Award winner: The world of cartoons

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For Joan Vogelesang, the decision to do business in India started with a question: If Bollywood creates more live action productions than anywhere else in the world and has a vibrant arts culture, why is there no animation industry? The CEO of Toon Boom, which won the 2011 HSBC International Business Award for small to medium enterprises in May, found the answer was simple: it wasn’t being packaged properly. She discovered that since the Indian education system favours more technical subjects such as engineering and medicine, once her animation-software development company started using the word infotainment to describe the medium, Indian educators were intrigued.

Nearly a decade ago, Vogelesang and her team set out to create an animation school and studio that trains students to use their software. Now, Toon Boom’s Harmony program is used in 1,500 Indian schools and 50 studios. India’s animation industry has grown from nonexistent to C$2 billion and currently makes up 40% of the company’s sales.

Toon Boom CEO, Joan Vogelesang

Though Montreal-based Toon Boom has major North American clients such as Walt Disney and Warner Bros., as well as an Emmy under its belt, Vogelesang thinks the export market is essential. “It’s a global economy and we can’t get away from it,” says the British-born and Caribbean-raised CEO. “It’s an automatic that North American companies should reach out to emerging economies.”

Since becoming CEO in 1998, Vogelesang has helped grow Toon Boom’s export business, which was primarily focused in L.A. and a few countries in Asia, to include Africa, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Toon Boom currently has partnerships with studios in 120 countries, and four of its 66 employees are spread out between France, South Africa and Egypt. Vogelesang says countries with emerging economies are eager to partner because they have a growing middle class that is hungry for entertainment and job opportunities for the youth.

She chooses foreign partners carefully, and works closely with establishments in each country, such as trade commissions and embassies who can help host events and do market research. The biggest challenge when entering the export business, explains Vogelesang, is time commitment. There is a nine- to 12-month period before revenue starts streaming in. As well, staff should be willing to relocate and help train overseas clients.

“You can’t just set up a partner and leave them alone,” she says. “You have to work in the trenches and support them as you would your own company.” Vogelesang says the methodology Toon Boom perfected in India can be applied to other countries and the company is now focused on developing schools in Nigeria and Oman. “It’s like raising a child or planting a flower,” she says of helping a country build their animation industry. “Once it starts to walk or grow they don’t need you as much.”

< < See all the 2011 International Business Award Winners