Partnership in Practice – Scaling Knowledge Economy Businesses Globally

International expansion is naturally an appealing potential growth opportunity for UK and European B2B knowledge economy businesses, as their high-quality expert propositions can often become renowned on a global stage. It is however, rarely straightforward. Done well, it transforms the trajectory of a business: opening larger addressable markets, deepening relationships with multinational clients and building a more resilient, globally relevant proposition. Done poorly, it stretches teams, dilutes culture and can burn capital chasing the wrong markets.

This is the first edition of our Partnership in Practice series, where we share how our team supports the businesses we partner with in turning strategy into execution. We begin with international expansion, a core pillar of our Growth Toolkit, and a recurring theme across the businesses we partner with.

The common hurdles

International expansion typically tests a business in four places:

•            Translating a successful domestic proposition into new markets

•            Building leadership capacity and decision‑making close to customers

•            Hiring and integrating senior talent internationally

•            Establishing local delivery while protecting culture and quality

These are not problems that can be solved from a boardroom alone. They require feet on the ground, patient capital and a clear strategic plan.

Tailoring strategic marketing and sales to new markets

CubeLogic: making the US the centre of gravity

CubeLogic is a specialist SaaS business operating in the global enterprise credit risk, compliance and analytics market, serving complex, highly regulated organisations. The US represented the largest and most strategically important growth opportunity, but unlocking it required a shift from UK/European led expansion to a genuinely US‑centric commercial model.

Working alongside the management team, we supported the hire of a US East Coast based CRO, and a new US located Head of Marketing, to reposition the US as the centre of gravity for sales and customer relationships. This approach was bolstered with the building of a partner route to market with a major data partner and senior level engagement with industry associations on the ground. By adding further US‑based specialist consulting delivery capability this supported a significant increase in US customers and an expansion from energy and commodities into financial services. US revenues grew to more than 35% of group revenue, and CubeLogic evolved into a more globally balanced enterprise software platform during the period of our investment.

The importance of leadership. local presence and network

Jones Knowles Ritchie: building a transatlantic platform

For JKR, the US represented the long-term engine of growth for its creative and strategic expertise. The challenge was how to scale meaningfully, rather than operate as a satellite office.

We supported a deliberate, leadership-led expansion as part of the longer-term succession planning across the group. New senior hires and  CEO succession enabled the senior management team to transition from being a largely London based team at the start of our investment partnership to a New York based team today. This approach was paired with significant investment in organic headcount growth to make the US now the largest operation across the group, whilst maintaining close ties to the UK team.

JKR has scaled its US operations to more than 100 people, creating a deeply integrated transatlantic proposition and is well-positioned to take advantage of the significant US growth opportunity across a wider range of sectors going forward.

Flint Global: expanding internationally while preserving calibre and culture

Flint Global’s international opportunity was rooted in its multinational client base and an increasingly global network. The priority was disciplined expansion – growing internationally across EMEA and APAC without compromising quality or culture.

We worked closely with the leadership team to define a clear and repeatable model for expansion. This began with advising global clients on local market issues, before building credibility to support local clients on cross-border matters, and ultimately developing fully local client relationships. A key focus was prioritising which geographies to enter and when, typically anchored in identifiable client demand

The talent strategy consistently focused on senior hires in-region to bring local networks and accelerate client acquisition and build new local teams around. Delivery was initially supported from London to maintain quality and manage execution risk, with investment made in local teams as each market scaled. We also supported the strengthening of the people function to ensure consistent learning and development and progression across regions as the firm grew.

By exit, Flint operated seven offices across Europe and Asia-Pacific with 56 senior advisers globally, cementing its position as a leading international advisory firm.

Bridewell: disciplined expansion in the world’s largest cyber market

Bridewell’s ambition was to scale into the US in a way that aligned with its strengths in critical infrastructure cyber security.

We worked alongside the management team to refine a clear US strategy, focused on OT/IT security and regional US airports, supported by investment in delivery and customer acquisition, and underpinned by key client relationships and a sharpened ICP. Through targeted senior hires on the ground in the US but also additional senior leadership hires in the UK with prior US experience, Bridewell has developed a focused and specialist market position in US airport infrastructure from which it is now building significant momentum. This was all achieved while maintaining focus, delivery quality and strategic clarity across its fast-growth UK operations.

The thread that ties them together

Each story covers, different end markets, geographies, priorities and sequencing but the underlying pattern is the same: a clear strategic plan, leadership commitment to drive the international expansion and ensure the existing culture travels well, and an investment partnership built on trust, chemistry and a shared belief in what the business could become.

That’s what we mean by partnership in practice – tangible examples of how our specialist Knowledge Economy approach to strategic growth support works in practice and has added significant value to the founders and management teams we partner with.