A consultant is a collector of experiences as a consequence of the dynamic and varied client circumstances in which he operates. The different customers he consults, give him a constant flow of add-ons that enrich and perfect each time his services.

Abroad when operating outside his home country, the consultant is again a collector but this time his gathering of new experiences relate to companies that from country to country differ as to how each does things influenced greatly by their country and market environments. From time to time he has the possibility to share knowledge with companies that have already gone to foreign lands and as a result might have acquired a unique mix of home and foreign features.

After such experiences abroad, back home the consultant’s services will not be the same.

Now he has acquired different learnings from the places where he went and offered his services. These new learnings do not stay isolated in the consultant’s head but are mixed uniquely to produce a revised and in many cases superior product.

Now when he consults with his home clients say by way of making a presentation, he will add some new slides that contain his new experience from his foreign customers. The more and the wider he has traveled the better and more colorful his presentation. This he couldn’t have if his operations were solely confined in his home country.

And perhaps even more notable it will be that now he will consider it necessary to change and enrich even those slides he used before for his home clients in order to add to them his foreign experience.

Now he thinks and acts under a transnational perspective. He has now a powerhouse potential.

This undoubtedly is a significant enrichment in his offered services. His product now is very much improved compared with what he had to offer his home clients before his experience abroad and I think I have a good justification to also call it innovative.

The process just described in my opinion is not restricted to consulting only. Most product and service industries have similar processes and with the right people at the company helm, they would produce similar benefits. That’s why I chose a generalized title for this post with consultancy as a subheading.

So is internationalization an enriching and quality improving process for the very same company that is internationalizing?

What’s your opinion?

Mine? It is: Yes, Definitely!