“From the Orb vault” is a series of previous market research, presentations, blurbs, and other conceptual writings that we will start publishing regularly, in hopes it might help shape views on the often unregarded topic of global expansion and localisation (L10N). Through these insights, we aim to shed light on the complexities and inefficiencies that many overlook in the rush to scale internationally.
Most companies approach international expansion with an outdated, mechanistic mindset: translate, comply, market, sell. The implicit assumption is that global growth is a sequence of discrete challenges to be solved rather than a system to be optimised. Yet, expansion is not merely about overcoming barriers; it is about engineering an environment where barriers never accumulate in the first place.
At the core of this is friction, not in the colloquial sense of inconvenience, but as a fundamental systemic force governing the efficiency of cross-border adaptation. Friction, in its many forms, is the silent tax on global business: the cumulative resistance that erodes user adoption, stalls negotiations, and ultimately determines whether a brand thrives or fails in a new market. The key to seamless expansion is not mere localisation, it is the preemptive elimination of resistance before it manifests.
The hidden costs of friction in global expansion are often astronomical yet they go unaddressed because they aren’t systematically tracked. Over time, we have become experts at identifying and quantifying these inefficiencies, mapping out where money is silently burned on the altar of disorganisation. When we present these findings to C-level teams, the conversation shifts. Suddenly, the need for a structured, frictionless approach isn’t just compelling but becomes undeniable.
The Many Faces of Friction in Global Expansion
Friction is not a singular obstacle; it is a multidimensional phenomenon. In our most watered-down modeling toolkit, at least four layers of friction govern the fluidity of international market entry:
- Procedural Friction – Regulatory hurdles, licensing delays, bureaucratic opacity.
- Cognitive Friction – Cultural and linguistic misalignment, unintuitive UX, brand perception gaps.
- Behavioural Friction – Mismatched consumer habits, unfamiliar payment infrastructures, customer support inconsistencies.
- Infrastructural Friction – Latency in digital experiences, supply chain inefficiencies, logistical rigidity.
Each of these forces, in isolation, might seem like a solvable inconvenience. In aggregate, they become an insurmountable drag, repelling customers and frustrating stakeholders before a brand even has a chance to gain traction.
This is where conventional expansion strategies fail: they address friction reactively, often after costly missteps. By contrast, truly frictionless global expansion requires a paradigm shift from post-hoc adaptation to friction anticipation and systemic elimination.
The Friction Anticipation Framework: Rethinking Global Expansion as a Systemic Problem
Rather than treating friction as an unavoidable series of obstacles, we regard it as a core strategic variable, one that can be modeled, predicted, and neutralised through deliberate structural design. Our proprietary framework tackles this in three stages:
Friction Mapping: Predictive Analysis of Systemic Resistance
Most companies only identify barriers once they have already become bottlenecks. The key to minimising friction is to map resistance preemptively, constructing a detailed friction audit before entering a new market.
ORB case #1: E-commerce Expansion into Southeast Asia
A Western direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand expanding into Indonesia assumes that localising its website and launching digital ads will suffice. But a predictive friction analysis reveals:
- Trust barriers in digital transactions require integration of Cash-on-Delivery (CoD) options.
- Customer service norms favor WhatsApp over email or chatbots.
- Payment infrastructures rely on local e-wallets, incompatible with standard Western processors.
Without this audit, friction would manifest through abandoned carts, poor conversion rates, and ineffective marketing. By contrast, friction mapping ensures a high-adoption market entry strategy, minimising failure loops and wasted capital.
Friction Reduction: Structural Optimisation Before Market Entry
Once friction points are mapped, they must be preemptively neutralised. This is not done through ad hoc fixes, but through deliberate structural adaptation. This often demands rethinking business processes entirely rather than merely “adjusting” them.
ORB case #2: AI SaaS Expansion into Japan
Western software companies often struggle in Japan despite strong demand. Why?
- The contracting process is highly ceremonial; rapid-close, digital-first sales cycles introduce friction instead of efficiency.
- Decision-making is collective and hierarchical, requiring engagement strategies that differ fundamentally from Western norms.
- UX elements optimised for Western users do not align with Japanese readability preferences, affecting usability.
Rather than entering Japan and iterating through failures, a friction-aware company designs its entry strategy around these structural differences upfront, reducing costly adaptations down the line.
Frictionless Scaling: Continuous Optimisation as a Competitive Moat
Markets are not static. Even companies that enter with minimal resistance must prevent the reintroduction of friction over time as consumer expectations shift and competitive landscapes evolve.
ORB case #3: Luxury Brand Expansion in China
A European luxury brand initially succeeds in China by localising marketing and leveraging WeChat mini-programs. Yet, friction emerges over time when:
- Competitors introduce AI-driven Mandarin-language customer service, while the brand sticks to human agents, slowing response times.
- Chinese consumers shift towards personalised recommendations, but the brand’s global e-commerce infrastructure remains rigid.
Without regular friction audits, once-competitive advantages erode into liabilities. Companies that treat friction management as a continuous process (not a one-time effort) build a optimising system of expansion.
The Future of Global Strategy: Expansion as an Entropic Challenge
The industrial-age model of global expansion where success is dictated by financial leverage and brute-force market penetration is now obsolete. Today’s leaders in global commerce are not those with the best product or the largest ad budget, but those that can systematically reduce friction to near-zero levels.
This requires a new paradigm, one in which:
- Friction is modeled, not reacted to. The best companies do not wait for obstacles to appear; they design environments where obstacles cannot gain traction.
- Expansion is a thermodynamic problem, not a logistical one. Entropy (systemic resistance) must be actively dissipated before it aggregates into stagnation.
- Market entry is a function of elegance, not force. The most successful brands do not “enter” markets; they glide into them through the path of least resistance.
The Frictionless Imperative
In the coming decade, the brands that thrive internationally will not be those that struggle against resistance, but those that master the art of effortless adaptation. The question is no longer “How do we enter this market?” but rather “How do we ensure no part of our market entry introduces avoidable resistance?”. In our eyes, frictionless expansion is not a luxury. It is the defining competitive advantage of the 21st century.
