First published in the New Zealand Herald 16 February 2015.

Your Business: NZ International Business Awards finalists - Will Palmer, Movio

Will Palmer is chief executive of Movio, which produces analytics and campaign management software for the film industry.

The Auckland-headquartered firm was founded by Palmer and Peter Beguely in 2010, and is now a company of Vista Group International - a New Zealand-based group of software development companies that are global leaders in the cinema software market.

What markets is Movio currently in?

As of today we're in 11 countries: the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Turkey, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

How did you go about first establishing the firm offshore?

The epicentre of the film industry is the US, but we weren't ready straight away to go there; we needed to prove ourselves first. So we crossed the ditch and went to Australia where we focused in the first stages on the customers that Vista had there - the likes of Hoyts, Event Cinemas and Village.

We very able to build about an 83 per cent market share in Australia and 76 per cent in New Zealand within 18 months. Having our customers really close to us meant we were able to offer a really high level of service and take any feedback from customers to adapt the product quickly.

After that stage we were ready to hit North America, but our approach was different in that Vista was a very small player in that market, so we didn't really have the leverage we had in Australia. Instead we found ourselves jointly approaching customers with Vista.

And later we partnered with NCR, Vista's biggest competitor up there, which enabled us to pretty much approach the majority of the US market. Cementing that relationship was about spending a lot of time in market, and we felt that NCR was also under a lot of pressure from their customers who were keen to work with Movio. We now have about a 27 percent market share in the US, 66 percent in Canada and 61 percent in Mexico.

Have your strategies varied greatly when going into different territories?

In my opinion all the countries that we've done business in, or tried to do business in, are relatively similar - even if the language is different - with the exception of China.

China is completely different in every way. It's one of those places where you have to invest quite a lot of money and particularly time in really understanding the differences in the way the market works before you can offer anything to that market.

So our approach in China is to have a person on the ground. He's a fantastic representative because he went to university here but he's also Chinese, so he understands both cultures. He's not only translating the language, he's translating the culture and what's going on.

What are some of the other challenges you've encountered on your journey into offshore markets?

Like most industries there's a clique and you've got to break into that clique to get anywhere. So one of the biggest challenges has just been trying to build relationships. Now that I've been to lots of trade shows and industry events you see there's always a new technology company arriving and trying to break into these circles, and while everybody is relatively receptive, they all think 'I don't know if you're going to be at the next show'.

So it's about being there all the time. Once they see you are there a lot and that you're consistent in your message, the trust starts to build over time. That's probably the biggest lesson I've learnt is you can't accelerate trust; you've got to earn it and it takes time.

Are there any other key lessons?

The first is from a product perspective. In New Zealand we're great inventors but I think we need to productise what we create so it can scale. If you can come up with a singular product that is adaptable enough for different markets but can be managed from one place, success and profitability will come a lot more easily.

Secondly, try not to pigeonhole yourself. The decisions we make today may affect the future of the business, in terms of technology limitations or potentially markets that are difficult to service.

Thirdly, of course, you need to get in market. I actually counted up my passport stamps the other day and in the last two years I've done 25 trips to the US. You cannot sell remotely, and that's not just about knowing whether the software is relevant, it's about understanding all the nuances of a market and what's happening there at the time. We really saw growth and success in the US when we opened an office up there and put people on the ground.

My last piece of advice is around price. I think New Zealand companies typically charge very little for their services relative to what an American company would, so I'd say spend time getting your price right because being the cheapest is not often sustainable or attractive.

First published in The New Zealand Herald 17 February.

Your Business: NZ International Business Awards finalists

This week I've interviewed company leaders from a wide range of sectors - electricity, employee communications software, volunteer travel and film industry software.

What connects them? International success. Powershop, SnapComms,International Volunteer HQ and Movio are among the 25 finalists in this year's New Zealand International Business Awards, run by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), and in Your Business they share stories about how they cracked some of their international markets.

David Downs is NZTE's general manager of services and convenor of judges for the 2015 awards.

He agrees the finalists are a diverse bunch, but there are also common threads which connect many.

For example, many are high-tech firms that are rich with intellectual property, which have come up with unique ways to solve problems using technology. Many are also highly specialised, operating in very narrow niches.

"We see this time and again - the companies that do well are the ones that know what they're good at and do it relentlessly well," says Downs.

"Then, of course, they can strike a different kind of problem because they have to find people who want the things that they've chosen to be a specialist in. So it isn't necessarily an easy road to go down, but when companies do it well they can own a market even from a small country like ours."

One such company that's 'owning it' is International Volunteer HQ, which is the world's largest volunteer travel firm. The firm's founder and executive director, Dan Radcliffe, started the company in 2007 when he was just 23 and the New Plymouth-based firm now has 23 staff based in New Zealand, and around 300 working with programmes under its brand worldwide.

Despite starting at the dawn of the global financial crisis, Radcliffe says his business has been able to ride a number of growing trends, including the increasing popularity of volunteer travel, the rise of online businesses and the popularity of social media.

One of the biggest challenges in growing an international business from New Zealand, though, has been building trust and convincing potential customers you're legitimate, says Radcliffe - especially when you're sending people to far-flung destinations like Kenya.

Crucial to overcoming that challenge has been building a social media community of authentic 'voices' endorsing their experiences with the company.

"At the heart of our marketing is a really strong social media campaign that fosters our community, creating thousands of ambassadors for our brand," he says. "I have no doubt that without social media we wouldn't be as successful as we are now." I think companies are far more likely to buy your product if a US company has endorsed it, as opposed to a New Zealand-based company endorsing it. Sarah Perry, SnapComms

To build credibility in offshore markets, employee communications software firmSnapComms targeted large US-based companies early in the piece, says Sarah Perry, the company's chief operating officer and half owner.

"In our case, we had to take our software solution to the US market in order to gain market credibility," says Perry. "I think companies are far more likely to buy your product if a US company has endorsed it, as opposed to a New Zealand-based company endorsing it. If you appear to be a US-based company and/or have offices in the US then I think this also helps."

Among other strategies that she says have worked well for gaining a foothold in offshore markets has been establishing physical offices in the US and UK, allowing the firm to get a local view and on top of dealing with time differences. "This was quite a big upfront cost, but I think it's certainly paid itself off over time," says Perry.

That there's no substitute for getting in-market is a common theme among the company leaders interviewed.

Will Palmer is chief executive of Movio, which produces analytics and campaign management software for the film industry. Palmer co-founded the firm with Peter Beguely in 2010, and it's now a company of Vista Group International.

Movio is in 11 countries, including the epicentre of the global film industry - the US, which Palmer has travelled to 25 times in the past two years, and where the firm also has a physical presence.

Palmer says one of the biggest challenges he's faced internationalising the business has been breaking into industry cliques and building relationships.

"Now that I've been to lots of trade shows and industry events you see there's always a new technology company arriving and trying to break into these circles, and while everybody is relatively receptive, they all think 'I don't know if you're going to be at the next show'," he says.

"So it's about being there all the time. Once they see you are there a lot and that you're consistent in your message, the trust starts to build over time. That's probably the biggest lesson I've learnt is you can't accelerate trust; you've got to earn it and it takes time."