World-Class Without Global Expansion: Lessons from Lima

Letting the world come to you: a model of global influence - leveraging deep local immersion and expansive international networks, without leaving home.

In 2025, there’s a number of leaders who keep circling back to the same concern:

How to think and act beyond the status quo or local surroundings without taking on the cost, travel, or operational strain of global expansion.

For many, international growth feels out of reach. Time is thin. Resources are stretched. The appetite for being away for long stretches is low. Others stay focused on a more local game - managing staff, meeting customer demand, and competing with those closest to them. Yet they know the limits of that mindset. When you compare yourself only to local competitors, you shrink your ambition to match the conditions around you.

This raises a question for leaders:
Do you need to go out into the world to stop conforming to the local?

In this edition of Crossing Borders, we look to a restaurant in Lima - Maido, rated as the world’s best restaurant in 2025 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants - to find an answer.

Peru is known for amazing food, yet has not always been considered a traditional global gastronomic hub. Today, Maido sits at the top of the world rankings. It is proof that you can be the best in the world - and the world will come to you - from one location.

Here, we look to Maido to understand how it mastered the strategy of local immersion and global leverage.

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Local Immersion Done Well

Maido is anchored in Lima’s soil and sea. Its flavours come from Peruvian ingredients - Amazonian chorizo, the freshest ceviche, family traditions, and street food influences. Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s team operates with a local ethos. They are cultural ambassadors, not global franchise operators.

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Global Leverage Without Leaving Home

Maido’s path to global standing is based on its Nikkei cuisine - a blend of Japanese technique with the diversity of Peru’s soil and sea. The kitchen is led by Chef Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura who was born in Lima, Peru, to a family with roots in Osaka, Japan. They regularly host visiting chefs and participates in culinary collaborations, allowing its team to learn from - and contribute to - top restaurateurs around the world. Maido’s tasting menu features over ten crafted courses, spotlighting rare Andean ingredients and Amazonian specialties, and often draws international guests, food critics, and award juries to Lima.​

Maido’s global reputation is reinforced by consistent recognition in prestigious rankings, such as The World’s 50 Best Restaurants - where Lima’s dining scene now enjoys multiple entries - along with prominent culinary awards for innovation and sustainability. Its chef and team are part of cross-border networks, contributing to international dialogue about creative gastronomy while championing Peru’s culinary identity on a world stage.

Maido stays firmly in Lima, yet its thinking, learning, and relationships cross continents. It’s a prime example of how disciplined global engagement can create extraordinary influence from a single location.

The Maido Experience. Source: https://maido.pe/

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Pathways to Global Success

A global footprint is one path.
A global mindset is another.

Maido proves the latter can be enough.

There’s a paradox at play:
Maido has no global footprint, yet it commands global influence.

People fly to Lima because Maido is world-class. Not because it is everywhere.

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Creating World the World Seeks Out

What would change if your goal was to create work the world seeks out, rather than chase global expansion - or shrink to the expectations of where you are based?

It is not about scale for scale’s sake.
It is about ambition and agency.

Ambition: choosing to measure yourself against world-class benchmarks rather than the business down the road.

Agency: designing on your terms, with the resources you have, and choosing leverage over load.

Influence: increasing your reach, reputation, and relevance - without replicating yourself in ten countries.

The world is shifting in ways that lower the cost and complexity of playing bigger. Gatekeepers are fewer. Tools are cheaper. Knowledge is more accessible. Networks are global by default. The gap between the local and the world-class is narrowing.

We can see that leaders who thrive in this environment are unapologetic about aiming higher. Many aren’t driven by the idea of being “the best” in a competitive sense. Their drive often comes from wanting to solve a real problem, create something distinctive, or deliver excellence with what they have.

They often shun convention, ignore the status quo, and refuse to be confined by the conditions around them. They learn widely. They build intentional networks. They surround themselves with people who widen their view of what’s possible.

This is how global influence is earned from anywhere.

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A Strategic Lesson Heading Into 2026

Maido teaches us:

• Staying rooted does not mean staying small.

• Staying put does not mean staying local.

• Immerse yourself where you are.

• Borrow the best from the world.

• Leverage global networks, standards, and ideas.

• Aim to create something distinctive, not ubiquitous.

• Let the world come to you.

• The best from anywhere can influence everywhere.

Looking to 2026, how can leaders cultivate a global mindset that leverages local strengths, without the need for costly, complex global expansion?

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Additional Resources

For an updated review on the global forces shaping markets, strategy, and leadership decisions, I recommend Geopolitical Dispatch. It offers clear, concise intelligence on the political, economic, and security shifts that influence how we operate across borders.

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If you’re interested in how artificial intelligence influences global business, innovation and leadership - not just in the West - AI Across Borders is a valuable follow. Led by Dr Ayesha Khanna, this podcast features voices from Asia, Latin America, Europe and emerging markets, showing how tech journeys unfold outside familiar hubs.

https://www.ayeshakhanna.com/podcast

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