When one thinks of community, images of individuals united in a common cause spring to mind. While current perceptions are more tightly linked to profitability, margins, and market domination than cooperation, it is difficult to argue that the origins of commerce lie with the humble latter. Without companies, there would simply be individual tradespeople awkwardly skirting around the edges of contract law to negotiate the best bargain. For businesses to truly grow in size, scale, and prosperity, they must almost always place their trust in people and provide those employees with the kind of gratification and reward worthy of their contribution to the company’s growth.
Yet the notion of community in business appears to have been lost as globalization grips hold of the global economy. Put simply, if a proposition does not seem to elevate a company’s bottom line directly, shareholders are becoming increasingly unlikely to take bold decisions. International expansion, long the domain of law and accounting giants, arguably suffers from this utilitarianism greatly, as trailblazing leadership is often left in the dust of vast transition costs and potential liabilities. Ultimately, the problem trickles down the food chain to smaller businesses, which may have a viable plan for growth stunted by the professional services monopoly. @centuroglobal, and its CEO Zain Ali, believe in reinstating community into business expansion, once again empowering people to make the best decisions for their company’s prospects.
Principally, community forms a fundamental aspect of the Centuro platform through how it enables teams to coordinate their expansion plans together in a compliant way. Providing an extensive knowledge base as to the likes of taxation requirements and local regulations, Centuro enables business owners to assess international markets and plot a course for their new place of commerce. The platform can then be accessed by various individuals spanning a company’s operations, which allows employees with specific skills and insight to work on relevant preparation. Centuro’s centralized solution is geared towards avoiding bureaucratic delays that could threaten contracts and put a roadblock between a business and its growth.
Centuro Global’s CEO has clear evidence of the effectiveness of his platform in the positive precedents it has already set with users. “A client’s HR team came to us for immigration assistance when they needed to move workers into Ghana to complete a project,” Ali outlines. “Upon realization that an entity set up by a large international firm did not allow for the client’s ex-pat workers, we were able to work with our Ghanaian service provider members and the government to enable them to be brought in.”
One of the most significant benefits of Centuro’s widespread adoption is the disruption that it could cause to last-generation solutions. Corporate professional services have been the sole point of call for international expansion for a generation, but Zain Ali and the Centuro team believe the drawbacks of their expensive, drawn-out processes combined with the advantages of 21st Century technology make the case for a new solution as compelling as ever. Reports drawn up by the likes of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms are arguably inaccessible to regular business people and consume too much time to be considered an efficient, modern solution. Using dynamic technology as a workaround can be a game-changer for a multitude of previously disenfranchised entrepreneurs.
Practicability of a proposed expansion is an immediate upside to using Centuro and thus the prospects of a growing business, but the issue of cost is one close to Zain Ali’s central ethos when developing the platform. Leveling the playing field is a recurring objective in Centuro’s proponents’ minds. By lowering the financial barriers to entry that businesses without the capital for comprehensive professional advice face, it is hoped that access to foreign markets will open up to a much wider pool of companies. In doing so, there lies the potential that global competition could become more democratic and mobile, resulting in better products and greater entrepreneurial prospects.
Community is therefore generated by inclusivity. A world is created where innovators and leaders can arise from almost anywhere based on truly universal business ideas. These pioneers are not only informed but guided by the Centuro platform. Users are provided with a dedicated account manager to track an expansion’s progress and address any queries. The ultimate aim is to populate Centuro with professionals with expertise in many areas. Specialists, therefore, have the potential to be freed from conventional corporate careers and are empowered to assist growing companies on a one-to-one level.
By establishing the foundations, Centuro Global has aspirations for developing a new organic ecosystem consisting of key players who can improve the efficiency of professional services.
