Category
Financial Advisory
About This Project

Helping a Global Support Services Group with country risk assessment

Industry

Public Services

Geography

ASPAC

Service Line

Economics Consulting

The Challenge

The Asia-Pacific business division of a global services conglomerate wanted to explore Malaysia from a market entry perspective. The client did not have any presence in Malaysia yet and wished to weigh its country entry options against the inherent and imperative risks of doing so.

 

ConsultGenics was engaged to evaluate the country entry approach by looking at possible risks across a range of impact areas and recommend actions from the client’s perspective.

consultgenics_riskmeter

Methodology and Solution

ConsultGenics created a small, experienced, and focused team of consultants who launched the engagement through a few workshops to understand the nuances of the client’s business model and various operational metrics. The team then moved through the engagement in a phased manner:

The experienced and focused team at ConsultGenics quickly split the ask into two concurrent pieces – a more overarching Macroeconomic Analysis and a simultaneous detailed Country Risk Assessment exercise.

  • The study covered areas such as an overview of Malaysia’s economy including size, growth and composition, detailed demographic assessment etc.
  • Malaysia’s trade agreements and regulatory limits to foreign investments across sectors were also covered as part of the project.
  • Detailed assessment of 13 country-level macro risks and 18 operational risks, coupled with an examination of the probability of each risk, its impact on business, the resultant severity as well as probable mitigation plans and actions for the client.
  • The macro risks covered included bribery and corruption, political instability, the opaqueness of procurement and governance, legal enforceability, currency fluctuations, and other economic risks.
  • Operational risks included money laundering, global sanctions, human rights, freedom of press and expression, labour laws and bureaucracy whistle blower policies, anti-monopolistic frameworks, intellectual property rights, etc.

Outcome

  • The comprehensive risk assessment report equipped the client to develop a more robust and pointed strategy for a possible entry into Malaysia, in the backdrop of the mitigation actions needed.
  • The assessment brought out details of Malaysia’s work culture as well as the possible political, regulatory, and economic impediments to entry which the client can now weigh against its own ethics and objectives to arrive at a final decision.
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