How to do business in Asia

A recent Melbourne University study revealed that finding the right local partner is the biggest challenge Australian businesses face in trying to break into the Asian market. Having worked across 11 Asian country’s during my time in ANZ Bank, I have to agree somewhat. You also need to know who you are dealing with and given that Asia remains more an emerging then mature market, you can’t just do credit or government checks. You need to be based in Asia or have someone local on the ground. Asian business is all about building on long term relations, not through a quick transactional approach like we see in Western economies.