Expanding to Europe
In this blog post, I will try to share some of my impressions of the recent expansion of our operations to the Old Continent.
As you could already get to know from the News section, we have recently opened a new office in London, United Kingdom. The office has already started its operation and first projects are to be delivered soon, so I finally found some time to share my impressions from its setup.
When the idea to expand our operations to Europe first came to mind, everyone was quite skeptical about it. However, after some market research, we found out that there is a place for a company with our know-how in the European market and it was decided to make the idea come alive. I, as the head of web development in our company, was assigned the goal of overseeing the setup of the European branch and to participate in hiring of the first employees.
The first thing to come to mind was where we should be based. London was an easy choice since it is one of the biggest European business centres and is chosen as a startup point by many other expanding companies. Furthermore, the East London area known as the "Silicon Roundabout" has become for Europe what Silicon Valley is for the United States. This area provides affordable office spaces and all the infrastructure that is needed for a software company to operate. The local government has also introduced some plans for its further support and expansion, so it is definitely a prospective place to start.
The next thing to do when a new office is rented, and the most important in my view, is to hire new employees. As this was within my responsibilities and I coordinated the whole hiring process, I can now say that Europe has exceeded my expectations. There is a large number of skilled professionals and enthusiastic graduates available, so we could afford to be somewhat picky and pay special attention to choose the very best. The chosen ones have already gone through the hiring process and are currently finishing our first European web development projects.
Now back in the US, I must say that setting up our new office was a great experience. I learned a lot and expanded my insights into many things. Finally, I would like to wish our new branch a successful future and our new employees to enjoy working for us.
| 2011-03-21 17:57:47
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