Five years after the global financial crisis struck, residual effects continue to impact public financial management (PFM) in countries throughout the world.
The appetite for cross-border deals has rocketed by 18% during the past 12 months. This is the key finding from our latest research that looks at attitudes to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among business leaders worldwide.
To protect national interests, governments are using compliance to restrict companies that could potentially disrupt established industries which can creating a knock on effect for tech companies. Rapidly expanding companies also face a wider range of individual regulations as they expand into new territories, be it employment law, taxation, product safety or licensing.
Depending on their level of business maturity, the challenge for tech companies is slightly different – but the principles remain same: grow or die. To be the next billion-dollar technology brand, CEOs need to figure out how to scale and normalise faster than their rivals – without compromising the DNA of their rivals Protecting the core The good news is that cloud and on-demand enterprise servies are making expansion cheaper and less complex that ever before. Scaling tech companies can use systematising tools like Jira to track issues and manage dispersed software builds. Meanwhile, collaboration tools like Yammer, Skype and Base camp allow for close teamwork between decentralised teams.
Today, it can be more or less instantaneous – creating a new set of opportunities and threats. Digital platforms allow companies to build and scale using teams based anywhere in the world. As a result tech companies are going global from day one. A new wave of support services is also helping tech firms expand across borders. For example in order to manage the complexity of operating across borders, tech companies are increasingly outsourcing back office functions such as tax, compliance, legal, and HR. Tech companies can simply 'switch-on' a back-office team as they enter new jurisdictions.
The way in which companies markets and sells its services can also have tax implications. Therefore, one thing is clear – tax matters, and ambitious tech companies need to develop a tax strategy that can keep pace with their growth aspirations. Shifts in attitudes and increased scrutiny The climate for what is considered acceptable in tax planning has shifted considerably over recent years. Technology firms – especially large multinationals – have suffered their fair share of criticism. Negative PR can hurt technology giants, but it has an even greater impact on firms still expanding and building their reputations. And tech companies are not just risking their reputations when it comes to tax. The OECD's base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project is creating new rules to outlaw and penalise artificial tax avoidance strategies. The project aims to address inconsistencies between different jurisdictions in their approach towards transfer pricing. The first action in its plan is to "address the tax challenges of the digital economy" – including where and how to tax new digitally enabled business models.
Through our International Business Report we’ve been keeping track of global figures on the appetites for both domestic and cross-border transactions since 2008.
Others may encounter problems with cash flow during day to day operations. At the same time the funding landscape has changed drastically since the financial crisis of 2008 – and continues to evolve. While expansion and later-stage funding in the US has increased in recent years, the National Venture Capital Association's figures show the highest growth is in early-stage funding. The emphasis on start-up funding often comes at the expense of robust financing options for larger, rapidly scaling companies, where financing options are often far more limited.
