How to Build High-Impact Leadership Teams for International Scale

International expansion brings both opportunity and complexity. From cultural integration to talent strategy, building the right leadership team abroad can make or break a company’s global trajectory.

At a recent panel hosted by DNB NXT during Oslo Innovation Week, Erevena Partner Martin Falch moderated a discussion featuring Ellen Marie Nyhus, CEO of Verdane Elevate; Mona Evelyn Vaupel Knudsen, Partner & Head of People and Culture at GRO Capital; and Miia Laukkarinen, Partner at Erevena. Together, they unpacked what truly works when building leadership teams that can scale across borders.

Whether you’re preparing for your first international leadership hire or reassessing if your current team is truly set up for global scale, the insights below capture the most valuable lessons shared by the panel.

If you’re scaling internationally and are looking to build out your management team, we’d love to talk. Reach out to us at [email protected].

‘Most Management Teams are a patchwork of brilliant people who far too often find themselves in the wrong company, at the wrong time and for all the wrong reasons. Maintaining this perspective will help many CEOs assess their team continuously in a dynamic way to optimise the team performance.’ – Martin Falch

Two Distinct Talent Philosophies: Silicon Valley vs. Europe

There’s no single “right way” to staff international expansion, but there are two dominant philosophies, and they couldn’t be more different.

• US & Silicon Valley approach:
  Companies often deploy “homegrown stars” to new markets – leaders defined by curiosity, ambition, and alignment to HQ culture. The benefit? Cultural consistency and speed. The risk? A lack of diversity and limited market-specific expertise.

• Nordic & European approach:
  The priority tends to be seasoned operators who have “seen this movie before.” These leaders bring experience from similar scale-up journeys and can accelerate growth, especially in investor-backed environments.

The consensus from the panel? Both models can work, but only if you’re brutally honest about what your company actually needs right now, and only if you’re willing to course-correct fast when it’s not working. Prolonged leadership misalignment can set a business back 18-24 months.

Craft a Culture That Travels

Ellen Nyhus emphasised that a successful global scale-up requires clarity on the why, what, and how of expansion, and a culture that can scale with it.

A “culture that travels” means:

• Clear, non-negotiable values and behaviours that stay true across markets
• Empowering local teams to adapt to cultural realities
• An operating model that fits the stage of growth, whether centralised or decentralised

Critically, accountability must remain crystal clear, especially when it comes to P&L ownership. Global ambiguity is the fastest way to create misalignment.

Prioritising Experience for International Scale

Mona Knudsen advocated for a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to leadership hiring when expanding internationally. While playbooks and frameworks help, every expansion is unique and requires tailored thinking.

“Hire earners, not learners.” – Mona Knudsen

In practice, that means favouring leaders with proven experience in similar environments and market maturities, not theoretical potential. Mona also highlighted the importance of a strong, active Chair who can help assess leadership effectiveness and empower decisive action when performance issues arise.

Spotting and Addressing Underperformance Early

Underperformance at leadership level is costly, and often visible sooner than companies admit. Warning signs include:

• Founders taking back responsibilities that should sit with senior hires
• Decision bottlenecks forming around individuals
• Lack of organisational clarity or momentum

The panel encouraged founders and boards to benchmark “what good looks like” for each growth stage, for example, the shift from €0-20M to €20-100M revenue requires very different leadership capabilities. Mapping roles on two axes, business outcomes and cultural impact, can provide a quick, objective view of who is accelerating vs. holding back growth.

AI Will Reshape Leadership Teams

The panel agreed that AI will fundamentally change team design. As companies lean toward smaller, more senior and AI-enabled teams, Miia raised the importance of not overlooking long-term talent development.

“We’re hiring more senior people at higher salaries and fewer juniors…and it’s killing the talent pipeline.” –  Miia Laukkarinen

Expectations include:

• Smaller, more talent-dense teams that deliver greater output
• More senior hires commanding higher compensation
• A declining need for junior employees as automation increases

Yet paradoxically, EQ will matter more than ever. As AI takes over analytical tasks, leaders who can influence, build trust, and inspire will become the true competitive edge.

Scaling With Cultural Sensitivity

Winning in a new geography requires humility and deep cultural intelligence. For example:

• Asia & Japan: trust, local networks, and “insider credibility” are prerequisites; foreign leaders may struggle to gain acceptance
• Middle East: capital brings opportunity, but requires thoughtful evaluation of values, expectations, and ethical considerations

While Europe and the US continue to dominate expansion strategies, the global market is not monolithic, each region comes with its own playbook.

Final Thought

Building a global leadership team is not an exercise in replication, it’s a strategic act of translation.

“The pace of change is accelerating, and your ability to adapt your leadership team will determine your success on the global stage.” – Martin Falch

The companies that scale successfully are those that combine:

• A clear expansion strategy
• The right leadership talent at the right time
• A culture that is both consistent and locally resonant

International growth is no longer optional for ambitious companies. But it’s also no longer enough to just “open an office” and hope for the best.

The leadership team you build, and how quickly you’re willing to evolve it, will be the difference between global success and expensive lessons learned.

Scaling internationally? We’d love to help. Get in touch at [email protected].