The realisation that its most lucrative markets were on the other side of the world to the company’s headquarters in Hong Kong, raised a series of new challenges for Yat Siu, CEO of Outblaze, the Internet startup he had founded just a few years before and steered successfully through the chaos that surrounded the collapse of the dotcom bubble. A change in business model at end 2000 had accelerated the company’s aspirations for international expansion, but three years on the business structure for overseas operations had seen a number of changes and several issues were still outstanding.
This case is rare in that it can be used to discuss the international strategy-structure choices of a technology firm emerging from Asia and entering US, European and other markets, in addition to Asian markets. Even though it had been “born global”, the most appropriate global structure for this young Internet company was unclear. Students must consider how to link Outblaze’s operations in very different markets within its increasingly complex corporate structure, business development strategies, and marketing efforts.
- International Entrepreneurship
- Business Model Transformation
- Globalization
- Hong-Kong Business Environment
- Internet Start-up
- Internationalization
