Six Reasons to Enter Asia Now

With world markets collapsing and uncertainty taking hold in almost every market segment today, now might seem like a counter-intuitive time to initiate an Asia market entry effort. But we believe the contrary. Now is the ideal time, and all of the past reasons an American company had to sell in Asia are even more important today.

Great change brings great opportunity for those who see it AND act on it. What we are witnessing now is the beginning, not the end, of the shift of the financial epicenter of the planet away from countries that have over spent (US & Europe) and to countries that have over-saved (Asia). The writing is on the wall and it doesn’t say “stay home and hope things get better”. The writing on the wall says, “Run, don’t walk, to Asia! Follow the money! Go now to the land of 3 billion new capitalists!”

Here are some of the reasons we believe that now is the time to start your Asia entry initiative:

Financing – Governments around the world are desperate to create employment and growth. Your ability to obtain grants from your home government or concessions from target country governments for investing in those countries is greater now than any time in recent history.

Channel receptiveness – It is much easier for new market entrants to gain mindshare within the Asian channel today than it was a year ago when everyone was drinking from a fire hose just selling their established products. Today, the world has changed. The customers that are likely to purchase their existing products have already done so. When channels can’t grow their business selling existing products to new customers, it is often easier for them to sell new products to existing customers. Distributors and resellers from Japan to Pakistan to Australia are now very eager for new offerings that can give them a new reason to contact their customers.

Talent – For the past five years, the major limiting factor for new business entrants in Asia was human resources. Sure, there are lots of people in Asia, but recruiting and retaining people with the right skills has been a huge challenge for new market entrants. With the coming layoffs, there will be more talent available at lower salaries and with a greater attraction to job security. In just a few months, the region has turned from an employee market to an employer’s market. You can’t fire and rehire your home country staff, but you can pick an opportune time to build an organization in a new market. Now is the time.

Less competition – If you compete against much larger companies, you know that those companies will be going through all sorts of pain for the next 12 months. They will be focused on how to survive, retrenchment decisions, product line reduction decisions, and wrangling over all sorts of internal realignments. It’s times like these when big companies focus internally and forget that the battle field is outside the company not inside. They take their eye off the market. They slow the pace of promotions and branding events. They hunker down. This is exactly the time when they are less likely to notice new market entrants and least able to respond against them. Battles are won and lost based on which side can turn their opponent’s strength into a weakness. Your competitors until now have used their size, leverage, breadth of product line, customer base, and marketing as competitive strengths. All of those weapons have now turned to baggage. Baggage which you don’t have. You can move quickly and nimbly to seize opportunities IF you can get effectively positioned for the right opportunities.

Morale and momentum – When all the news at home is doom and gloom, strategic wins in new markets brings a sense of hope, pride, and optimism to your staff, management team, and investors. If you can’t find good news at home, make it happen in new markets.

Publicity – In boom times, so many new products and companies enter markets that only a select few get noticed. Come to Asia now, and the local press will shower you with attention as everyone is eager for positive news of some kind. You might even get some home market coverage if you announce an international expansion plan today.

Even though this may be a strategically appropriate time for your company to enter Asia, you must do it time and cost effectively. In these economic times, the traditional approach of sending your employees overseas, opening offices and establishing subsidiaries before revenue has been achieved just won’t work for many companies.

About Asian Century Solutions
Asian Century Solutions (ACS) enables clients to assess , launch and grow their business in 18 countries across Asia Pacific, including Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam and other Asia Pacific markets.  ACS helps clients achieve revenues, develop customer bases, build channels and grow market knowledge and awareness, before making an investment in HR, infrastructure, legal or accounting services.  Now is the time to go to Asia, and the ACS shared services market entry accelerator approach is the most time and cost-effective way to do it.