BT Global Services

February 2011

ExpectationsMaking sure your expectations can be achieved in Asia

Business leaders and the media seeking prospects for growth can’t take their eyes off Asian markets. But Asia is not just another region. It’s the other half of the world. And it’s changing, fast. You need to lay the right foundations in that huge market in order to achieve your expectations.

Risk is more meaningful when measured against reward It’s no secret that the economies of China, India, Singapore and South Korea enjoy stunning growth. Recession? What recession…

China and India are once again operating at or around double-digit growth (10.3%1 and 8.9%2 respectively). But what’s increasingly grabbing the attention of economists in 2011 is the growth of the so-called ‘tiger cub’ economies. The emerging economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, while suffering volatility, offer the promise of vitality.

Additionally, the ‘frontier’ markets of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam may be less developed and more risky than their larger regional cousins, but they remain attractive markets nonetheless.

With anaemic growth forecast for years in Europe and America3, Asia is not sitting still. According to OECD figures, Asia currently accounts for a quarter of the world’s middle class. That is forecast to double by 20204.

Asia’s changing in other ways too. Asian companies are investing in their own global expansion, for example in Africa. According to Dr Iqbal Survé, chairman of The Sekunjalo Group, a South African investment company, “Chinese investment can be found in most African countries – unofficial estimates suggest that more than 1,500 Chinese companies have established branches in Africa.5”

This is a new Asia.

It’s a dynamic region, competitive, a growing source of consumer demand. Any enterprise expanding there needs expectations commensurate with the opportunities and challenges of doing business there.

Doing business in AsiaArguably the starkest challenge of doing business in Asia is its scale. Asia spans 48 countries and seven time zones (depending on where you set the regional boundary). The distance from Tbilisi in the west to Tokyo in the east is nearly 5,000 miles. Singapore to Beijing is a six-hour flight.

We often think of businesses expanding into the Asia-Pac region. But this isn’t a region; it’s half the world, economically equal if not superior to the half we occupy. When you’re expanding in Asia, you need on-the-ground intelligence that covers the whole.

Setting up a functioning business in an area so huge requires people working together, often in ‘real-time’ without the time available or budget to book a flight.

But maintaining control when you have little face-to-face interaction can be hard. How do you inspire employees and local partners and hold them to account when your office opening hours overlap for only an hour or two each day?

Thankfully, modern businesses are already equipped to handle most of these challenges. An Asian operation needs even more attention to the detail of overcoming the communications challenge.

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Beyond.

‘Risk is only ever meaningful when measured against reward. ‘Emerging emerging’ economies like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, while suffering volatility, offer the promise of vitality.’

The gravity-defying economies of Asia continue to bedazzle.

Beyond.

‘Whatever your requirement, look for evidence of successful multi-site and cross-border projects in the region.’

Technological maturityThe available technology that a business in Asia depends upon has never been better. Thanks to a set of indispensable technologies that can link operational centres across Asia and back to Europe, people can collaborate, networks can connect and customers can be satisfied, all more effectively.

Thanks to their maturity, even if the investment in Asia is a generation ahead of what’s installed at corporate headquarters, these systems can work together without a hitch when the time comes to upgrade.

For a chief information officer (CIO), using mature technologies gives clarity about the level of investment required to meet business expectations.

Success depends not simply on geography, but on knowing the local infrastructure to span geographies.

Top tips on preparing for business in AsiaAs we suggest here, management of a successful business in Asia depends on laying the right foundations. Here is our best practice guide to exceeding your Asian expectations, based on 26 years of our own experience in the region.

1. Understand local market infrastructure. The demands on an IT network are great enough when you are connecting people within a single site or across a national network. Asia is a large, dispersed region. It’s likely you’ll need to span multiple regulatory and legislative jurisdictions and local infrastructure standards.

Don’t leave management of local partners to chance – you’ll need a partner that understands the entire region or partners who have a track record of working together. Whatever your requirement, look for evidence of successful multi-site and cross-border projects in the region.

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2. Pulling very long strings. Maintaining control of a remote site is an operational challenge faced by most medium-sized and large enterprises. Doing so between Europe and Asia adds a whole new layer of challenges.

Your people have to be able to stay in touch if they are to work closely together, even if they rarely work together at the same time. Talking and eye-contact can make meanings clearer, helping to overcome cultural barriers and avoid confusion. Managers need to have at-a-glance knowledge of their team’s availability. They need to be able to easily and quickly access project materials at critical times. Given Asia’s size, perhaps it won’t be a surprise to discover that workers are already used to the technology used to stay in touch. So it makes sense for European or UK businesses expanding in the region to embrace and deploy these geography-bridging technologies.

3. If you’re building a business in Asia, build an Asian business. We all say ‘think global but act local’. This carries added weight in Asia. Asia is not only a fast-maturing economic bloc, it also boasts a whole set of powerful cultural and political signatures. As a result, your employees’ will be used to working in different ways.

For example, in a recent worldwide survey of IT systems users, BT Global Services found that 90% of IT users working in China collaborate with people in other countries at least once per week. In the US, only a third (37%) were so used to cross-border collaboration.

Moreover, the same survey found that 80% of Chinese workers are happy using technology to make this type of working ‘seamless’. The figure was just over half in the US, and dropped to a third in some parts of Europe. It’s important to be competitive and properly equipping your operations in the region can be vital.

Beyond.

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4. Customer relations is changing in Asia. Customer service has undergone a revolution in Asia. In 2010, the annual Chinese customer service awards were held at a nationally promoted event in Beijing. The winners, led by Lenovo, represented a who’s who of successful businesses in the region. Getting customer service right is important, but thanks to the latest technology it is possible, even across borders and great distances.

Multilingual service centres can be based either in Europe or Asia. Calls can be connected to people speaking the right language and, importantly, to the correct expert within your company. Voice recognition means that you can cope with the unexpected, without setting up the type of full-scale operations that would once have been required.

Where to go from hereWe have developed a series of informative BT Global Services fact sheets, covering the four main areas that networked IT can deliver measurable business benefits for any organisation growing operations in Asia.

They cover:

• Staying in closer contact with your people, to make them more productive

• Using conferencing to manage global teams• Creating a network infrastructure that makes your

operations more efficient• Delivering services that make your customers happier.

BT can help in your Asian Expansion plans. On top of our existing strong heritage in the region, wide reach and presence, BT is engaged in a significant further investment plan into Asia Pacific. We are scaling up to meet the ever increasing demands of our MNC customer base. This all means we are best placed to deliver consistent quality and service regardless of location, enabling your business expansion, as well as managing the significant complexity of operating in Asia. Book a visit to a BT Showcase, either in the UK or Asia Pacific, where our experts can show you first-hand how our solutions are helping British businesses crack Asia.

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(c) British Telecommunications plc 2011.

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If you would like to find out more about our products and services to help your organisation enter or grow in Asia, please visit: www.bt.com/globalservices.com

‘Getting customer service right is important, but thanks to the latest technology, it is possible, even across borders and great distances.’

Link/source:

1. BBC News2. Wall Street Journal3. Nouriel Roubini4. OECD Development Centre5. Keynote presentation delivered at International

Investment Conference in London Tuesday 1 February 2011.