Succeeding at Business in Southeast Asia

CHAPTER 7Designing Your Plan: What to Consider and How to Evaluate Them

Most really good companies are great at two things: building and executing a plan. They tend, though, to work a bit backward; first, becoming great at executing, and then building a plan around it. Seldom do they work top-down by building a strategy and then building their plan around a good strategy.

Over the years, I’ve worked with some great economic development councils in cities throughout Asia. All of them operate a little bit differently, but in general they offer the same, or similar, thing: economic incentives to induce companies to set up their operations in their city. If you are not a Fortune 500 business or of significant size, this is a little less true insofar as major cities are concerned. Cities like Shanghai and Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong have less need to recruit small- or medium-sized businesses (I’m not saying they won’t, just that it’s less likely and less of a priority for them). Meanwhile, the governments in cities like Changzhou or Nanjing are eager to help you set up and grow. These cities are not just there with economic incentives; they show up with introductions to potential clients and potential suppliers and a true desire to see you succeed. Figure out what your needs are when you build your plan, not just what’s easiest.

One thing I find particularly interesting about deciding where in Asia to set up a business—and it’s fairly unique when compared with the ...