Asian Century Solutions’ Logo

Asian Century Solutions’ Logo
There are four fundamental ingredients for success in any Asia market entry endeavor: market, offering, strategy and team. The ACS logo is a metaphor for these elements. The blue circle is the market (red would be too cliché). We can’t control the market, but everything we do is structured and aligned within that market. Then, there are the three pillars of value we can control: offering, strategy and team. (Those pillars are presented in staggered horizontal lines rather than aligned vertical ones because the horizontal staggered approach is said to be a better aesthetic from a Feng Shui perspective).

Before taking on any long term assignment, ACS ensures that we are in alignment with the senior management of the client organization on these four elements.

Market
We survey the market to confirm who the principals, distributors / resellers, and consultants active in that domain in Asia are. We survey their offerings and ascertain the success they have had with those offerings. We then identify the decision makers or influencers for purchase decisions within that product category and interview them. Based on this subjective data and some basic quantitative data about market size, we come to an assessment of the market opportunity for the client’s current offering and the offering if localized for the market.

Offering
This is the element which the client must consider most thoroughly. The offering is not just the product. The offering is every link in the value chain that leads to an end-user’s satisfaction. Development, localization, shipping, support, QA, pricing, business model, partner selection and enablement, etc, etc. The content, format, cost and delivery mechanism for everything a customer needs must be considered. This often leads to the realization that significant parts of a client’s business will have to be rebuilt, replicated or modified for success in Asia. The worst thing we can do is begin the front end effort before the client has worked through and gained internal support for all of the back-end requirements. We have learned the hard way that clients must be shown what awaits them in the road ahead and that each impacted department head in headquarters signs up for the journey before we start.

Strategy
This is the most flexible of the elements. Based on the realities of the market requirements and the client’s offerings, a strategy to sell what can be sold today is crafted. Long term plans and objectives are all fine and necessary, but none of it matters if you can’t get there. The only way to get there is to sell what is on the truck today, the strategies we develop map out who will sell what to whom via what channels and on what basis or model. The model may be very different from the US model. We also may suggest an ultra-aggressive model for the early years to break through market inertia with a return to a more traditional business model once the client is established in the market.

Team
The value of an unimplemented idea is zero. In fact, less than zero. The only thing on earth that can implement an idea is people. We map out what skills and roles will need to be available / performed where and at what times, how much time and money it will take to put the appropriate people in place, how to manage them, how to compensate them, and how to transition them to client employees if and when that becomes desirable. In the beginning, we add no headcount to the client’s payroll. The client’s contract with ACS provides them with the access to the human resources necessary to do the job without adding to the client’s HR administration burden.