Für eine In February 2018, Sanet will be travelling to Europe for a personal presentation of the company’s consulting services. This provides enterprises interested in a potential market expansion to Southeast Asia with the opportunity to personally meet and discuss with the top consultants of Sanet, Dr. Gunter Denk and Johannes Kraus.
The effects of personnel decisions are long term. It usually takes months before management and the other staff members can begin to see what a new hire brings to the table – for better or for worse – and whether or not the decision to bring this person on was the correct one.
“Proper preparation is better than acting hastily” This basic principle is valid especially for direct investments in foreign countries (FDI). Three points are what decides about success and failure.
In the first part of our newsletter “ASEAN: SALES STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT – Successful sales structuring in the world’s biggest growth market, Southeast Asia” we described how important it is for Western companies to have their own staff on the ground in the relevant country on a permanent basis, that in the ASEAN countries a holistic approach is the basis for successful operations, and that local dealers and distributors should be chosen with the greatest of care. In the second part we will explain, among other things, why local sales staff have to be integrated skilfully and provided with organised support from company headquarters.
Many European companies are currently beginning to realise it: although according to the World Bank the ASEAN countries will be the world’s most reliable growth market until 2035, European business isn’t benefiting from this success. One reason for this is that in the past German companies in particular have equated Asia with China.
Everyone wanted a share of business in the Middle Kingdom, and the casual assumption was that if you had someone who devoted his entire attention to China, then he could also take care of “the few bits and pieces available in Southeast Asia”.