A new report by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario shows today’s Canadian companies can learn from how foreign investors in Asia weathered a similar crisis in 1997.
Then, as now, there was a need for a complete re-evaluation in order for corporations to be successful, according to David Conklin, Ivey professor and co-ordinator of the latest issue of Asian Business Cases.
“Companies today are looking at going to a zero-based strategy starting with a blank sheet of paper,” he says.
That’s exactly what the three international companies studied in Conklin’s report did in the late ’90s, and he says there are many lessons for Canadian companies in Asia that are struggling to manage today’s crisis.
“One of the key things being considered is whether to pull out altogether,” he says.
The report, “Issues and Strategic Options for Asia: Lessons from 1997,” is released today. The new issue of Asian Business Cases probes the experiences of Dharmala Manulife, Kodak’s Health Imaging Division in Asia and First Pacific, and gives in-depth analysis of what worked and why.
One of the study’s success stories is Dharmala Manulife. What made it successful in 1997, says Conklin, is that, “they were prepared to completely reconsider everything, and (as a result) came up with new products, new prices and new methods of doing business in Asia”.
Asian Business Cases is a quarterly publication of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, produced in partnership with the Richard Ivey School of Business.
The report draws on Ivey’s expertise and vast portfolio of case studies and offers executives and researchers valuable insights into the way major companies solve problems and overcome obstacles in their Asian operations. The publication is supported by Export Development Canada (EDC).
