Asia Business Success With Competitive

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What is competitive intelligence and why is it important for Asia business, for example doing business in China?

According to Wikipedia, “A broad definition of competitive intelligence (CI) is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.”

That’s a bit of a mouthful, but what it really means is that CI is anything that gives you competitive advantage in the market, particularly in relation to your customers and competitors. However, it also stretches to include any aspect of the environment needed to support strategic business decisions.

So what else could be important apart from customers and competitors? Well, the very nature of the environment for a start.

LET’S TAKE A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

If you were going to join a new gym, you’d want to make a tour of the premises. You’d want to find out about the facilities, the price of membership, the people that attend (can you fit in there?), the kind of classes and activities (are they right for you?). You’d want to explore all the possibilities in other words, and whether they’re worth the membership.

Much the same applies if you’re considering launching or expanding a business in a new market or across borders into several related markets.

You’d want to find out everything possible about the market, and if you want to be seriously competitive, you’d want to learn everything in the business and cultural environment that motivates and influences your potential customers, partners, competitors, their products and brands.

Let’s imagine you’re launching a business it Ruritania. What’s special about Ruritania that would affect your chances of success? What makes Ruritanians tick? What is their mindset when doing business?

What hope does your product have if you don’t know that Ruritanians are devout followers of Optimism, live in a mountainous kingdom with no supermarkets, believe in the divine right of their kings, have a strong aversion to ever saying no, and sign their contracts with invisible ink?

TRANSLATE THIS EXAMPLE TO ASIA

The same question arises when launching or expanding your company across Asia’s high-growth markets, all or which have different cultures, traditions, levels of income, business customs, networks of relationships and values. Yes, some of these are related, but many of them are subtly (even radically) different. Malaysia is not Indonesia. Hong Kong is not Singapore. Tokyo is not Seoul.

If you want to succeed in these markets, you must use competitive intelligence, and one of the essential components of this CI is local knowledge. This is particularly true since the main competition to foreign companies and entrepreneurs in Asia markets is no longer global multinationals.

The real competitors are local and regional Asian players using their own ‘competitive intelligence’, their understanding of local consumer behavior in markets like China and Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines, their lower cost bases, and their prolonged experience of targeting brands and products to local Asia tastes.

How? Through networks, through customers’ feedback, through research into each Asia market, through country teams, through market presence and long-term relationships.

HOW CAN YOU COMPETE WITH LOCAL ASIAN COMPANIES?

Find out everything you can about the market. Look to partner with strong local partners who can provide access to medium-size cities (for example, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in China) as well as providing you with informed insights into local tastes and consumer patterns (China has a huge range of different markets). Above all, immerse yourself in the business customs, etiquette and culture of your targeted markets.

If you use competitive intelligence to find the right partner, you will be better prepared when your Asia partner starts to look for markets in the developed world. We see this ‘reversal trend’ increasingly in countries like the UK, US and in parts of Europe where Chinese, Malaysia, Indian and other Asian businesses are flocking to expand and invest.

The world is now a single market, that’s clear. It is a market that is both homogenous and heterogeneous. It’s inter-related. But it’s also startlingly diverse and challenging.

Entrepreneurs, companies and small businesses must think globally but start locally. This ‘glocalization’ means that you must design and deliver global solutions that have TOTAL RELEVANCE to every local market you plan to target.

By using competitive intelligence, glocalization will turn the challenge of Rising Asia into lucrative opportunities for both Western and Asian businesses