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The Australian Business Foundation is currently undertaking a research project into Australian-based, ‘born global’ businesses. These are businesses that have established ongoing foreign activities soon after their birth. This project is being led by Peter Liesch, Professor of International Business at the University of Queensland Business School, and managed by the Foundation’s Research Analyst, Dr. Matthew Steen.

The Born Global Enterprises project is exploring businesses, large and small, that have penetrated foreign markets and are now deepening their international presence. The chief aim of the study is to identify the key drivers, challenges and opportunities facing Australian born globals, and how they are addressing the uncertainties and problems of their international ventures with new strategies and capabilities.

A total of eighteen businesses have been interviewed from a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, advanced engineering, agriculture, finance and entertainment. The sample comprises six businesses based in New South Wales and four businesses based in each of the states of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

It is evident from the case studies that Australian companies need not consolidate their business domestically before exporting or engaging actively in foreign markets. Nor do they have to be part of an established national industry. These conventional ideas – reinforced by influential commentators such as Michael Porter – are becoming less applicable as agile enterprises from all fields are taking advantage of information technology and corporate decentralisation to carve niche global markets at an early stage of their development.

For instance, Technico is an agri-biotech company that provides supply-chain solutions by using proprietary technology to deliver early generation seed-potato products. Originating in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Technico has internationalised its proprietary seed-potato enterprise and become a major player in the US$100 billion a year potato industry, with customers that include Frio Lay, McCain Foods and Simplot. Technico established production facilities overseas very early in its life and is now active in Australia, China, the USA, Mexico and India. Indeed, earlier this year Technico relocated its corporate office to Chandigarh, India.

Technico has chosen to establish its own production facilities near to market, in order to produce sufficient volumes of early generation seed-potatoes, using a rapid multiplication technology that overcomes time constraints and disease challenges that hinder standard production techniques. Technico has successfully retained its leading-edge intellectual property through the deft management of its overseas facilities. It has forged and leveraged strong alliances with key global potato products manufacturers to reap benefits from an industry that some may regard as ‘Old Economy’ rather than knowledge-intensive and lucrative.

Another interesting born global enterprise is Rising Sun Pictures, an Adelaide-based company that provides visual effects services for filmmakers, predominantly Hollywood studios. Rising Sun Pictures began its international expansion by creating images for South-East Asian advertising agencies, before securing the opportunity to work on a US film (‘Red Planet’) being shot in Coober Pedy. This led to further contracts with US filmmakers in Australia, and culminated in regular fee-for-service work to global clients in Hollywood. Through their expertise, audacity and reputation as efficient Australians, Rising Sun Pictures have succeeded in becoming a regular input into the Hollywood production process.

Cases such as Technico and Rising Sun Pictures, as well as The Wiggles and Infomedia (featured in the following pages) illustrate the reality of what the former economic advisor to US President Clinton, Robert Reich, calls ‘global webs of enterprise’. The increasing integration of economic activities across borders is creating new opportunities for firms to identify and solve problems, or broker solutions, on an international scale.

The evidence arising from the Australian Business Foundation’s project is that Australian born global companies are not confining themselves to exporting or even foreign direct investment, but are undertaking more imaginative ways of doing business internationally.