This study was made in October 2021. The contents and data were mostly gathered from public sources including LinkedIn.
Do & Don’t on International Management
DO
- International is a CEO / founders’ team topic, it’s like launching a second startup. Don’t delegate it too soon.
- Think international from day 1: if you know your company will expand internationally one day, your team, your product, your marketing, have to be made to switch to international very quickly. That means:
- Hiring english speakers from day one ;
- Thinking product features for several languages and different country usages ;
DON'T
- Don’t wait too much before installing an “international culture”.
- Don’t think your HQ country as the center of your company. Your management as to be the reflect of your international presence.
🎙️Exporter une MedTech aux États-Unis 
"At the New York office, we asked the whole team to speak only English. As soon as someone spoke in French, they had to give $1. This is very important to maintain the company culture and team atmosphere. People who don't speak French may worry about French discussions and misinterpret them. I myself was very careful not to speak French and to try to appear as American as possible to set an example." - Emmanuel Schalit, CEO & founder of Dashlane.
Key learnings
For each company department, we've analyzed the team structuration at three level : Global (generally HQ), Zone (group of several countries), Country.
Functional org structures work at HQ because the CEO aligns functions around the company goals and resolves disputes between them. But when Sales and Marketing bicker eight time zones from HQ, the issue can fester without resolution. One solution is a General Manager, who directly manages the customer-facing parts of the organization (e.g., Sales, Marketing, Support, Partnerships) with dotted line responsibility for other functions such as Engineering. - Stephen MaxIntyre, Partner @ Frontline
What we've noticed:
- Sales function is almost always at every level (global, zone, country), especially when the sales cycle is including a close contact with customers. Then, local sales team needs to be aligned at zone and global levels.
- Product can be either managed only at a global level or at a local level. It depends on if the product needs specific ajustements to fit to a country or zone. More specifically, product with strong cultural or legal aspects would have a local team in charge of localisation.
- If Product is changing depending the countries, the Tech team may have the same configuration in order to be able to deal with country related product updates and releases.
- Marketing structuration depends on strategy. If inbound marketing is prefered, operations are managed at zone or global level. If outbound marketing or community management is prefered, a local op team is needed. Corporate communications are usually managed at a global level.
- G&A (strategy, admin & finance, hr) are mostly managed at a global level. As the company grows, the company will need to get local presence, especially for HR.
- Regarding company management, most of the companies get either a Zone Director or a Country Manager, directly reporting to CEO or CRO or VP International. There is no country manager when the zone is gathering several countries but one country is the biggest market. There is no Zone Director when the zone is gathering too few countries to be called a Zone. Sometimes, VP International or VP Sales or VP Partnerships are acting as Country Manager or Zone Director.
360 Learning
People headcount: +250
Sector: Learning & Career Development
Series: C
Operating countries:
- France (196)
- USA (48) - split in two (LA, NY)
- UK (9)
- RoW
Segmentation of geographical areas:
- EMEA & RoW
- US
AB Tasty
People headcount: +200
Sector: Marketing
Series: C
Operating countries:
- France (159)
- USA (24)
- UK (18)
- Germany (15)
- Spain (9)
- Singapour (5)
Segmentation of geographical areas:
- France
- USA
- APAC
- DACH
- UK & Nordics
| Function | Understandings | Global level | Zone level | Country level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
There is no "zone level" company management because there is the same number of countries and zones. Decision has been made to keep the management only at country level. | CEO | None. | VP Country | |
Each country localize the global CSM framework to the country level. | VP Customer Success | Customer Success Manager + team. | None. | |
Only global. | CFO + team | None. | None. | |
The structuration recently moved from a country level presence to a global presence only because of too much fragmented team across countries and a big hub in France. | VP People & Legal + team | None. | None. | |
Each country has it owns marketing team structuration. Depending on country cultural habits, the focus is on events or content. | VP Marketing | Head of Marketing ZONE | Senior Marketing Manager + team | |
Managed at a global level by VP BD and Alliances. | VP BD and Alliances | Head of Partnerships ZONE | None. But current open position for France. | |
Only global. Product is not changing depending on the country. | VP Product + Team | None. | None. | |
They are present at every level (country, zone, global) as the sales cycle is including close contact with customers. | VP BD and Alliances | Sales Director ZONE | Sales Team Leader + team | |
Only global. | CTO + Chief Data Scientist | None. | None. |
Dynadmics
People headcount: +100
Sector: Advertising
Series: B
Operating countries:
- France (39)
- Germany (15)
- USA (40)
- Brasil (12)
- Mexico (14)
Segmentation of geographical areas:
- US
- EMEA
- LATAM
| Function | Understandings | Global level | Zone level | Country level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
There is no "zone level" company management because there is almost the same number of countries and zones. Decision has been made to keep the management only at country level. | CEO | None. | Managing Director Country | |
Customer Success is handled only at a zone level. | None. | Head of Customer Success | None. | |
Only global. | CFO + team | None. | None. | |
Only global. Team is reporting to CFO. | VP People + team | None. | None. | |
Each country has it owns marketing team structuration depending on local market needs. | VP Marketing | None. | Marketing Manager + team | |
Partners are very localized. That's why, Partnerships strategy is handled at Global level but ops are managed at a country level. | VP Global Partnerships | None. | Partnership Manager Country | |
Product is specific to country because of local regulations, that's why product ops are managed at a zone level. Not at a country level because each zone has a dominant country driving the product localization. | VP Product | Head of Product ZONE + team | None. | |
Head of Sales position at a ZONE level is sometimes endorsed by the managing director of the main country of the zone. | None. | Head of Sales ZONE (only for LATAM) | Senior Sales Team Lead + team | |
Only global. | VP Global Ops + team | None. | None. | |
Only global. | CTO + team | None. | None. |
Odoo
People headcount: +1500
Sector: ERP
Series: D+
Operating countries:
- Belgium (+600)
- USA (split in 2 NY + LA) (+350)
- India (+150)
- Arab emirates (+150)
- Hong Kong (+100)
- Mexico (+75)
Segmentation of geographical areas:
- EMEA
- MENA
- US & LATAM
- APAC
View Odoo's global organization P16
| Function | Understandings | Global level | Zone level | Country level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
There is no "country level" management but managing director zone are usually located in the biggest country of the zone. | CEO | Managing Director ZONE | None. | |
Only at a zone level. The team is reporting to Managing Director Zone. | Managing Director ZONE | Head of Customer Success ZONE + team | None. | |
To facilitate reporting, each zone has it owns head of finance, reporting to global finance team. | CFO + team | Head of Finance ZONE | None. | |
HR topics are managed at global level but each zone gets its own talent acquisition team. | Head of People (attached to CFO) | Talent Acquisition ZONE | None. | |
Marketing ops are managed at a zone level. Even if the most of the marketing efforts are focused on biggest region of the zone. | Head of Marketing | Marketing Team Leader ZONE + team (Campaign Specialists, Web Designers, Graphic Designers and Event Planners) | None. | |
At every level (country, zone, global). | Chief Service Officer | Head of Services ZONE | Team (Business analyst) | |
Partners are very country localized but not numerous enough to be handled at a country level. | VP Partnerships | Head of Partnerships ZONE + team | None. | |
At Odoo, Product strategy is handled by the tech team. As ERP is a product with local legal specificities, Product owners are responsible for localizing the product. | CTO | CTO ZONE + team | Product Owner COUNTRY localizations | |
They are present at every level (country, zone, global) as the sales cycle is including close contact with customers. | Chief Commercial Officer | VP Sales ZONE + Head of Channel Sales ZONE + Head of Direct Sales ZONE + Business advisor ZONE | Sales Team (analyst, KAM, SDR) | |
As product is changing depending on operating countries, Tech function needs specific teams to address the product maintenance and update. | CTO | CTO ZONE + team | None. |
Prestashop
People headcount: +300
Sector: Web app
Series: C
Operating countries:
- France (200)
- Spain (16)
- Italy (14)
- Poland (5)
- Mexico (5)
Segmentation of geographical areas:
- EMEA
- WE
- RoW
How are they organized?
A squad organisation
- Mission: drive growth and monetisation in specific market
- Composition: one or multiple members from each chapter
- Governance:
- CM & Revenue team members define the country targets
- Each member develops a country action plan in order to achieve the targets
- CM oversees the execution of the plan
- Coordination:
- Slack Channel
- Weekly meeting with a restricted group of members
- Monthly SQUAD all hands
- Quarterly CM review with leadership team
International team responsibilities
- Country Manager :
- Squad coordination
- Local spokesmen and PR
- Open doors with partners
- Local owner mid market projects
- Community manager (aka customer success) :
- Manages agency, developers and ambassadors programs
- Qualifies country inbound leads in Hubspot and allocates them
- engages with the community on forum and socials
- Tech Evangelist:
- Developers training
- User trainings
- Tech support for the community
| Function | Understandings | Global level | Zone level | Country level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Country managers localize company value proposition in the country, making sure that all the key asset are properly translated for the local market, that the key players of the local ecommerce value chain are integrated and promotion & merchandising are properly adapted to the local market | VP International | None. | Country Manager | |
Prestashop has no proper customer success team. They deal with customer requests through a dedicated forum. The team is dealing with customers requests locally. | Head of Customer Engagement & Growth | None. | Team (Tech Evangelist, Ambassador) | |
Only global. | CFO + team | None. | None. | |
Only global. Report to CFO. | VP People + team | None. | None. | |
Each country has it owns marketing team structuration, depending on country cultural habits. Most of the team is localized at global level. | VP Marketing + team Head of Events | None. | Team (Digital Strategist, Event manager) | |
Partner managers at a zone level are dealing with top partners of the zone while manager agency at country level adopts a mass market approach. | VP Partnerships + Team | Partner Manager | Manager Agency | |
Only global. Product is not changing depending on the country. | VP Product + team | None. | None. | |
Only global. More info here on CRO role at Prestashop: https://medium.com/xangevc/tout-savoir-sur-le-chief-revenue-officer-d5678f2313db | CRO + team | None. | None. | |
No proper sales team as Prestashop product is sell through partnerships only or self buying. | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Only global. | CTO + team | None. | None. |
Complementary work that could be helpful:
Organisation d'une équipe de Customer Success Manager (CSM) ? (part International Organization)
Internation Org Pattern:
Glossary
- EMEA : Europe Middle East Africa
- MENA: Middle East and North Africa
- WE : Western Europe
- RoW: Rest of World
- LATAM: Latin American
- APAC: Asia-Pacific