Succeeding at Business in Southeast Asia

CHAPTER 9What to Consider When Making the Go/No Go Decision

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

~ Peter F. Drucker

After building a strategy for market growth, along with a plan to execute it, you must then decide whether you should move forward and which market(s) to move into. This can be a tough decision. You have plowed ahead and spent time and money, and, potentially, you could tell yourself that you should stop and stay focused on your current market. What are the most important factors that you, as an executive in charge of this project, should focus on to make your decision?

The decision may not be made by 10 people sitting around a table, like you see in The Thomas Crown Affair when Pierce Brosnan is selling and buying businesses with all his advisors and his counterpart’s advisors at a conference room table, but it should be a formal decision. A company cannot run through this whole process without taking a deep breath before making a “go” or “no go” decision. Too often, companies say they made the decision when they began the process of writing a market entry strategy, which is a first step in the fix bad breaking process. That’s not the point at which a company should decide to move forward. Designing a strategy and mapping a plan are integral parts of the process. They’re there to help a company make the decision about whether or not to move forward, and until you do both, you should refrain from making that decision. ...