A global mindset is vital to grow your business in a changing world

While political changes over the Atlantic loom large and dominate the headlines, the same conversations are being held in boardrooms as last year – the myriad challenges to deliver growth including the economic headwinds, the impact of the first Labour government budget and the now normal of hybrid working and its impact on productivity.

Amid all the noise, our approach and advice is to rise above the rhetoric, take a birds-eye view of what is happening and look for new opportunities to grow.

Adopting a global mindset is key – it’s important to look beyond Holyrood or Westminster for the answers to what’s next when it comes to business growth.

My business, Lane Media, a marketing agency that helps advertisers plan and execute paid media activity, has successfully adopted a global mindset, which has undoubtedly helped us to continuously evolve and grow sustainably despite the economic challenges of the last decade.

As we begin our tenth financial year, we are growing globally, winning business in the North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, helping us to a record year of 30 per cent in revenue growth and a related headcount increase of 20 per cent.

While we are a small business based in Edinburgh, we are quietly working internationally with some significant multi-national businesses in sectors including cyber security & access management, growing food brands and e-commerce companies, as well as supporting several local and national charities.

Our experience is that developing new business in new markets often comes from delivering consistently outstanding service levels to our clients. Much of our business success in recent years has come from clients moving from role to role and coming back to us to ‘take us with them’ into their new positions. 

Maintaining high levels of client service has led to high client retention, the key building block to achieving year on year, sustainable growth.

Working internationally, there can of course be occasional challenges with time zones, but rarely are these insurmountable by having the foundation of a strong team culture.

This is an area we’ve really focused recently, and another key driver of growth.

We recently celebrated gaining the feted B Corp certification, which measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact, alongside our sister creative agency, Lane. It was a long journey, but worth it and we’re proud to be one of just 80 organisations in Scotland who have become a Certified B Corp.

A big part of this is around fostering a strong working culture and it’s no coincidence that we also celebrated being awarded the Employer Brand of the Year by the Marketing Society Scotland at the end of last year.

These two recognitions are inextricably linked – as they are led not by purely by our commercial growth, but by our transparent and flexible culture, the opportunities that we have been able to offer to our team in growing into leadership roles – all of which is driven by the principle of adopting a global mindset.

As we head deeper into 2025, my advice to others is try and lift your head above the noise and look for business beyond your immediate locale. Develop more of a global mindset, but at the same time keep delivering high standards for your existing clients and build strong foundations in your team and workplace culture.

Barry Fearn, Founder and Managing Director, Lane Media