Greenfield Business Expansion

Asia: Why go there?

Have you looked lately at what is happening in Asia? If you looked previously and decided it wasn’t an option, it’s time to look again, or look through a different lens.

It’s true it’s not a strategy for everyone and that’s a great place to land – as long as you’ve made the call by taking a look. Don’t make the decision because it is too hard, or none of your competitors are there right now.

If you’re looking to go, or just looking, how do you line up all the decisions around people, systems and resources to make it happen. 

Setting up a new part of your organization in a different country is hard: really, really hard.  

Have you considered everything you need to and do you have the latest information on the benefits and challenges others are experiencing?  

We know the pitfalls to watch for and the obstacles to avoid.  Why waste time and money learning these things first hand? 

You have many decisions ahead of you. Here’s some you face:

• Business benefits – do you have a solid business case or just a marginal one – what are you missing?
• Regulatory environment – both domestic and in-country regulators will place obligations on your venture – do you know what these are and are you prepared to meet them?
• Reputation – are you prepared for attention from media, unions, shareholders to your latest venture. Not everyone sees this as a good thing
• Legal/Finance/Tax/Transfer Pricing considerations – have you structured your company holdings to allow you maximum benefit or are you stuck with leaving funds in the offshore location (will this be a good or bad thing as business grows)
• Incentives for local investment – do you have the best deal for starting up in a new country
• Capital investment requirements as part of local company incorporation
• Property infrastructure – locations, footprints, rent/buy/develop, fit out costs.
• Technology infrastructure – setting up as part of the mother ship or totally de-centralised
• Process/system infrastructure – which areas will need local variations to policies & procedures
• Employee benefits – you must get local expertise and get this right. Unless your current person has worked there (and recently) they are in no place to be recommending the approach
• Leadership – are you dropping in ex-pats or going local, or a mix. What is the market depth for the numbers and type of leaders you need?
• Risk – Business Continuity, country risk, customer data privacy, operational losses
• Culture – will your current culture translate to the new location, where is your local Minister of Fun
• Change – trust us, not everyone is on board that this is the right strategy for you. They are waiting for you at the second hurdle you hit so they can start talking as soon as you hit it.

We have experience establishing new businesses in Asia and helping your current business adapt to the changes when the new venture is ready to launch. You’d be crazy to learn everything first hand and not leverage our expertise in this space.