Accelerating Global Growth

Global geopolitical and trade dynamics are, to put it mildly, in a state of flux. A simple scan of any given day's headlines paints an unstable and discordant picture. Longstanding diplomatic and economic alliances are at risk. Tariffs and counter-tariffs are a new currency of power. A relatively stable 35-year-long period trade liberalization has been upended by the events since the start of the second Trump administration.

In this environment, businesses of all industries, sizes and stages are adjusting and re-adjusting whether and how to respond. And that’s putting a lot of pressure on leaders, according to Michael Sartor. As an associate professor and Distinguished Research and Teaching Fellow of International Business at Smith School of Business, Sartor spends a lot of his time talking with executives about what’s keeping them up at night.

Lately, the usual conversational topics—technology, productivity, innovation, talent—are being joined, and often overshadowed, by a major challenge: the impact of tariffs and trade. “Many of us are now wondering what will happen next summer when the CUSMA (Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement) review is scheduled to take place,” Sartor told attendees of a recent Smith webinar, The Rule of One: How to Accelerate Your Firm’s Global Growth Now. “No one knows for sure, just yet. There are no guarantees.”

Canada is in a moment that easily meets VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) criteria, Sartor explained. “The business landscape that Canadian companies have known and relied upon for decades is changing rapidly, and it’s creating significant uncertainty. There’s a new era of global trade and investment emerging,” he said. “Canadian leaders and business owners are quickly recognizing the need to manage this increased uncertainty by taking steps to diversify their firms and strategies, enhance their international footprint and grow their global base of customers.”

Doing all that is, of course, no small task. But according to Sartor, it’s more attainable than most people assume. In the hour that followed, he delivered a series of insights meant to help organizations get out of this period of global upheaval stronger than ever. Here are three highlights.

Takeaway #1: Canadian companies have cause to be bold

Research suggests that when situations feel unstable, executives generally hit pause on expansion plans. But Sartor said the current moment demands a more proactive stance, as counterintuitive as it may seem. “It’s time to get moving and start executing,” he said.

Why? Sartor said that Canadian businesses currently experiencing some “significant tailwinds” that can drive meaningful forward momentum. For one, Canada has a strong brand globally, topping (alongside Switzerland) the RepCore Nations 2025 report, which examines how G7 citizens perceive the world’s largest 60 economies. Canada also ranks 11th on the International Institute for Management Development’s 2025 World Competitiveness Ranking, which measures 69 companies on such variables as economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. Furthermore, Canada is a signatory to 15 free trade agreements, enabling tariff-free access to 1.5 billion customers in 51 countries.

It all adds up to a situation that justifies more confidence than many companies feel, Sartor said: “Canadian firms of all shapes and sizes need to move aggressively to diversify their strategies and start growing into new markets.”

Takeaway #2: When growing globally, focus wins

In normal times, executives can struggle to assess where to start their international expansion. There are many variables to consider: What markets hold the most promise? Which products will hit the mark, and where? When is the best time to expand? Layer on VUCA conditions and the calculus can get pretty complex.

That’s why Sartor encourages an approach that reins in the scope. He calls it the Rule of One: Focusing on internationalization of one product or service, for a period of one year, in one foreign market.

Sartor said this quality-not-quantity approach can help make growing into foreign markets smoother and more strategic. Furthermore, he continued, leaders can determine the specific focus of their own Rule of One by answering five key questions: 

1. Why grow globally?
2. What does it mean to be a global company?
3. Where should the company grow?
4. When should the foreign market entry take place?
5. How should the entry be structured?

“By formulating answers to these questions, you can position your firm to capitalize on the opportunities and confront the challenges that you may encounter with going global,” Sartor said.

Takeaway #3: Siloed expansion leaves money on the table

When expanding internationally, many organizations choose to treat foreign operations as separate or standalone entities.

That’s a mistake, in Sartor’s view. “What happens is you miss out on a lot of inter-firm activity between the headquarters and the foreign subsidiary’s operations, particularly related to flows of knowledge, information or innovativeness,” he said.

The best organizations treat global arms as part of the core business, he continued, with integrated operations that allow for easy collaboration—both from head office to the branch, and vice-versa—because that’s what drives the kind of innovation that accelerates global growth. “When you establish a presence in a foreign market, there’s a lot of learning that goes on,” Sartor said. “You want that to be flowing back to not only headquarters, but also throughout the firm’s global network of other possible foreign subsidiaries.

Want more? Watch a full recording of the webinar.