Jess Gaedeke (00:00)
Welcome to Dig Inspiration, a quick recap where we dig deeper into the story behind the story. In each Bite-Sized episode, I'll revisit key moments from our incredible guests, highlighting the most inspiring parts of the stories they share.

And today we're dropping a quick reflection on some of the most memorable parts of my talk with Jo Lepore, EVP of global market expansion and foresight here at Dig Insights. Yes, I did break my rule of Dig interviewing Dig just because I thought this one was too good to pass up.

So one of the key parts of Jo's story was about how companies go about global expansion and some of the things that might be overlooked. She talked about how there can be a real tendency to just lift and shift and that can sound quite attractive, but it's so critical to truly understand the needs of the

Some differences might seem very small, but yet they are so pronounced that they will make or break the success of the expansion effort.

And she talked about even going beyond customer needs. What are the partnership models? What are the distribution channels, the competitive landscape, how you provide service to your customers in a culturally authentic way. There were just so many great pieces of advice for anyone considering expanding to new markets.

And Jo also talked about the role of foresight and I'm drawing upon this conversation with her, but also other chats that we've had in bringing her perspective into the organization. And what strikes me is that foresight, it's a mindset, right? It's not just about risk mitigation and contingency planning, but also about recognizing and creating opportunities. You know, in her words, it's about sitting with uncertainty.

checking our assumptions about the world and particularly as the world changes, revising our assumptions. It's about seeing multiple possibilities, recognizing that the future is not linear, but unfolds with a lot of potential paths. And the more you embrace that, the less shocked you are when the linear forecast isn't right. So I thought she just gave us so much great perspective on the role of foresight and how to think about it as a mindset.

And finally, I was reflecting on the impact of bringing someone like Jo on board to an organization, someone who has such diverse, rich perspective. She has a really fearless yet pragmatic approach to problem solving. It's just really refreshing. It's inspiring. And I think it's necessary to approach these market opportunities. So I'm super motivated about the combination of her global expansion experience with her foresight perspective and leadership and what that will mean for dig and ultimately for our clients.

Well, that's your Dig inspiration recap for the week. We would love to hear your takeaways and thoughts on the conversation. So please visit the link in the description and leave us a comment.