Andrew Sherman likes to think of himself as "cautiously optimistic" as he ponders what 2010 holds for entrepreneurs and business owners. And one bright, shining prospect for Americans willing to take the chance is potential global success, says Sherman—a partner at the Washington office of global law firm Jones Day, the author of 17 books, an adjunct professor in the MBA and Executive MBA programs at the University of Maryland, and an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Georgetown University.

This week, Sherman shares some of his thoughts on globalization and its impact on small and mid-sized businesses as part of Portfolio.com’s ongoing series, The Great Global Business Adventure. This is the second of a two-part interview with Sherman. First, we heard him sound a few cautionary notes about making an international play. Today, he talks about what it really takes for a company to go global, from studying which markets are hot to choosing a company structure. Sherman’s comments have been edited for brevity.

Portfolio.com: Say I’m an entrepreneur, and I want to dip my toes into the global marketplace. What changes do I need to make culturally to be competitive in that marketplace?

Sherman: First, I ask myself how much diversity do I have, even inside my own company? How much do I understand these global markets? Have I made an investment in travel? I mean the whole theme behind the British Airways conference (attended by about 200 entrepreneurs and at which Sherman spoke), the face-to-face theme, was not just talking about a country or researching it with a search engine but going there, meeting the people, talking to people, observing things. We still don’t do enough of that as a nation, where we need to invest the time to physically go, and that’s not just the British Airways mantra, but that’s what makes good business sense. It’s much easier to do business in a country when you have visited there, when you know people there, when you have people looking out for you there—those are all relevant to your success. And then, looking at your business model, your product and service lines, do your business model and products and service lines translate as well as they need to in those target markets? I’ll give you sort of a funny example. There were some issues that came up when Dairy Queen went into Japan. They were making the cones too big. Of course, in America we want the largest ice cream cones we can possibly get for the lowest possible price. It turns out in Asia they’re not interested in a ginormous ice-cream cone. They’re actually interested in having a few bites to get the taste, and that’s it. Restaurant chains who have gone to Europe with the 10-minute lunch, the six-minute lunch, the three-minute lunch? They don’t really like to have lunch in three minutes in places like Barcelona. I know this will sound crazy but they actually like to enjoy their food.

Portfolio.com: You spoke in London of India as surpassing China as a market. Can you elaborate on that? What is it about India that makes it special?

Sherman: Well, it’s a couple things. Number one, many people don’t realize this, but India is the No. 1 English-speaking country in the world, and as soon as an American hears that data point, it just shocks them, they have to take an extra minute to think about it until they realize that it’s true. So if you’re going to look for a country that may be user friendly to get into, a country that has a government similar to our own, a country that has Democratic values similar to our own, that has a culture similar to our own, a language similar to our own, then India looks more attractive probably at first blush than China. Not that China is unattractive—they’re both very, very attractive. But I think for the average American company entering into their first overseas market, and they’re just sort of dipping their toe in the market and learning about being a global company, they may find better success in India and then in China a little bit later.

Portfolio.com: In what sectors do you see American companies reaching out to meet the world, what are our successful sectors right now?