The Final Call

Option 1: The Safe Call. Option 2: The Strategic Call.

Want to cross borders and break down barriers in business? Travel to unfamiliar, valuable parts of the world with intent, not habit. This short scenario-based series shows how to go beyond the status quo, focusing on outcomes, not optics. Fewer LinkedIn likes. More unlocked commercial wins.

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You’ve left The Departure Lounge.

You’re set to travel, perhaps to:

• Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where solar is scaling in a coal-reliant economy.

• Chișinău, Moldova, where the country is quietly outperforming expectations through grassroots innovation.

• Manila, Philippines, where 94 million people use GCash in one of the world’s fastest fintech shifts.

• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where manufacturing is giving way to momentum in AI and software.

• Tallinn, Estonia, where digital-first governance is the norm.

• Sriharikota, India, where frugal innovation is shaping the future of space.

You walk toward the gate, boarding pass in hand. Just before take-off, there’s one phone call to make. Someone to meet you when you land. It seems logistical, yet it can be highly strategic. Who you choose to meet says everything about how you engage with the world and how you build within it.

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Option 1: The Safe Call

You could make the safe call. The standard one.

You ring your country’s government representative posted in that city; someone from the embassy, trade mission, or diplomatic corps. They’ll arrange formal meetings with local institutions, validated companies, and vetted partners. You’ll be welcomed, guided, and positioned as an honoured guest.

Photos will be taken. Your visit will play well online. You’ll thank your hosts, feel informed, and tick the box for international engagement. It’s not wrong. It’s professional. Predictable. And likely to show you what’s already been filtered, packaged, and polished for external consumption.

You’ll have plenty to be ‘humble’ and ‘delighted’ about on LinkedIn, with smart settings and polite captions to match.

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Option 2: The Strategic Call

Or you could take another path.

You reach for a different name in your network (or via a contact with connections on the ground) - someone closer to the edge. Someone who’s embedded in the local ecosystem, who knows the entrepreneurs, researchers, artists, and operators building what’s next; not what’s already known. You don’t ask for a grand tour. You ask for a small set of curated conversations. The ones behind the scenes. With people who may not be on stage, but are shaping what their sector, city, or society becomes next.

This second path produces different outcomes. You leave with insight and not just information. You walk away with the beginnings of relationships that matter, commercial intelligence that shifts strategy, and stories that haven’t yet made the headlines. You see what’s possible, not because it was pitched to you, but because you were invited into the room early enough to listen, contribute, and maybe even collaborate.

You might not post about it. There may be few appropriate photo opps. You will leave with seeds planted. Questions you hadn’t thought to ask. A new direction for your product, your strategy, or your partnerships.

You’re visiting, and you’re investing. Travelling to a new place, and you’re landing with intent.

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Who Are You Going To Call?

Both calls will get someone to meet you on the ground. Yet only one takes you to the edge of what’s emerging. Only one lets you experience the forces shaping the future, before they’re widely seen or understood.

Your call is not focussed on arranging your itinerary. It sets the tone for the trip, and reflects how you show up in the world: as a (business) tourist or a builder.

Two routes. Both are valid. Yet they come with different outcomes.

Here’s the contrast between the default and the deliberate in how leaders move through the world:

This contrast is the difference between optics and insight. Between presence and positioning. Between being seen and seeing what's ahead.

This decision is the quiet difference between maintaining the status quo and shifting your strategy. Between being global in optics and being global in action. Between travelling, and truly leveraging.

Where you go matters.
Who you meet matters more.

Who do you call?

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Next in Crossing Borders:

The Passenger in 1A.

Who you sit beside, by chance or by choice, can shape what you see, hear, and pursue.
Sometimes, the journey shifts, not because of where you go, yet because of who you’re suddenly speaking to.

Future themes in the series include:

• The Offer: What you take to market, and why you should always take something, even if it’s just an MVP. How it lands depends on your assumptions, your research, and your respect for the context you’re entering.

• The Faux Pas: When good intentions go wrong abroad, and how missteps can become your most valuable market intelligence.

• The Briefing: What you know before you land and how AI, networks, and curiosity can radically improve outcomes.

• The Gatekeeper: Who grants you access, and why proximity to power isn’t always where insight lives.

• The Letter: The message you send, formally or informally, once you’re back home. Your follow-up, or lack of it, shapes how you’re remembered and whether the door stays open for what comes next.

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