Google

1. Hacking
International Growth
Through data
BIG and small

2. Why am I here today to talk about International
Growth?
Rachel Loui Resume
Current: Head of International Growth for Business & Industrial
Markets -- Google
Past: Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Business Operations for
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan – Boehringer Ingelheim (World’s largest
privately held pharma; German)
• Became Columbia Business School guest lecturer on China
Other notable: Former entrepreneur

3. Hacking growth: What would finding more customers
do for your business?
US: 4% world population China: most KFCs in the world

4. Solving everyday business problems, like finding best
customers, require both big and small data
Big data = What
(correlation)
“data sets that reveal patterns,
trends, associations”
Small data = Why
(causation)
“actionable…about people”

5. Big data: in 2018, more people around the world were
focused on the World Cup than any other topic

6. Small data: World Cup brings together…and tears
apart…entire nations

7. Not convinced big and small data can help you grow
your business?
Case example: Selling a book (solopreneur)
ü Easy product everyone can understand
ü Dying industry being disrupted
ü Big data used to learn how to uncover new customers
ü Small data to understand your customers

8. The story of how a chicken crossed the world through
big and small data
Brought to you by:
Big data:
Google Trends: Trends.google.com
Market Finder: Marketfinder.Thinkwithgoogle.com
Small data:
Daily observations
(Shanghai resident 4 years)

9. China is world’s #1 most populous and #2
GDP…sounds like a good place to find customers
Source: Google; World Bank

10. I figured so too…which is why I decided to about China
Product R&D Criteria
ü Useful and Insightful – Honest truth of what it’s really like to live in China
ü Differentiated from competitors – What you don’t get in newspapers and text books
ü Customer engagement and loyalty – Fun to read
‘Imagine if Tina Fey were Asian and describing her home country’
ü Don’t get arrested – Use a pen name
Product Testing
ü Test content in blog
ü Revise 18 best performing posts into a book
8 is a lucky Chinese number, but nobody will buy a book that just has 8 blog posts

11. 5 star review, secondary market – should be an easy
sell!

12. Hopefully your industry is better…Google searches for
business books 1 / 4 of what it was 15 years ago

13. (Is this what they call ‘disruption’?)

14. (Is this what they call ‘disruption’?)

15. How do I reach that (shrinking) customer base and
maximize business growth?

16. Market Finder scans your website to predict market
categories and rank international search demand
Children’s Books
and Poultry?!
Big data is
powerful but
requires a human
eye…

17. Is Big Data ‘dumber’ or ‘smarter’ than we think?

18. Leverage technology sift through data to find where
your customers are

19. Prioritized markets, based on selected categories,
with relevant critical facts

20. UK: Internet-savvy customers will likely learn about
the book through online reviews and other research

21. Germany: Majority speak English, but demographic is
older and disposable income is lower

22. Small data book sales research
Anyone who understands your customers
ü Actual customers
ü Bookstores & distributors
ü Actual customers
ü Book clubs
ü Actual customers
ü Agents
ü Actual customers
ü Publishers
ü Actual customers

23. What I told the Board of Directors (and added to the
book)

24. “Highly entrepreneurial”

25. “Highly diverse market”

26. What does this mean for you?
1. There are customers around the world looking for your product.
2. Use big and small data to find and understand them.
3. Big data: paid and free.
4. Small data: (usually) free – just find the people who interact with your customers every day.
Source: Visual Capitalist

27. References
Google Trends: Trends.google.com
Market Finder: Marketfinder.Thinkwithgoogle.com
Book:
Why the Chicken Crossed the World, by Funky Chicken (Rachel Loui)
www.FindingFunkyChicken.com