In today’s competitive business landscape, expanding globally requires more than just ambition – it demands strategic thinking and adaptable leadership. Christophe Derdeyn, an entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in IT-centric business transformations, has developed a proven approach to growing companies through shared services, offshoring, and global operations. Drawing from his extensive experience in helping companies navigate significant transitions, Christophe shares three fundamental strategies that have consistently driven success in business expansion efforts.
1. Defining a Clear Vision and Metrics
At the core of any successful business growth strategy lies a well-defined vision. “First step is always your vision – understand what it is that you’re going to do, create high-level metrics,” Christophe emphasizes. He illustrates this principle through his recent experience of establishing an office in a new country.
“What we do is we deliver services to Japan and the Western World,” Christophe explains. This clear vision helped identify specific requirements, particularly regarding language capabilities and cultural understanding. The metrics-driven approach led him to explore opportunities in less conventional locations. “Vietnam, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan – some of the less obvious names, but these countries were on my hit list,” he notes.
2. Executing Small, Managing Challenges
The second key principle focuses on practical implementation and managing expectations. “The moment that you start, don’t expect everything to work from day one,” Christophe advises. This realistic approach to execution has proven valuable in his own ventures. Taking Vietnam as an example, Christophe shares how initial challenges became opportunities for improvement: “We chose Vietnam because it caters to both Japanese and English. We saw anyone older than 30, the language is actually not that great. It’s one of the issues that we kind of foresaw, but we needed to manage and we are taking measures to improve.”
This experience underscores his philosophy about learning from setbacks: “There’s a lot of small things that you can start putting in place in terms of initial execution, and things that don’t work, you leave behind, and take what you stick around, you keep around. Even in every failure, there are lessons, there’s things that work – these you bring together to go through a better outcome eventually.”
3. Adapting to Growth and Evolution
The third crucial element in Christophe’s strategy is the willingness to evolve. “Point number three – evolve. There is always things that don’t work, or even that worked in the past but as you grow no longer work,” he states. This principle becomes particularly relevant as organizations expand and become more complex. Christophe emphasizes how organizational structure must adapt to growth:
“Many things also depend on the size of an organization. If you’re small, then you need very direct lines of communication – everyone is almost always in the front line. As you grow, different functions will become more diversified, specialist people will come in. You will have a dedicated CFO, you will have a dedicated COO and so forth, but when you start, it’s an army of one.”
This perspective highlights a crucial insight: “Evolving is about doing the right things at the right time and figuring out how that works,” Christophe concludes. His emphasis on timing and adaptation demonstrates why successful business growth requires constant evaluation and adjustment of strategies.
Christophe’s approach to business growth combines strategic vision with practical implementation. His experience in IT-centric transformations and global operations provides valuable insights for business leaders facing similar challenges. By focusing on clear metrics, accepting initial imperfections, and remaining adaptable, organizations can build a stronger foundation for sustainable growth.
To learn more about Christophe Derdeyn and his approach, check out his LinkedIn profile.
