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Here's what I have for you today:

• The charging wars have begun! Our competitors are advancing like White Walkers from Edmonton

• HQ thinks we're the Apple of charging while I'm getting Space Invaders flashbacks

• That time in 2006 when I turned a "we're about to miss this deadline" into "I'm a market entry genius"

• Built a framework so good my whiteboard chicken scratch became company policy

• Learning that sometimes the student becomes the teacher (but HQ isn't ready for that wisdom)

Also, this quote:

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Here we go…

Invasion

SCENE: Tuesday night. Our kitchen island has become command central for chargeFUZE operations. Scattered venue contracts and marketing materials cover the granite surface like the aftermath of a particularly organized hurricane. I'm hunched over my laptop, the blue light casting shadows across my face as I review last month's disappointing revenue reports.

Kirsten walks in, phone in hand. Something in her posture—a slight tensing of the shoulders, a determined set to her jaw—tells me she's discovered something I won't like.

"One of my charging insiders just sent this from Edmonton," she says, sliding her phone across the granite countertop with the precision of someone delivering bad news.

I look down at a sleek white charging unit that is decidedly not a chargeFUZE station. It's smaller, sleeker, and based on the background, sitting prominently in what appears to be a high-end hotel lobby.

"What the... when did they take this?" I ask, feeling my stomach drop slightly.

"Yesterday." Kirsten reaches for her mug of tea, steam still rising from the surface. "My network of chargeFUZE spies keeps me informed so I never have to actually visit Edmonton."

I can't help but smirk at this long-standing joke between us. "Maintaining your perfect record."

"Proudly Edmonton-free since birth," she confirms with a small nod. Her expression turns serious again. "But these things are everywhere now. The mall, restaurants, hotels."

I straighten up, instinctively adopting what Kirsten calls my "business professor stance." "They're perfectly 'right-sized' for this stage of market entry strategy," I say, then immediately wince at my own words. "Sorry, that's my MBA talking. I paid $60,000 to say things like that with a straight face."

Kirsten's eye roll could power a small city. "Whatever you call it, they're moving west from Canmore and south from Red Deer. We're getting surrounded."

The playful mood evaporates. I close my laptop, giving her my full attention. "I talked to headquarters yesterday. They said they don't have anything to compete with that form factor."

"And their solution is...?" Kirsten leaves the question hanging in the air between us.

I puff up slightly, parroting the company line with more confidence than I feel. "They said these are just cheap knockoffs from China. Nothing to worry about."

Kirsten raises a single eyebrow, a gesture that after twenty-five years of marriage still has the power to make me question everything I've just said. "Aren't our machines made in China?"

"Yes, but they're designed in California," I say defensively, hearing how ridiculous it sounds the moment the words leave my mouth. "Like Apple products."

The silence stretches for three uncomfortable seconds as Kirsten stares at me, her expression a perfect blend of disbelief and amusement. "So we're the Apple of charging?"

"That's exactly what HQ said!" I nod enthusiastically, grateful for this lifeline of logic. "Plus these competitors aren't even properly approved in Canada."

"They're literally sitting in public places all over Edmonton," Kirsten counters, gesturing at her phone.

"HQ is going to take care of that. They're sending in the authorities." Even as I say it, I hear how absurd it sounds.

Kirsten scrolls through more photos, her thumb swiping with quiet determination. "You know what else I heard through the charging grapevine? You can buy twenty of these units for the price of two chargeFUZE stations."

"That can't be right," I protest, though the sinking feeling in my stomach suggests otherwise.

"So this is a police action rather than a product strategy problem?" Kirsten sets her mug down with deliberate slowness, the soft clink against the countertop punctuating her question.

"Yes! That's what HQ says." I'm fully committed to the company line now, despite the logical chasm widening before me. "We have a much better product, so people will naturally feel much better charging with us."

Kirsten's voice softens, not unkindly. "Do people really care about that when their battery is at 3% and they just want Instagram to work again?"

The silence that follows is broken only by the sound of me desperately searching for an answer that doesn't exist. Outside, a car drives past, its headlights briefly illuminating our kitchen before disappearing, much like my confidence in our charging strategy.

Speaking of Market Entry...

SCENE: Toronto headquarters, 2006. I'm pacing in a glass conference room while frantically checking my Blackberry. It's 4:45 PM😰, and in 15 minutes, I need to waive conditions on our first major Calgary land deal. The big boss, Bill, however, has other plans, such as turning this into an impromptu masterclass in market expansion.

"So you think Calgary's ready for our brand?" Bill leans back in his chair, coffee mug balanced on his knee. His calm demeanour is in stark contrast to my visible anxiety.

In my head - WTF do I really know about branding (and homebuilding, for that matter)…up till now, I have been just a land development monkey (← industry-wide term of endearment)

"Absolutely. The market fundamentals are solid, and we've got a unique value proposition that—"

"Stop." Bill raises his hand. "That's Ontario-speak. Tell me what makes Calgary different."

I glance at my Blackberry. 4:48 PM. 😰😰 "Different how?"

"Different everything. What percentage of our Ontario product can we actually use there?"

I start drawing a crude graph on the whiteboard – a simple 2x2 matrix with "Local Adaptation" on one axis and "Brand Consistency" on the other.

"Here's where we are in Ontario," I say, marking the top right quadrant. "High brand recognition, established processes. But Calgary needs something different."

I mark the bottom left. "We can't just copy-paste. Their approval process is faster but more complex because it is 100% more relationship based. Buyers prefer smaller homes with finished basements. Even the soil conditions change our engineering costs…who ever heard of sulfur resistant concrete?!?"

Bill nods slowly. "So what's your recommendation?"

4:52 PM.😰😰😰

"We take our core brand promise – quality and customer experience – but adapt almost everything else. Local architectural styles, different floor plans, adjusted price points, and completely new marketing campaigns."

"What about the team?" Bill fires back. "Ontario expats or local talent?"

"Mix of both," I say without hesitation. "We need our culture carriers, but they need to be paired with local experts who understand the market dynamics, have existing relationships with trades and officials, and can navigate the Alberta regulatory landscape."

Bill stares at me for what feels like eternity. 😰😰😰😰 Then points to my sad whiteboard drawing. "That matrix of yours – you didn't come up with that."

"No," I admit. "It's a modified version of the International Market Entry Framework. But I've adapted it for inter-provincial real estate development."

He checks his watch. 4:56 PM.😰😰😰😰😰

"And the land deal? Worth pursuing under these parameters?"

I take a deep breath. "It's the perfect entry point. Minimal entitlement risk, appropriate scale, and close enough to downtown to establish our brand presence without betting the farm."

Finally, he smiles. "Good. Now go make that call…and get us to that top right quadrant…quickly.”

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The Real Estate Market Entry Framework

A Structured Approach to New Market Expansion

This framework helps development companies evaluate and execute market expansion strategies by balancing brand consistency with local market adaptation.

Key Evaluation Factors

Product Adaptation

• Floor Plans: How much must designs change to meet local preferences?

• Architectural Style: Regional aesthetics and design standards

• Price Positioning: Market-appropriate value proposition

• Building Systems: Climate and regulatory considerations

Operational Adaptation

• Approval Processes: Regulatory framework differences

• Construction Methods: Local trades and building practices

• Marketing Approach: Regional buyer psychology

• Customer Experience: Service expectations

Team Structure

• Leadership Mix: Balance of corporate culture carriers and local experts

• Local Network: Trades, suppliers, and municipal relationships

• Decision Authority: Headquarters vs. local decision-making balance

Implementation Timeline

1. Research Phase: 6-9 months before market entry

2. Team Building: 3-6 months before entry

3. Initial Project: Lower-risk opportunity with brand showcase potential

4. Market Adaptation: Continuous improvement cycle

5. Full-Scale Expansion: Once proof of concept established

This framework helped guide our successful expansion into the Calgary market, balancing our established Ontario brand with necessary adaptations for the Alberta real estate landscape.

Lessons

The key lessons I learned:

1. Market entry isn’t about replication—it’s about translation.
   We learned this the hard way when our first project nearly bombed due to misaligned product-market fit. You have to speak the local market’s language, not just impose your own.

2. Understand local nuances before you break ground.
   Even small regulatory or climate differences can massively impact costs and timelines.

3. Know which brand elements are sacred and which are flexible.
   Some things define you—others just need to work in the market you’re entering.

4. Build your local team before your local projects.
   You can’t build homes if you don’t have the right local partners in place first.

5. Enter with the right scale project—not too big to be risky, not too small to be irrelevant.
   Our first Calgary project was a deliberate mid-scale launch. Big enough to prove we belonged, small enough to tweak as we learned.

That framework I hastily sketched out later became our official playbook for expansion into Edmonton and even some American markets.

Each expansion taught us to better balance what parts of our brand were non-negotiable versus which elements needed adaptation.

Back To chargeFUZE

Looking back at our chargeFUZE dilemma, I can see some uncomfortable parallels. We're facing exactly the same challenge but from the opposite side of the table.

Now, I'm the local operator seeing a market opportunity while headquarters clings to their "premium" strategy, resistant to adaptation.

What Bill taught me in 2006 is what I need to convince chargeFUZE HQ of today: market entry isn't one-size-fits-all. If those smaller competitors are gaining traction, it's not because they're "cheap knockoffs" - it's because they've identified a real market need.

We need to push HQ for a faster, more flexible approach that balances their brand standards with our local reality. Otherwise, we'll end up in that dreaded "Brand Rejection" quadrant of my matrix, with a beautiful product that nobody wants because it doesn't fit Alberta's unique needs.

The question isn't whether we should adapt but how quickly we can convince HQ that adaptation isn't optional - it's essential.

Sending Market Entry Framework to HQ… 📧 

THAT’S A WRAP

Word to your mother and…

Stay curious and keep adapting,

Greg "Market Entry Strategist" Mills

P.S. Next time you see me drawing on a whiteboard at 4:45 PM, either I'm having a brilliant moment or a complete breakdown. Probably both.

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