Danish tech company eloomi is working on its first expansion to the U.S. with plans to create up to 50 high-wage jobs — and it’s not the firm’s first time to enter a new country.
The software company will establish a sales and customer service hub in Orlando. While it’s the company’s first expansion into the U.S., eloomi CEO Claus Johansen is familiar with international growth. Eloomi launched in Copenhagen in 2015 and opened a London office in 2018.
The company wants its same culture of success in all of its markets, but that’s not always possible when growing to a new country, said Johansen. “I really want eloomi culture to be in all of my offices. One thing is how they look, but also how we behave and all that stuff. But you can't do that because we are different.”
Replicating corporate 'DNA'
Successfully setting down roots in a new nation starts with a local leader. For example, Eloomi originally hired a London local to manage the U.K. office, and the hire didn’t work, Johansen said. Instead, eloomi found success bringing in a three-year employee of the company. That also will be the case in Orlando, where eloomi will relocate a sales manager from Copenhagen to Florida. Otherwise, eloomi will hire U.S. citizens in here
Meanwhile, a company needs to recognize there are inherent cultural differences from country to country that prevent a workplace culture from simply being copied over from one office to the next, Johnanses added. “It's something you need to build inside-out. But you can bring elements in and you can bring the DNA from the headquarters into that office from the beginning.”
The “DNA” eloomi brings is the brand, as well as having workers across markets participate in the same events, like the all-hands town halls and celebratory events, Johnasen said. “When we do parties and events and all that stuff, we do the exact same thing locally. Of course, it’s a lighter scale, but it’s to make them feel they are part of something bigger.”
To be sure, a company must recognize the differences in its customers in a new market. However, those differences mostly appear to benefit eloomi so far, Johansen said. Laws and regulations in the U.S. have made it possible for eloomi to close deals in the U.S. in half the time as in Europe. Meanwhile, workplace training software options in the U.S. that eloomi is competing against are more “old-fashioned” than in Europe, Johansen added.
International expansion in a pandemic
Eloomi’s vision of setting up a U.S. office started two years ago, but the Covid-19 pandemic and heavy U.S. travel restrictions halted progress on the plans. In fact, vaccinated international travel from many countries to the U.S. did not start until Nov. 8, and Johansen was not able to travel to Orlando until Nov. 9, he said.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic also hindered the Orlando expansion plans of other foreign tech firms. For example, Johannesburg, South Africa-based cloud services firm MFT Executive Advisory Services in June announced plans to open an office in Central Florida and create 35 jobs by 2026.
Previously, MFT’s plans to open the U.S. office were slated for early 2020, but they were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Director Avin Mansookram previously said. “We weren't even allowed, in our country, to leave the boundaries of our property, much less fly across the world.”
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