Dog's McCusker outlines his Asia strategy ahead of The Drum Network's webinar

Opening the marketplace and offering up opportunities across the globe, the advent of digital communications supported our international ambitions. We began to have greater access to foreign markets. Researching and gaining insight into the markets we were eyeing up was made easy, and communicating with prospective clients became quick and relatively inexpensive.

Digital certainly broke down the door for us. And what an epic journey it has been….

So where do you start? Ask for help.

Around three and a half years ago, we embarked on a strategy workshop through Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Scottish Development International (SDI). As an independent agency, we do not have a network or parent company to seek advice from, so grasping this available resource was crucial.

The invaluable support they provided served as the catalyst to our growth into Asia, enabling our team to begin to work out how we could realise our international ambitions. While I wouldn’t be able to vouch for anyone else, I’m sure there are similar sources of support and advice across the UK. Seek them out. They are there to help.

Strengthen your home team.

Our initial steps were to build resilience into our organisation and allow headroom to enable us to implement our plans. We identified our strengths and weaknesses, improving where needed. We nurtured our culture and people in the UK. Our people got behind the notion of expansion into Asia, and this energy and drive certainly fuelled us to make it happen.

Perhaps not particularly sexy, but crucial all the same, we solved any problems and bolstered our processes. By taking time to get our house in order, we weren’t caught off guard when opportunities did start to roll in, and found it reassuring that our processes handled the transition relatively painlessly.

Pick your away team.

We wanted to grow Dog, to commit to Asia and have a dedicated presence there. Having decided to go it alone, we selected an 'Asian version of Dog' as opposed to a 'Dog in Asia' model.

Selecting the best local talent has been vital. And I don’t just mean recruiting people with skills in specific disciplines. With the time difference playing havoc with the working day, it takes a special type of person to make it work. Find individuals who are energetic, natural communicators and true team players. Curiosity helps too. People who are naturally curious about the global marketplace, and curious about other cultures will approach complex campaigns and communication positively. They also tend to see cross-cultural collaboration as an opportunity, rather than a challenge which helps massively. Once the right people are in place, believe in their capabilities.

During our period of expansion, I’ve learned how essential it is to build and believe in the team we've created. These guys are our team on the ground. They have the insight and local knowledge to make sure our clients’ campaigns resonate with target audiences. They need support. They need to feel part of a greater cause. To do this, key people in the business need to spend significant amounts of time in Asia, getting to know them and building strong relationships with them. Facetime and Skype – however brilliant – are not worthy substitutes for face to face communication.

Understand the nuances of each market.

Quite simply, there's no way to get a better understanding of the country other than to physically be there. To experience it for yourself and discover the different ways of working. Markets in Asia are nothing like those in the UK, and – as Wayne Arnold highlighted in the second of his Man about Asia episodes - each market in Asia, extremely different. Religion, culture, infrastructure and business etiquette must be considered. As we expand our work into Indonesia, we’re acutely aware of the importance of getting to grips with – and respecting – every single factor that impacts each market. Make no assumptions, and remain hungry for knowledge.

Focus on the client.

In growing the business in Singapore, we’ve taken a very client-centric approach. We’ve tailored our service proposition to satisfy a different set of client demands to those of our UK based clients. For example, we’ve found a greater number of opportunities for project based work, and campaigns marrying experiential, digital and social media communications. We’ve recruited talent with relevant skills and strengthened our offering to suit. Again it’s that notion of developing your understanding of the market, and tailoring your offering accordingly. Trying to force a UK model on Asian clients is a risky strategy. Select areas that you excel in – that there is a demand for – and be open to pave a slightly different way from the work you deliver in the UK.

Be agile.

Perhaps a given, but being agile is extremely important. Working in fast paced industry and servicing a market that’s developing at lightning speed, you need to keep your eyes open, ears to the ground and operate with agility in Asia. I think that’s where independent agencies can maximise opportunities. We’re able to react to changes in the market, and adapt our offering quickly to accommodate clients without cumbersome bureaucracy.

To be agile, you have to be brave. That’s not to say that a gung ho style is best practice - you have to feel confident that your processes will cope and management will lead strategically to enable teams to grab opportunities when they arise. Be brave, but come prepared.

One would think that having many years' experience in local and international business prepares you for many situations. The reality is, this experience allows you to adapt, gain momentum and move forward, but it does not equip you for opening up in Asia.

Being part of a diverse range of markets that is changing at breakneck speed is exhilarating, challenging and worth every single air mile.

The Drum Network is hosting a webinar with Gerry McCusker next week to talk about their journey into Asia. This webinar is FREE to Drum Network members. Non-members can book their place by clicking this link: /whatson/208881/webinar-how-take-your-independent-agency-asia