>I always cringe when I hear software execs talk of being a leader in their home country.
Yeah, because making millions (or billions) in one's home country is cringe-worthy.
It's OK, if you look at it as a cow to be milked until a multinational drives you out of business. From a business perspective there's nothing necessarily wrong with milking a cow until it runs dry, but you should have made a conscious decision to do it. The execs I'm talking about haven't.
>It's OK, if you look at it as a cow to be milked until a multinational drives you out of business.
That's not a given. There are tons of entrenched companies, from web services to local restaurants, than no multinational managed to drive out of business.
In many cases the multinational had to work with them or buy them to gain a serious share into a particular country.
One would hope they would have the sense to go global. You have to to survive in most software. Where the HQ of the company is doesn't matter. I always cringe when I hear software execs talk of being a leader in their home country. Well, some company who actually went global and therefore have a lot less development cost per user will eat any local leader for breakfast. Companies that care about their home markets are dead men walking.