international supply chain or basically a global expertise as well. And so here's an entrepreneurial story that you might find exciting.

inspiring or least interesting. So you guys all know about Nike and so you might not know the story of Nike. So there's the founder Phil Knight and he basically got this idea. He got the idea for what eventually became Nike from Japan. So he was really, really into running and he basically discovered that

Japanese running shoes were much lighter, much better, were basically a better product than anything in America. So after business school, and you understand what I believe, after business school, he literally just went to Japan and in the book, Shoe Dog, describes this crazy journey. So, you know, he's a student, he doesn't have much money, he's having this amazing adventure and he basically gets to Japan, he starts learning about these Japanese.

Sophia Matveeva (05:11.289)
running shoes and he gets very excited. And so he basically began by, well, with this insight that, okay, they have this innovation, which we don't. And so he started importing these shoes and then eventually this small insight grew into Nike, obviously a super successful American business. It's an American business, but it's really a global powerhouse. But without that international perspective,

Without that trip to Japan, Phil Nike wouldn't have had that insight and he made Phil Nike, Phil Knight, Phil Knight wouldn't have had that insight and he wouldn't have been able to build Nike. So if you're thinking about should I travel or should I not? The answer is yes. Here's a story that's kind of more, well, basically a text story, but also it's more recent. So most of us have used Uber and

Did you know that in various different geographies, there are different versions of Uber basically created by Uber's competitors and often those local versions are actually better. So in the Middle East, there is Careem, which I really love. In Russia, there's Yandex taxi and in Southeast Asia, there is Grab. So essentially, let's just look at Grab. So inspired by Uber, sorry about that, inspired by Uber, they...

adapted ride hailing to markets where basically cash was still king. So you couldn't really have the kind of seamless transactions at the time that Uber needed. And so essentially they took the idea that Uber had, they took local insights and they created something that Uber did not. And so by the time Uber gets to that market, they already have a very, very formidable competitor. So again,

It's international plus regional awareness equals really successful launch. So, how do you actually get this international perspective? I mean, yes, go on holiday. Please go on holiday. But realistically, I also don't want you to completely ruin your summer vacations by sitting in Italy, you know, on the beach and trying to figure out how Italians are using their phones.

Sophia Matveeva (07:35.991)
would be really creepy. you know, first of all, if you have an opportunity to travel for a real work-related reason and not turn a holiday into work, then prioritize that. So are there international conferences for your industry? Yes, there are. There are definitely international conferences for your industry. If you haven't been invited to them, then

seriously, you know, just get on chat GPT and say, this is my industry. This is who I am. Give chat GPT your LinkedIn prep. I'll say, this is who I am. Maybe tell it what you want to do and say, what are the international conferences that I should be attending? And it will give you a list. Then, you know, try to figure out if your employee can pay for them. If not, pay for them yourself. So for example, as you might know,

I've been going to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in the south of France. Every year I've actually spoken at the Festival of Creativity in Cannes. And there are people who get sent there and obviously going to the south of France in the summer, it is not cheap. So I know lots of people who are basically now important and valued enough by their employees to be sent there. But I also know a lot of people that literally

take time off work, pay for their own tickets. So I know people who have gone from LA to Cannes on their own dime and taken time off and Cannes nights, it's fun, but it's definitely not a vacation. And they've done that. Based on that, they got to network, they got an international perspective, they learned something new. And then eventually they got to that allowed them to rise to the position.

in their companies that actually now their companies pay for them. So attend conferences if you don't know what conference it's conferences to attend to research, chat, GPT is a really good place to start. Do you have an opportunity to get an assignment abroad? If you don't have that opportunity, can you create one? Are there people who are your colleagues? Are there people in the organization that you work at?

Sophia Matveeva (09:59.131)
who have worked on international assignments. How have they done it? Figure it out because sometimes, you know, in some organizations, there's a very formal process. In a lot of organizations, there isn't really a formal process, but you just have these openings. You know, if you start collaborating with a team in China, it is likely that at some point you will get to go to China. And, know, in China, there's a completely different

tech ecosystem, right? Like they don't use Google, they don't use Facebook. So there's a much more of reliance on QR codes, for example, which is really interesting. So you can see what are people doing there and then you can bring back some of those insights and basically embed them into your work. And also China, DeepSeek, know, DeepSeek has completely revolutionized the tech and PC scene recently. So anyway.

digression, if you can go to a conference or if you can get onto a work assignment, you know, with China, that would be amazing. But anywhere, go and learn. It would be really useful. Even, even if you're in the U S and you're thinking, well, London is so kind of similar, know, the same language, a lot of the same culture, Anglo-Saxon, right? Yes, that is true. But for example, the way people pay for things and the way the

finance system operates in the UK is wildly different in the US. I my US friends, you're still using checks. I don't know why. Nobody else knows why. And so if you really want to look at the forefront of FinTech innovation and payments, London and Europe, that's going to be really interesting for you to check out. Okay. So we've talked about the fact that international perspectives.

allow you to essentially get the kind of insights that allow you to build businesses, to create new ventures, and also to fund new ventures. Okay? We've learned about the Nike founding story. We've learned about the Uber competitors like Grab. We're now talking about how to get their international perspective. So number one is attend conferences. Number two is seek assignments abroad, even if they're short term, even if it's like going for a week.

Sophia Matveeva (12:18.807)
Number three, this is what I have done, by the way, I've done all of these, so number three is study. So executive MBA programs are really, really good for this. So as you know, I went to Chicago Booth, London Business School also has this international executive MBA program, which is partnered with Columbia University in New York. Basically, there are lots. My advice is if you're going to do an MBA, only apply to the top

top schools because the medium ranked schools will basically charge you the same, but they won't have the same cash, so they'll just open fewer doors. Honestly, executive MBAs at the top schools, they're really expensive. I paid about $200,000 for mine, so you might not necessarily want to do that, but there are different types of essentially study abroad programs. So again, look at the

top schools, but is there a weak course you can make? There are lots of very, very good executive education programs. So if you're in the US, look at the executive education programs in London, look at INSEAD, look at Singapore, look at what's happening in the Gulf. If you have never been to the Gulf region and you are from the US or you're from Europe, you need to go. There is so much innovation happening.

I've just spent a week in Saudi Arabia professionally. It was one of the most interesting weeks I've had in my life. And also the tourism is amazing too. Anyway, so take international courses. Again, try to get your employer to pay for it. Try to get your employer to pay at least for some of it. If you can't pay for it yourself, I paid for my executive aid myself.

So these are all kind of bigger things, travel, work and study. Something that you can literally start doing today is news and books. So first of all, follow international news stories. And you know, it is so tempting to only focus on what's happening in your backyard, especially if you are in a big, big country, big economy like the US, it's really, really tempting to only read US news.

Sophia Matveeva (14:41.763)
And especially US tech news, because let's be honest, know, Silicon Valley, are, for the Western world, they are the dominant innovators. But my aim here is to get you to take action to widen your perspective. You won't widen your perspective without changing some of your habits. So look for tech news, look for innovation, look for business news.

coming out of other places and you will have to do that more consciously. Also read books about companies that are not from where you're from, that are not from your region. Again, for my West audience, actually for basically anybody who's kind of a Western audience, I really advise reading The House That Jack Ma Built. It's all about Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and

I find him fascinating. He's one of my favorite founders because he created a tech company, which is one of the world's most powerful, biggest companies, as a non-technical founder. And he didn't see his first computer until he was in his mid thirties. So for all of the non-technical innovators who are kind of thinking, my God, am I too late to the party? Jack Ma is going to be your patron saint.

Okay, so we talked about news and books. Final hack is friendships. I bet that you have international friends and international colleagues. And so my advice would be is to basically ask them about, well, you know, what are the differences between, you know, how people use social media or maybe how people use phones where you're from? Because this is not the kind of information that they would necessarily volunteer to you.

But it's going to be different, right? Because I see the difference between the US and the UK and culturally these are very, very aligned countries. So if somebody is from somewhere really culturally quite different, you if somebody say from India, the way people do payments, the way people communicate, the way people even communicate for work is very different than it is in say the US or in France. So talk to your friends, talk to your international friends. Literally, you could do that today.

Sophia Matveeva (17:05.133)
Ask them, how do people use phones? How is it different from where we are? And are there different habits and are there different, say, social media habits or social media platforms that are different from what we have here? Just have that conversation. You will, I guarantee you'll learn something. given you quite a few action steps, and I hope that I've widened your perspective. So here's my homework for you. Reach out to...

an international friend of yours, like an expert or immigrant friend and ask them those questions. Read or listen to one piece of international tech business news. And for this quarter, think about some sort of work or study or conference trip that you could take and start building that into your quarterly plan. Okay? This is what's going to help you.

get those insights that essentially, frankly, your competitors, your professional competitors are probably not doing because what we're talking about here is about going from good to great. Like this is really the elevated level. Okay. Well, my dear smart person, if you have enjoyed today's insights, then I'll be really, really grateful if you could share this episode with a friend or a colleague because smart people grow together.

and make sure to subscribe so you never miss this episode. And that note, my dear smart person, thank you very much for listening and I shall be back in your delightful smart ears next week. Ciao.