Satya Narayanan of Career Launcher in New Delhi drew on local experience for his company's overseas expansion. One of India's most successful providers of preparatory and supplementary education, the New Delhi-based company Career Launcher India Ltd has an overseas presence in the Middle East and the United States. The company's chairman, Satya Narayanan, spoke to InnovAsia analyst Kavitha Hariharan about choosing the right people and approach for a new office in a culturally close foreign market.

By the time Career Launcher ventured abroad in 2002, the seven-year-old Indian company already had a strong presence in its domestic market, providing supplementary education to prepare thousands of Indian students for their high-school or college examinations.

The company chose the Middle East for its first overseas foray, considering the region as an extension of the domestic market because of its large Indian expatriate population. Mr Narayanan said he and his team realised that these expatriates value their children's education just as highly as parents of the company's students in India.

"Indian parents in the Middle East had a strong sense that their children were missing out on the education scene in India," he recalls.

Through an acquisition, Career Launcher gained a foothold in this new market. The company then set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Dubai to develop its first overseas market.

"We chose to go by ourselves," says Mr Narayanan, "because we wanted full say over the strategy and execution, and also because there was no potential partner who both had domain knowledge and could bring some core competence to our business."

To lead the Dubai operations, the company chose its head of human resources, R. Sreenivasan. The decision followed Career Launcher's company policy to send a core person to lead any new initiative. The chosen key executive for the new foreign office was a core decision-maker and thoroughly knew the company's India business, culture and vision.

In addition, Mr Narayanan describes Mr Sreenivasan's selection as the best cost-control measure the company could have put in place: "He has a deserved reputation for frugality," he notes.

The company unearthed almost all local knowledge it needed during a due-diligence phase. Career Launcher also set aside ample time and effort to meet regulatory requirements such as a mandatory local sponsor they found through Mr Sreenivasan's personal network.