IT, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS & TMT SECTORS

For a North Asian IT Services IPO Client: GLOBAL IT SERVICES & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION (DX) OVERVIEW

Background: Client is a system integration leader and digital innovation enabler in a North Asian IT service market with Cloud, AI/ML, Big Data, IoT, Blockchain, and emerging technologies. For its IPO, this overview was commissioned to cover global and target country coverage.

1. Analysis on Global IT Service Industry and Digital Transformation (“DX”) market

2. Market Size Estimates and Forecast for Global & Target Country
(historical 5 years and forecast 10 years of total market size of industries)
i. By Service Lines
1. IT Service Industry as a whole
2. Digital Transformation (DX)
3. Cloud Infrastructure (MSP and application Modernization)
4. Cloud Services (SaaS integration)
5. Finance (DX)
6. Smart Factory
7. Smart City
8. Smart Logistics
9. AI / Big Data Analytics
10. Digital Customer Experience (CX)

ii. By Industry
a. Financial Services; b. Manufacturing and Resources; c. Distribution and Services (Retail, Wholesale,
Professional Services, Transportation, Logistics, Media); d. Infrastructure (Telco and Utilities); e. Public
Sector (Healthcare, Government and Education)

iii. By DX vs. non-DX

3. Key Growth Drivers (e.g. increased use of Machine Learning, cloud migration)

4. Impact of Key Macro Indicators

5. Competitive Landscape
i. Overview of competitive landscape and latest trends
ii. Key major players and factors behind their market leadership
iii. Key metrics of major players (top 3 in target country and Global)
a. L5Y (last 5 years) revenue (target country and Global)
b. L5Y EBIT / EBITDA (target country and Global)
c. L5Y headcount
d. Market share (target country and Global)
e. Key products and their descriptions / strength (for the respective function)
f. Recent relevant M&As / JVs / partnerships / deals / developments

Client Benefits? Client gained an update on the market size, industry growth and drivers, competitive landscape and thus able to revise its competitive positioning. Our study thus helped the client and its bank to prepare for its IPO listing.

For a SouthEast Asia E-Commerce IPO client: SOUTH EAST ASIA E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 

Background: Client is one of the world’s leading digital commerce solution provider. It covers the lucrative cross-border e-commerce trade routes between China and six countries in ASEAN, as well as intra-ASEAN. It pioneered the full suite end-to-end e-commerce solutions in Southeast Asia, empowering its brand and merchant partners in executing their cross-border e-commerce strategies. Its solutions include store management, warehousing & fulfilment, digital marketing & social commerce, customer service, monthly analysis & report, as well as cross-border e-commerce (CBEC).

For its IPO, this overview was commissioned by client to cover B2B, B2C and D2C. Key segments were Fashion & Apparel, Consumer Electronics, Home & Kitchen, Groceries & Food, Beauty & Cosmetics, Healthcare. Country coverage include China and SE Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines).

1. E-Commerce Industry Overview in South-East Asia
1.1 Overview of the E-Commerce Industry
1.2 Eco-System of the E-Commerce Industry in Southeast Asia
1.3 Evolution of the E-Commerce Market in Southeast Asia
1.4 Market Drivers of the E-Commerce Industry in Southeast Asia
1.5 Key Challenges Faced by E-Commerce Companies in Southeast Asia
1.6 Regulatory Environment of the E-Commerce Industry in Southeast Asia
1.7 Outlook of the E-Commerce Industry in Southeast Asia

2. E-Commerce and E-Commerce Optimizers’ Business Model and Value Chain
2.1 E-Commerce Sales Channels in Southeast Asia
2.2 Value Chain Analysis of the E-Commerce Market in Southeast Asia
2.3 E-Commerce Optimizers Eco-System in Southeast Asia
2.4 Role of E-Commerce Optimizers in Southeast Asia
2.5 Business Models of E-Commerce Optimizers in Southeast Asia
2.6 Future of E-Commerce Optimizers in Southeast Asia

3. Market Size Estimates and Forecast for E-Commerce in Overall SEA (B2B, B2C, D2C modeling)
3.1 Market Size of E-Commerce Industry, in Value Terms (GMV), SEA, 2017-2026E

4. Competitive Landscape of Key E-Commerce Optimizers in SEA
4.1 Competitive Landscape Capability Assessment of Select E-Commerce Optimizers, SEA, 2021
4.2 Overview of Top E-Commerce Optimizers in SEA with Presence in Singapore, 2021
4.3 Historical Revenue and CAGR Estimates of Major End-to-end E-Commerce Optimizers with Presence in Singapore, 2017-2021
4.4 Profiles of Top End-to-end E-Commerce Optimizers with Presence in Singapore Engaging in Cross-border E-Commerce

5. Industry Prospects for the Company and Industry Outlook
5.1 E-Commerce Industry Prospects and Outlook
5.2 Industry Positioning of E-Commerce Client against Its Peers and Competitors

Client Benefits? Client gained an update on the market size, industry growth, value chain, competitor optimizers and able to revise its competitive positioning. Our study thus helped the client and its bank to prepare for its IPO listing.

For a UK TECHNOLOGY COMPANY: FEASIBILITY STUDY OF ESTABLISHING AND STRUCTURING A SINGAPORE OFFICE

Our client is a technology company that builds a fintech platform for advertising, media, and retail.

Client provides technology to provide a video platform for mobile phones. It sells its mobile TV marketing services to advertisers in several South East Asian countries and share the revenue with publishers from these countries. It therefore receives revenue from countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, but it also makes payments to companies in these countries. It’s technology infrastructure such as servers and its operating staff are based in the UK and, for cost reasons, are likely to remain in the UK. However, to optimise delivery speed, client may install computer servers in Singapore (or other Asian countries) in the future. These are likely to be serviced from the UK or by local contractors. Client engaged us to understand the feasibility and options of setting up in Singapore, in order to better service their clients in the ASEAN region. Tasks include:

1) Compare Pros and Cons of setting up a new Singapore business unit (whether branch or subsidiary) Versus operating from existing UK headquarter

A. If the costs for setting up a Singapore entity and running it (a fully managed solution) are low and justifiable (i.e. could save withholding tax costs under e.g. ASEAN agreements), client would consider it. What is the lowest cost option, estimate incorporation and annual accounting costs; office address costs?

B. If it is not worth it for client at the moment to have any Singapore legal entity, what is the most efficient way to recover withheld tax income from South Asian countries. Also how to recover debts efficiently?

2) Identify the most tax-efficient way for client to receive income and make payments (i.e. minimize withholding taxes, services taxes etc) from the individual ASEAN markets (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines)

3) If client has an office in Singapore, how can it structure the transactions between the Singapore office (whether branch or subsidiary) and the UK headquarter where most of the operating costs are incurred without increasing losses? (address this in the most tax-efficient way but not practicing tax avoidance or tax evasion)

4) Regulations and compliance requirements that affect the business, given its operations are mobile TV and video content and mobile advertising, particularly with regard to promoting Alcohol.

5) Legal entity set up options – what are they and what is best for the company given its intentions and any applicable legal regulations? Subsidiary or branch? Particularly with regard to preventing any claims on the UK business?

6) Accounting – what are the accounting obligations and expected costs? Annual audits? Annual tax report filing?

Result? A feasibility and structuring report was prepared for client, addressing the complications involved.

For an ASIAN TELCO: ENTERPRISE WHOLESALE MARKET ASSESSMENT

Client is an Asian telecommunications company which builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services.

Background: Telcos are moving away from infrastructure play with an emphasis on building it together. Expansion is mostly in tech space, not infrastructure. Telcos are getting outsmarted by OTT players, who buy connectivity from multiple players and then sell it off.

Goals: Assessment of enterprise wholesale markets for Internet and Networks (connectivity, nbn, SDN)

Tasks:
Top competitors in enterprise connectivity market by product segments (access, core & backhaul, internet).
Access (Ethernet Access, FTTx like GPON)
Core & Backhaul (Point to Point (PTP), Ethernet (WAN), MPLS)
Internet (Internet Access, IP transit)

Headwinds and tailwinds facing the market and impact on market (size, price, demand)

Revenue growth over last 5-10 years (overall vs line growth vs ARPU growth)

Growth outlook over the next 5-10 years

Customer purchase: ranking of buying criteria (latency, Digitised platform, network coverage, service flexibility, bundling, etc)

Subsea cable customer profiling: products purchased eg 10 Gbps, 100 Gbps etc.), capacity (stand-alone, bundle with terrestrial coverage, etc), switch factors

Contracts: changes in contract structure and length, churn rates, etc)

Near net sites: classification, connection to complete footprint

Top competitors profile: SWOT analysis, market share by product segments, top customers by product segments, customers by industry segments)

Result? Client was able to update its market situation.

Client Benefits? Study enabled client to prepare for its next fiscal year’s strategic planning.

For a SOUTH EAST ASIAN TELCO: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY & JOURNEY

Our Managing Director is an independent judge on the telco’s digital change management journey.

Background: Client is a leading telco in its country. Digital transformation is part of its strategic blueprint launched a few years ago to transform its digital telco core business to enhance its competitive advantage through the adoption of IR 4.0 principles and technologies.

Maturity assessment methodology is called the Big Data Analytics (BDA) Maturity Model. The tool follows the standard five-level maturity methodology based on the Carnegie Mellon Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) standard. The idea is to use the tool to assess the “present state” of big data analytics against the TM Forum global benchmarks and identify gaps and opportunities to improve across the entire business domain from strategy to governance.

Goals: Our MD was appointed as an independent Judge to assess and recognize maturity and excellence in digital projects across 6 of client’s Asia business units, in line with its strategic intent to grow and sustain its business. A key criteria of digital maturity was, to what extent is the client independently self-running with AI/ML without or little human intervention?

Tasks: There were 8 themes:
Best Digital Marketing Execution; Best Implementation of Digital Omni Channel; Most Pervasive Implementation of Agile; Best Digital Stack / IT Transformation; Best E2E Digital Business Model / Product; Most Comprehensive Adoption of RPA & AI; Best Cost Impact through Simplification & Digitization; Best Collaboration & Replication Initiative

There were 10 operational and maturity areas to assess:

Business strategy – vision, goals for analytics, alignment of all units in the organization to the BDA strategy;
Business and functional capabilities – To what extent are BDA deliverables used in business decisions?
Technology platform and system – How digitally mature are the tools for handling various types of data and analytical processes?
Architecture – How are the BDA components integrated into the Enterprise architecture? How scalable are they to meet future business needs?
Data management – Regarding policies and processes in place for all aspects of data management such as data storage and retention, metadata management, data security and access, to what extent they help client to be self running?
Processes – Do you have all the necessary processes and capabilities from data sourcing all the way to data presentation and feedback?
Budget and financial tracking – Budget for BDA activities and a framework to track the ROI of BDA activities
Governance – To what extent does policies result in data governance being self running?
Organizational readiness and management – To what extent is the awareness and openness of client organization to BDA and its benefits? How sufficient is talent for analytics projects?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) and business metrics – To what extent is the maintenance of a KPI catalog and derivation through use of analytics self running?

Result? Identified areas to improve operational efficiency.

Client Benefits? Improvements along the 2 components of client’s digital transformation:
Digitisation of its core processes such as e-care, real-time marketing analytics and network virtualisation
Identifying new services to expand client’s core business such as mobile advertising, digital commerce and digital entertainment.

For a NORTH ASIAN TELECOM CLIENT: GLOBAL TELCO ALLIANCE ASSESSMENT

Background: Client was assessing which alliance to emphasise as a growth driver of greater mobile roaming revenue.

Goals:
Understand mobile carrier roaming services partnership formation, future plans, offering and monetization options.
Focus on Mobile Alliances: BridgeAlliance, Qorus, Freemove, and Vodafone

Tasks:
Partnership Formation
Who are the members and what is their addressable market?
How was the partnership formed?
Has the focus of the alliance shifted?

Initiatives and Service Provision
What is the current and future service / product offering?
Who are the target segments (industry)?

Partnerships
What non-carrier partners are required to provide the current / future offerings?
How is the relationship structured?
What is the criteria in selecting partners?

Monetization Options
What is their revenue model currently (monetization of services, revenue sharing amongst partners)?
How are they likely to monetize in the future?

Result? Our study enabled client to better assessed which alliance offers the most attractiveness.

Client Benefits? Client immediately updated its alliance strategy to align with its master strategic plan. Successful execution could potentially result in a significant improved revenue generation.

For an NORTH ASIAN MUSIC COMPANY: CHINA MUSIC INFLUENCER MARKETING STRATEGY

Situation: Client, a major music record company, wishes to validate who are the key people and media which create music trends or decision making in China. Upon developing any marketing or branding in China, client wishes to know if it is applicable to promote a certain artist or celebrity with focus on mass audience segment like the US? If not, what marketing strategy works for China?

Tasks:
Content Creators
Music Ecosystem & Ecosystem Players
Ranking of Key Influencers
List of Key Influencers
Profiles of Top 10 Artists, Team (Producers, Managers, Agents, PR) & Support Structure

Artists & Repertoire (A&R) Management
Discovering, Supporting & Developing Artists

Marketing & Promotion Strategy
Channels for Fan Connection

Distribution, Packaging & Format
Hi-Resolution Audio; Launch of new Futuristic Format
Distribution Systems

Music Market
Business Model, Music Market Size & Growth, Physical & Digital Music Revenue, Music Repertoire

Result? Client was able to identify China’s music influencers, understand how they work and the optimum marketing strategy to grow its music business.

Client Benefits? Our proposed music marketing strategy enabled client to update its China music strategy and prepare for execution.

For a JAPANESE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURER: SINGAPORE SMART HOMES MARKET STUDY

Background: Client is a multinational electronics corporation.

Strategic Intent: Client wishes to gain ideas on how future smart life in Asian market will look like, given that Singapore is known as a ‘smart nation’ with citizens lifestyle being smart (connected, tech savvy, eco-friendly). This pilot study includes client delegation team of 11 people making visits to experts’offices and several extreme users’ smart homes to get ideas on what the future smart life in Asian markets would look like and thus develop ideas for new products in the future.

Tasks:
Market Analysis (size, growth, trends, regulations, challenges, outlook)

Competitive Landscape & SWOT analysis (competitors, intensity, product offerings, gaps)

Views from experts: Urban planners, university staff, architectural firms, design studios, real estate developers, smart home systems integrators

View from smart home owners about smart appliances and devices which utilizes advanced technology at home

Result? Client obtained a better understanding of the early adopters preferences and concerns.

Client Benefits? Client’s planning, product management and marketing teams were able to narrow down their future product lines to launch and develop R & D plans.

For HEWLETT PACKARD (HP): 9 ASIA COUNTRY BRAND AUDIT 

Client had always thought that they were first in every media area but had wanted to check media pulse across 10 Asian countries (Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea) . Our consultant assessed media perception of imaging products (laser, inkjet printers, multi-format printers, consumables) in terms of communications input from Asian IT journalists for HP, Canon, Epson and other competing brands.

Result? Client was initially shocked with unbelief to discover that they did not fare well in 3 critical areas (value, quality, friendly. Its former arrogant and proud Number 1 culture had blind-spotted itself to its internal weak areas.

Client Benefits? Client’s Marketing and Corp Comms Depts collaborated with R&D to repair media damage.

For a SOUTH KOREA TECHNOLOGY COMPANY: BUSINESS PLANNING

Our MD was appointed as client’s Independent Director into its Board of Directors (2014 to 2015). Key contributions included the overseeing of the company’s overall growth strategy and finetuning its business plan, freeing the other Directors to concentrate on the operations aspect. Client is a software development company, producing a Kpop-driven singing app and a voice-enabled document security enhancement app.

Business Plan elements:

General Description
Market Analysis
Products and Services
Marketing Plan
Operation Plan
Management and Organisation
Financial History, Statements and Analysis

Result? Business Plan was finalised.

Client Benefits? Enabled client to establish its focus in its strategic planning.

For Thomson Consumer Electronics: ASIA MARKETING STRATEGY 

Client was facing issues of declining profitability caused by eroding market shares. Our consultant formulated client’s Asia strategy by analyzing markets and modeling of competitor and product market share and profitability. Product portfolios included color television sets (CTV), decoders (DVD), and digital-television (DTV). Our analysis compared competitors’ historical sales growth rates on a product line and country basis with the market rates.

Result? Client followed our strategic recommendations to discontinue several obsolete and low-demand product lines, thus saving millions from divesting poorly-performing products. Client also followed our advice to re-locate manufacturing operations to India and China, leaving a minimal marketing presence in Singapore.

Client Benefits? Client’s brand emerged better positioned, re-focusing on its relevant core products.

For Daikin: ASIA AIRCON COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE & COMPETITOR PROFILING (SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA, THAILAND, PHILIPPINES) 

Client wanted us to compile competitive intelligence on their strongest Western competitor as well as several second-tier competitors.

• Competitor’s corporate structure and ownership
• Mission and culture
• Global and regional HQ influence
• Chiller aircon success factors
• Competitor’s success factors.
• Reasons why they’re market leadership position
• Current & Future sales and marketing strategies
• Channel strategy: Distributors and dealer network structure
• Regional distribution strategy
• Examples of Competitor’s expansion

Result? Client was able to better understand their top competitor in Asia

Client Benefits? From this study, we developed strategic recommendations to enable Client to better compete against its market leader competitor and market follower competitors and to capture a bigger market share.

For Daikin: SINGAPORE RESIDENTIAL AIR CON MARKET ANALYSIS

Client wished to assess the domestic residential air-conditioner market in terms of market sizing, product positioning, competitive dynamics and market outlook as part of its ongoing efforts to build industry knowledge on selected industries. Tasks:

• Assess the current economic/business environment and its implications on the air-conditioner market.
• Assess the property market and construction industry and its implications on the air-conditioner market.
• Determine air-conditioner market and segment sizes, characteristics, trends and future potential.
• Identify customer segments, applications, requirements and future dynamics.
• Identify the top five competitive brands in the market, and estimate competitive market shares and their success within each product segment

Result? Client was able to understand the attractiveness of the market.

Client Benefits? Client was able to better market to its target market segments and compete more effectively against its competitor brands.

For Reuters: 4 ASIAN COUNTRY FISHING TRADING PORTAL INCUBATOR FEASIBILITY STUDY

Client was considering investing US$2 million in a real-time trading portal for fishing industry across South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. The website offered a spot price for each type of fish, and much news about catches and different markets around the world. There would be links offering access to shipping and refrigeration. Market sizing and segmentation, analysis of legal and regulatory environment, profiled major online players and their market penetration, competitive intelligence and analysis of their critical success factors, fishermen trading patterns and language translation costs for real-time 24/7 help line.

Result? Recommended client a ‘no immediate market entry’ until they fixed technical startup problems. Language translation costs were very high and PC penetration rate was low among traditional entrepreneurs fishermen traders. Links had to be made with major fish suppliers, and the site had to be translated into Korean, Thai and Chinese.

Client Benefits? Twelve months later, the portal was born.

For M2B (Mobile to Broadband): ASIA BROADBAND MARKET FEASIBILITY STUDY 

Client operates Singapore’s first broadband TV which is an IPTV media broadcaster that brings news and entertainment over the Internet to the TVs of its subscribers through custom set-top boxes. Digital business is big business. The global ICT digital industry was worth approximately US$3 trillion during the study. The broadband industry was projected to have 216 million fixed and 61 mobile subscribers. Asia Pacific broadband has boomed. In 2006, global broadband subscriber size was about 216 million fixed line (and 61 million mobile) subscribers. Asia Pacific then had about 68 million subscribers in 2006. The figure was expected to grow to about 156 million subscribers by 2010.

Analysing Forces at Work: In this section, we analysed the key market and technological forces that would potentially disrupt existing industry value-chains and market structures. These forces were loosely grouped under:

• Broadband Network Access
• Broadband Customer Demand
• Broadband Supply Chain Inter-dependencies
• Linkages Online Business Models
• Market Size, Drivers and Trends
• Competitive Analysis
• Other indicators of Singapore broadband market data
• Our strategic recommendations included a Marketing Plan

Result? Client struck partnerships with a retail chain and karaoke equipment retailer to distribute its set-top boxes. Client also announced a partnership with a Singapore media company to launch a first-ever video news on-demand channel.

Client Benefits? It expanded its broadband TV service, increasing its 40 TV channels delivered live over the Internet to 55 channels.

For UNEXT, a US E-Learning Company: SOUTH KOREA E-LEARNING MARKET ENTRY FEASIBILITY STUDY

Client’s online university members composed of Columbia Business School, Stanford University, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University and London School of Economics and Political Science. They were considering entering the Asian market starting with South Korea as a pilot study. We conducted an assessment of South Korea’s e-learning market (B2B and B2C) in terms of an environmental scan, competitive dynamics and market outlook, and to develop strategic recommendations for Client. Issues analysed included superiority of technology platform or partner, top-quality educational content or partner, branding and foreign language translation requirements.

Result? Recommended client that this market was attractive to enter and to commit to invest over the next 3 years to enter. As a new entrant into Korea, we recommended that Client adopt an aggressive differentiating strategy in order to fulfil its objective to be the leader in Asia. This was to be a composite of product offering, price, promotion, distribution channel selection, customer understanding and tactics.

Client Benefits? Client subsequently formed a joint venture with a former Samsung CEO.

For Motorola’s Systems Integration Division: JAPAN SYSTEMS INTEGRATION (SI) MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY

Client from US HQ’s Illinois Schamburg office specifically requested for our CEO Lawrence Yeo to handle this strategy project. They had wanted a detailed understanding of the Japanese business landscape and competitive intelligence (CI) of the main systems integrator competitors.

Tasks: Also conducted CI on big and medium sized Japanese SI players in terms of hardware, software and solutions segments. Analysed target’s organizational structure, alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions, financial performance, sales and marketing strategy, business dynamics, our client’s ability to replicate its competitor’s key success factors and core competencies to capture market share leadership and analysed players’ SWOTs and critical success factors. Market sizing and segmentation, analysis of legal and regulatory environment, Interviewed several Japanese corporate customers of systems integration and their willingness to partner with client and obtained their terms of trade and alliance wish-list.

Result? Recommended client an alliance strategy with 3 optimum medium-sized Japanese SI partners. Arranged meetings between client and these partners. Formulated a Japanese market entry strategy involving an alliance strategy.

Client Benefits? Client successfully entered Japanese SI market based on our marketing research and strategic recommendations.

For a JAPANESE CONSUMER APPLIANCES MANUFACTURER: THAILAND & PHILIPPINES KITCHEN APPLIANCES MARKET STUDY

Client is one of the top 3 small home appliances manufacturers in Japan. Their rice cooker has top share in Japanese market.

Tasks: Client engaged our services to wish to better understand the market size, competitive landscape, market share of competitors, sales trends, outlook as well as the user needs and behaviour of Thai consumers. More importantly, they issued expressed instruction to avoid contacting their local distributor for it wanted our neutral research to contain no bias with a strategic intent to evaluate the feasibility of directly setting up its own distribution network.

Result? Client was able to obtain a better understanding of the actual Thailand local market conditions as well as its appointed distributor performance, its profit margins and the Thailand distribution operation.

Client Benefits? Client is now evaluating its long term strategic plan to terminate its distributor agreement and to set up its own Thailand distribution network, in view of the long term promising Thailand market potential. An identical study was later done for Philippines