Managing Country Risk

Chapter 6

Tales from the Battle Zone

It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.

Malcolm Forbes¹

How Easy It Is to Make Costly Mistakes

What follows are some real examples of foreign investors who failed to do their homework, did not think outside the box, or were simply unlucky. Each of these cases illustrates how easy it is to experience a serious problem as a foreign investor. Through no fault of their own, they became victims of a host country conflict or policy dispute that ended up costing them a lot of money and even shut their operation down. What they have in common is a failure to consider fully the possible impact their operating environment would have on them or their operations would ...