The hair of the dog that bit you: successful market strategies in post‐crisis South‐East Asia

In the wake of post‐crisis South‐East Asia’s declining growth and declining per capita income, local companies are restructuring their operations and re‐evaluating their strategies along with multinational companies (MNCs). This article explores the winning market‐expansion strategies of two companies in South‐East Asia’s changed business environments – the MNC, Unilever in Indonesia; and the local company, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) in Vietnam. The first section identifies how Asian post‐crisis business environments have changed. The next section explores the back‐to‐basics market strategy followed by the foreign MNC, Unilever. The ensuing section sketches the deliberate strategy of normal operations and transparency followed by the local ACB in Vietnam. Based on these case studies, the final section makes some recommendations for MNCs and local companies considering market‐expansion in post‐crisis Asia.