LOCAL firms looking to internationalise successfully should differentiate themselves, said Mr Sunny Verghese, chairman of trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore on Thursday.

They should also develop plans for when the economy recovers and make use of government schemes to help them do so, he said.

Mr Verghese is also chief executive of agricultural commodities supplier Olam International, a major global player.

'Before you grow your business, you have to differentiate. If you try to scale your business before you differentiate, you'd always struggle with profitability,' he added.

Speaking at the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (SICCI) 'Champions-of-Industry dialogue session' held at Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel on Wednesday, Mr Verghese gave an example of how a business can stand out from the pack.

'In 1987, Reebok was twice the size of Nike in terms of sales, it was three times the market capitalisation of Nike. We fast forward to 2007. Nike had a market share of about seven times of Reebok,'' he said. 'It was a strategy of differentiating themselves. They (Nike) first focused on running shoes and they saw adjacent possibilities,' he explained.

Among some of the markets which he encouraged local firms to expand into were IE Singapore's priority markets.

'They (IE) are focusing on markets that are still growing, as priority markets. Priority markets are China, India, Russia, Middle East and Latin America, and Africa,' he said, adding that IE had already sent a project team into Africa.

'IE will develop market expertise and the ability to provide connections to Singapore companies who want to capitalise on those markets.'