Global Trade & Market Entry
Helping international businesses understand India before they commit to a position in it.
My work increasingly focuses on how international businesses navigate India's industrial, regulatory and commercial environment. Not as one national market, but as a set of sectors that each behave differently.
Most entry assessments fail the same way. They establish that the market is large and growing, confirm the regulatory requirements can be met, and stop. What they never answer is the question that actually decides the outcome: how this particular sector is structured, who already controls access to it, and what it costs to reach the customer once you are inside.
The sequence
Each stage is a question that has to be answered before the next one means anything. Most entry strategies fail because they were built from stage eight backwards.
- 01
Market
What is the real addressable demand for this specific proposition, as opposed to the size of the sector it sits inside?
- 02
Regulation
What has to be satisfied to operate at all, and how long does each approval, standard and certification realistically take?
- 03
Industry
How is the sector actually built? Who supplies it, what gets made domestically, and what has to be imported?
- 04
Competition
Who already holds the position you want, why do they hold it, and what would it cost to move them?
- 05
Partners
Which relationships are structurally necessary rather than just convenient, and what does each one cost in margin and control?
- 06
Distribution
How does the product physically and commercially reach the buyer, and where does that chain break under volume?
- 07
Policy
Which policy and trade measures currently help or hurt this position, and how durable are they?
- 08
Go to market
Given all of that, what is the entry position, and in what order should it be built?
This work is oriented toward businesses in the UK, Japan, Europe and other international markets weighing up an India position. The interest is in sector level detail, which is exactly the part generic country research never reaches.