Back to the Drawing Board

A few years ago, a senior executive at a European bank with vested but not direct interest, asked me about possible candidates for a greenfield set up in Singapore. I threw out 2 names that I thought were competent and possibly good fits. A greenfield requires special talent and skills and market contacts. Trailblazers are a special breed. Most in Hong Kong and Singapore are followers. The educational system and pecking order in most organisations have trained them to react or follow.

Apparently they contacted one, ignored the other, but closed the deal with an in-house transfer from Europe. This person goes out and hires a marginal assistant to help with local languages. Together they set up shop. Several years of seeing red on the bottom line, they are re-organising. The first thing building and driving a greenfield business requires is: bridges, very strong bridges. People on an island usually die.

Speculation on my part but the lack of success (which may or may not be pure failure) of the incumbent lies in failing to build the right number of bridges, building them on the right spot, or building too flimsy of a bridge or letting a bridge burn down.

The number of bridges you need depend on the organisation. A bank trust company needs a bridge to the private bankers. Independent trustees need many bridges to business feeders like lawyers and accountants. Too few bridges and business will only trickle in.

The right spot for the bridge are those that the lead you to supporters, someone who will send business your way, be it in-house or external. Some of those bridges may be half way around the world. Some just down the hall. You could have a 100 bridges but if none lead you to a supporter, then those bridges are useless.

The bridge must be strong to withstand the forces of nature, which are greed, self-interest, self-preservation and self-promotion. Money, politics, fame and recognition factors stand to topple otherwise perfectly located bridges. Put too high of a toll on the bridge and people travel by other routes. Do not have express lanes and those impatient will travel other routes. Do you have incentives (referral fees, scorecard points, mirror accounts, retro-cessions, etc) for people to use your bridge? There is a old movie called Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner where the guy is told "If you build it, he will come". Well, you can build bridges but without a reason why, people will not come. Asians can be some of the most self-centered, self-serving people, I-not-we people in business. There are plenty of bankers that undermine their in-house trust (or other businesses) if it better serves them. Loyalty is often bought, not earned and definitely not given.

Certain bridges will be burnt down. This is usually Part II of building the business. If it wasn't abundantly clear, getting people on your island is the first goal, hence the need for bridges. Now that you've got them, how you deal with them determines whether they will ever come back. Screw up in front of a lawyer and his client and the bridge to that law firm may close permanently. Dispute fees with the Team Head for Indonesia and that bridge will close down. Allow too many on the bridge and the bridge collapses. Knowing which bridges are mission critical and which ones aren't is paramount. Allow too many burning bridges and you get cut off from the world.....again.

So to the lucky guy or gal stepping in: go back to the drawing board and start sketching and mapping out your bridges, inspect the ones you have, tear down or repair the ones you need, ask for resources to build the ones you don't have.

If all this was too abstract....just think SimCity.