Business Development

Expanding a Firm’s Reach to Win Work in New Geographies

Challenge

A Milan-based firm with little built work outside of Italy asked Future–Future to help them expand outside of Europe to win work. To do so, we had to identify strong niches that would give the firm a competitive edge in new geographies.

Strategy

Future–Future identified waterfront regeneration projects as one niche for the firm and developed target market reports identifying where these projects would be coming in the next 6 to 18 months. These reports were based on our analyses of news, city capital plans, government funding requests, political developments, and other data.

We worked to elevate the firm’s waterfront work in target markets through thought-leadership that gets them across the table with potential clients and stakeholders.

Execution

Future–Future identified an upcoming competition for a cultural project on a pier in Busan, South Korea, and advised the firm on the submission, including the site history and context, their competitive edges, the culture of winning business in East Asia, the client’s unstated goals, and ways this project could advance initiatives of the government of South Korea.

During this process, we recommended that they make a crucial but counterintuitive decision to choose a young up-start firm as local architects-of-record rather than a well-established South Korean one. We provided them with a vetted list of options.

Results

The Italian firm was awarded the project in May 2025, marking their first commission in the region. The win serves as a foundation for their ongoing global expansion.