Business Advice from those who have been there, done that
In this business tv show,Ian Coleman, Partner, Head of emerging markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers UK, Tony Dickel, CEO, MRI China, and Oliver Massmann, Partner at Duane Morris Vietnam LLC, recount instances in which businesses were saved from making terrible mistakes. These stories are a clear illustration of the issues you must be aware of when doing business in emerging economies. Ian Coleman: We were approached by a client that wished to enter a food market in the food industry in a particular emerging market. Had done a huge amount of work to understand the market segmentation, what were the buying characteristics, what were the income points, was this something that could be targeted at high income people or was it a mass market proposition or so on. Were about to make the investment but had not addressed the fundamental question, do you need a licence to actually do this? Turned out we did and it was a two year process to actually get approval and saved themselves about 15 million in advertising launch costs which would have been wholly ineffective because they wouldn’t have been able to supply demand for two years anyway and that is where a little bit of care can have a really big pay off. Oliver Massmann: So what are the dangers? You as a foreign investor have to look out for if you want to come to Vietnam. Let me tell you a war story here. One day at an official function I met one of my clients and he told me just by chance that he had the intention to buy a …
May 1st, 2010 at 2:27 pm
It just goes to show that you should check this stuff out prior to making any big plans.
May 1st, 2010 at 2:47 pm
All very interesting examples, I think a professional adviser familiar with the area is a must
May 1st, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Exactly what I was thinking, as easy as running a spell check
May 1st, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Love the examples here.
May 1st, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Not an overly bright candidate that one was he…and I think the most stupid was the security clearance call haha!
May 1st, 2010 at 5:07 pm
MRI China is headquarted in Hong Kong….
May 1st, 2010 at 5:22 pm
You’d think if you were creating a fake qualification for yourself you would be really careful not to mispell a word! It’s unfortunate that people like that can potentially ruin the crediblity of education for everyone.
May 1st, 2010 at 5:58 pm
What’s sad is the people that get burned by fraud within educational institutions. A friend of mine in Hanoi saw years of education lose all value when her university became embroiled in a corruption scandal.
May 1st, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Where exactly does Tony live? It would be awesome to talk to someone like him
May 1st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Tony is a really interesting guy…. well worth looking up if you are ever in his neck of the woods!
May 1st, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I suppose one has to tread very carefully when chartering into unknown territories. Interesting to know about the Resume fraud situation in China. Don’t people realize that a fake resume will not get them too far, especially if they are applying for performance based jobs!
May 1st, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Crazy: the amount of investment taking place in these parts of the world!!