The world is a cold place these days for businesses seeking profitable international growth. That was so even before global economic slowdown, war and epidemic made an already difficult objective even harder to achieve. Think of the companies that have built thriving domestic businesses, only to stumble when attempting to expand overseas. Swissair's international buying spree ended in bankruptcy. Home Depot experimented for three years in Latin America before exiting in late 2001. Merrill Lynch spent four years trying to grow a retail brokerage business in Japan after buying Yamaichi Securities, but was forced to retreat when Japanese customers showed little inclination towards US-style mutual fund investing. These are not isolated examples. Companies have invested billions to expand abroad in recent years, yet going global has not delivered the profitable growth that many hoped for. Indeed, as firms expanded globally in the 1990s, most failed to prosper. Why? And what did the winners do to succeed?

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