Innovis Telecom: Entrepreneurial Internationalization

Innovis was a telecom services start-up founded in 2010 in India. Due to certain government regulations banning the import of telecom equipment from China, Innovis managers saw that the survival of the company was at risk and that it would have a greater competitive advantage if it were to provide its services in countries outside India. Within the first five years of its existence, and with limited resources, the company had already expanded to eight countries in Asia and Africa. Each new market meant that Innovis' already limited resources became more stretched and some operations in other countries even had to be wound down. The company offered two types of service - managed services (centered on network infrastructure planning and maintenance) and consulting services. While consulting services often provided greater margins, these projects were short-term in nature and did not provide business continuity planning. So beyond just picking new geographical areas, the managers strategically wanted to expand only when managed service projects came up. This made it difficult when, in 2015, three new managed service opportunities presented themselves at the same time in three new countries - Ghana, Tanzania and the Philippines. The managers in the leadership team outlined the details of each opportunity and had one week to present the Board with their decision on where to expand next since limited resources meant that only one project could be taken on.