Market entry · Scientific business growth
The most valuable commodity in scientific business growth is time.
Money can be earned. People can be recruited. Products can be developed. But nobody gets more time.
In scientific consumables, companies can spend years entering new markets, finding partners, building distributor networks and launching products. Usually, it isn’t because they lack technical ability. It is because they are learning every lesson for the first time.
Meanwhile, competitors move. Markets change. Opportunities disappear.
A strong product is not enough
Many years ago, we opened a subsidiary in a new country and launched one of our most advanced premium products. It was successful elsewhere, technically differentiated and something we believed should excite the new market.
Instead, sales fell flat. Customers simply didn’t know us well enough—and they didn’t yet trust the brand. We had entered the market in the wrong sequence.
We went back to basics and introduced a simpler, more accessible range. Customers became familiar with the company, experienced our quality and gradually built confidence in us. Several years later, we relaunched the premium technology and secured substantial market share.
The technology hadn’t changed. The market’s trust in us had.
Why do so many market entries stall?
Our experience was not unusual. An OECD study of 15,157 new exporters found that only around 45% remained active for longer than two years—and fewer than one-quarter continued beyond five. (OECD, 2022, pp. 9–10)
The important question isn’t simply how many disappeared. It’s why.
The research points to insufficient scale, weak productivity, financial pressure and products that stretch too far beyond existing capabilities. It also shows that experience, stronger initial commitment and entering with several products or routes to market can improve the chances of survival. (OECD, 2022, pp. 13–17)
“Aim high but shoot low.”
Keep the ambition—but build towards it in the right sequence. (OECD, 2022, p. 17)
Reputation does not automatically cross borders
A business may be highly respected domestically but almost unknown elsewhere. That reputation does not automatically travel with the product. Opening a distributor channel or local operation is only the start.
Building recognition and trust may mean:
- Entering with a more accessible product
- Committing serious marketing resources to building the brand locally
- Putting people from the manufacturer on the ground
- Generating credible local reference customers
- Demonstrating consistent service, quality and technical support
- Selecting the right channel partners—not simply the largest
- Giving partners clear reasons and incentives to develop the brand
- Building wider industry relationships before asking customers for a bigger commitment
These actions shorten the time it takes to become recognised, trusted and commercially established.
This isn’t about lowering ambition. It is about creating the conditions in which that ambition can succeed.
Experience shortens the learning curve
What might take a business five years to discover through trial and error can often be recognised much earlier by somebody who has encountered the same pattern before.
The biggest cost is not always making the wrong decision. It is taking too long to recognise it, correct it and execute a better one.
Scientific businesses entering new regional markets should therefore ask two questions:
What will this expansion cost?
And:How much time could we lose by approaching it in the wrong sequence?
Money can be recovered. Products can be relaunched.
Time cannot.