I love the phrase think global, act local.  It ensures we are thinking globally around trends that are occurring and shifts that are happening but have our local clients’ front and centre with everything we do.   It has become such an important part of our mindset in building our businesses.

By implementing this philosophy it forces you to look outside your comfort zone in all areas of business including how you benchmark yourself against your competition, what markets you are going to target and where you want to be seen as an industry expert. If you honestly believe that you can continue to grow your business and your brand by continuing to do the same as what you did yesterday, the same way you did it two years ago; then your business is probably in trouble.  Disruption is occurring in all industries and only those adaptable to change will not just survive but thrive.

Businesses must innovate, embrace change and continue to evolve alongside their partners and their competition. You’re competition is no longer limited to across the street, your competition can come from anywhere and you need to be able to differentiate yourself.

The only limitation with the think global, act local phrase is that sometimes you are so focused on being at the forefront of your industry and the services that clients are seeking, we overlook those potential partners and businesses who are at the top of their game and doing many great things globally and they are based locally.

Take Seely International or Redarc as examples. These companies are innovative organisations who are leaders in their fields, in an industry facing challenging times – but both are South Australian success stories. Over the years they have done just that, innovate, push boundaries and deliver great products to their clients.

Sometimes we need to think a little more local when it comes to learning from others and remember that there are a lot of great local businesses doing great things across the globe. We need to learn from these organisations so that others can replicate their success and we can build a strong economy where everyone benefits.

You don’t need to live in the heart of New York City, or Silicon Valley to embrace innovation and build a thriving business. The best thing about technology is that we can build great businesses from any location. We just need recognise who these businesses are, acknowledge them for their achievements and learn from their experiences and expertise.