Successful foreign companies have routinely outsourced strategic planning, marketing, licensing, logistics, regulatory compliance, transport, and/or intellectual property support functions to their in-country, domestic third party vendors for utilization in their local markets. These foreign companies quickly discovered that, in attempting to replicate their success when transitioning to and sustaining new North American markets, such domestic vendors will likely not possess the international business acumen and experience necessary to safely and effectively shepherd the foreign company through the significant challenges in these functional areas that desired growth into North American marketplaces will require.
Some foreign companies have attempted to address this lack of internal acumen or experience for expansion into international marketplaces by hiring full time employees in North American countries in order to supply that level and breadth of local expertise. What they learn, however, is that it is grossly inefficient and wasteful to hire enough full-time employees in the new markets to cover every conceivable functional area in which the foreign company will need immediate business expertise for its expansion.
Foreign companies that have successfully transitioned into North American markets have learned that they can independently contract for the specific local business functional services and expertise that they require, when they need such services, and only when they need them, all without having to shoulder the overhead burden of maintaining a permanent employee work force to provide those services, even when provision of the services is not ongoing. More importantly, when the foreign company can find a single services vendor with the skills and resources to anticipate ALL potential functional service areas and issues, and apply its knowledge and skills toward helping the client surmount ALL functional challenges, that is the business solution that provides the foreign company with the most effectiveness, flexibility, accountability, cost and time efficiency, responsiveness, and transparency.